The IT Nerd

If you have a computer that you want to add WiFi to, such as a desktop computer, so that you can place the computer wherever you want, or to upgrade a laptop with a slower WiFi adapter, the easiest way to add WiFi is to use a USB adapter. Today, I’m looking at the Linksys Max-Stream AC600 USB adapter which only works with Windows PCs ( Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 operating systems only.  Windows 8 is not supported). Thus I had to borrow three Windows 10 laptops to conduct my tests. It’s a tiny USB adapter that supports everything up to 802.11 ac and occupies almost no space. It support both the 2.4 Ghz and 5 Ghz bands and supports MU-MIMO technology. More on that in a second.

Setup is easy:

1. Pop the CD into your computer and run the setup application.
2. Wait until you are prompted to plug the USB adapter into the computer.
3. The drivers will get installed and the setup is done. Declare victory and have a beer.

Once installed, I was able to do some speed tests and I was able to figure out that this adapter maxes out at 400 Mbps when I tested this adapter with the Linksys Max-Steam AC5400 Router that I tested earlier this week. That’s acceptable given that these are USB adapters and as a result they have small antennas that limit the speeds that they are capable of. That was kind of interesting. But I went a step further. I wanted to find out if MU-MIMO really worked.

MU-MIMO works like this. Normally, each device on a WiFi network gets serviced one at time. MU-MIMO can service each device simultaneously. Clearly the latter is more efficient. To test this, I took three Windows 10 laptops with the AC600 adapter installed and started streaming three different 1080p videos from YouTube while I monitored the speed of the connections coming into the PCs. If MU-MIMO works, there should no stuttering of the videos. And that’s what exactly I saw. To make sure that this wasn’t a fluke, I used the built in 802.11 AC adapters that were built into the Windows 10 laptops which did not have MU-MIMO and I noted that the playback wasn’t nearly as smooth as stuttering was present on all the laptops from time to time. Is this a scientific test. No. But it is how the average user will tell if MU-MIMO is working or not. And it clearly works.

The Linksys Max-Stream AC600 USB adapter goes for $70 Canadian. It clearly a quick and easy way to get a PC or a laptop running Windows 802.11 ac and get MU-MIMO compatibility as bonus. Pair them with a MU-MIMO compatible router and you can really have a WiFi network that is capable of doing anything that you need it to.

If you want to extend your WiFi network to eliminate dead spots in your home, you need a range extender. The range extender that I am looking at today is the The Linksys Max-Stream AC1900+. It has a lot going for it:

• It works with ANY router. But if you have a Linksys router that supports Seamless Roaming, you get this bonus. Your device will automatically switch to the strongest Wi-Fi signal as you move around your house without any intervention from you.
• It support MU-MIMO which allows simultaneous streaming and gaming on multiple devices.
• It has an gigabit Ethernet jack which allows you to add a wired device, or you can run a cable from a router that would allow you to turn the AC1900+ into an access point.

To test this, I set it up with the Max-Stream AC5400 router that I reviewed yesterday. Setup was almost trivial:

1. Plug the range extender in.
2. Use a laptop or a smartphone to connect the range extender’s WiFi network which is typically “Linksys Range Extender – DB5”.
3. Open a web browser and go to extender.linksys.com
4. Enter an admin password of your choosing.
5. Pick the WiFi network that you want to extend and enter the password for that network. In my case it also detected that the WiFi network supported Seamless Roaming.
6. A graph called the “Spot Finder” will then appear showing if you have the range extender in the right place. As long as it’s in the green zone, you’re good to go.
7. It will then check for firmware updates. In my case, it found an update and installed it.
8. The device will then reboot. If everything is good to go, you will see a steady green light. I didn’t see that initially as I got a solid orange light which meant that the signal from the router was weak and I had to find a better location for it. Digging into why, I logged into the range extender and I discovered that the 5 Ghz band was weak. I also found that the “Spot Finder” graph that was within the green zone in step 6 was now outside the green zone. This was weird. I ended up moving the range extender to several locations before I got a green light. I logged into it and found the graph to be in the green zone.

Here’s the problem. I had to move to a location where I didn’t need the range extender. It really seemed that it struggled to get a decent 5 Ghz signal in my use case. Likely because of the amount of concrete in my condo. So, in the interest of science, I made some notes about the speed in both the location were I could not get a green light, and in the location where I could. In the location were I could not get a green light, I got this speed rating:

505 Mbps

It was better than what what I usually get in this location by a factor of two. Now when I moved it into an area where I got a green light, here’s what I got:

695 Mbps

It did much better in this location. But my testing seems to indicate that Linksys may have a problem with their firmware as the “Spot Finder” graph had the range extender inside the green zone during the setup process, but was outside when the setup process was complete. Linksys should really look at fixing this in a future software update as the average user would be really frustrated with the setup process if they were in my situation and this will likely generate tech support calls for Linksys.

My assessment is that the Max-Stream AC1900+ can help you get a better WiFi signal in areas that that have weak WiFi signals as in either case, I got an improvement over what the router could do alone. Though you may struggle with the setup in some use cases. It goes for $180 Canadian and is worth a try if you have WiFi dead spots in your home that you want to eliminate.

If you want the fastest router around, and price is no object, I have the router for you. Meet the Linksys MAX-STREAM AC5400 Router:

This is a tri-band router with a combined Wi-Fi bandwidth of up to 5.3 Gbps per second. Specifically, it has two 5GHz bands, each with a 2.16 Gbps. Its 2.4GHz band tops out at 1 Gbps. The router supports Multi-User Multiple Input Multiple Output (MU-MIMO), which is a technology designed to efficiently handle Wi-Fi bandwidth in homes with lots of clients. Each client can connect to the router at its highest speed without adversely affecting the speeds of others. All of this is run by a dual core 1.4 GHz dual core processor to keep things speedy. It has 8 antennas. Presumably to allow all this cool stuff to happen. The side effect is that this router takes up a lot of real estate. Thus you might have issues finding a place to put this router. It’s also very heavy as it weighs in at a hefty 3 pounds and has a lot of ventilation which is needed as it does get hot. That’s a sign that the router well built. It also has one other feature:

It has EIGHT gigabit Ethernet ports. Most routers typically have four or as little as three in the case of Apple Airport routers. Eight ports allows you to plug in all your devices over Ethernet without needing a switch. That’s great news for people like me who have a lot of devices that run over Ethernet or someone like a hard core gamer who finds that they are best able to pwn the competition by having their computers plugged in via Ethernet. You also get a USB 3 and USB 2 port for printers and storage devices.

One thing that has changed is that Linksys was smart enough to change the power plug away from a space hogging brick to a simple plug that doesn’t occupy a lot of space. What hasn’t changed is the ease of setup via Linksys Smart WiFi. Using that I had it setup and fully up to date from a firmware perspective in minutes. Linksys Smart WiFi also allows you to fully configure aspects such as parental controls, media priority, and block HTTPS sites which is a unique feature. Another unique feature that I found was that you can block sites like Facebook and Twitter. You can do all of this over a webpage, or over apps for the iOS and Android platforms. Keep in mind that the router will be connected to the Linksys servers at all times.

The real question is, how fast is this router? It is insanely fast based on my testing. I got a sustained WiFi speed of nearly 700Mbps in my testing which makes this the fastest router I have ever tested by a massive margin. I also did a speed test using speedof.me which measures how fast your Internet is and found that it recorded a 1 Mbps increase in my download speed versus my previous router over WiFi. I was dubious of the result so I switched routers back and forth several times and confirmed the result was due to the AC5400 router. That was an unexpected bonus as far as I was concerned. Clearly this router is the one that you want to get if you want to get the fastest performance possible.

Downsides? Price is the only one. It’s $499 Canadian which is not a low price. But this is not your average router. It is one of the fastest, and most feature filled routers available. If you need the fastest router around for games, video streaming, or you need a router with a lot of Ethernet ports, the Max-Stream AC5400 from Linksys is the router to get. Trust me on this one, you will not be disappointed with it.