Netgear D6400 review
The Netgear D6400’s high price left us expecting far better performance
Specifications
Modem: ADSL2+, VDSL2, Wi-Fi standard: 802.11ac, Stated speed: 1,600Mbit/s, USB ports: 2x USB, Wall mountable: No
The upright-standing Netgear D6400 is nice and inconspicuous for an 802.11ac router. Its small footprint will make it easy to hide away out of sight and its glossy finish is actually quite attractive, although it does prove a dust and fingerprint magnet.
The router is rated as having a theoretical throughput speed of 300Mbit/s and 1,300Mbit/s on its 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands respectively. It’s also able to broadcast on both simultaneously, which is useful if you have a mix of older and newer devices to connect.
Out of the box the D6400 broadcasts each band with separate SSIDs, making it easy to identify which network you want to connect to. You can disable the wireless altogether with a button on the side of the router. Configuring the router is pleasingly simple, with an easy-to-navigate admin interface that makes changing settings easy.
The D6400 has a built-in ADSL/VDSL modem but you do have the option of connecting a separate fibre or cable modem through the router’s Gigabit WAN port, so you’ll still be able to use this router as an upgrade for a fibre of cable router. There are four Gigabit Ethernet ports as well as two USB ports for network storage or sharing a USB printer over the network.
The USB ports can be used in conjunction with Netgear’s ReadySHARE application to allow you to create a DLNA-compatible media server. In order to share a USB printer you’ll need to manually install the printer drivers on each system as well as the ReadySHARE USB printer software. Although the process is longwinded, it worked well for us and we were set up and going after a few minutes.
Wireless speeds from the D6400 were underwhelming. When connected to the 2.4GHz band with our laptop’s integrated 802.11n wireless adaptor, we only saw a paltry 9.6Mbit/s at 10m and a trickling 5.8Mbit/s at 25m. Things improved considerably on 5GHz, with 167.8Mbit/s at 10m and 106Mbit/s at 25m; both respectable, if not spectacular, speeds.
Switching to a Netgear A6200 802.11ac USB adaptor (£42 inc VAT from www.argos.co.uk) with the router running in 802.11ac mode, speeds improved, with 167.8Mbit/s at 10m and 149.1Mbit/s at 25m, but these are still far from the fastest we’ve seen, especially for the router’s price.
The Netgear D6400 is an attractive router but it’s far too expensive for its capabilities. For this amount of money you’re better off looking at the D-Link DSL-3590L if you’re after an ADSL router.
Hardware | |
---|---|
Modem | ADSL2+, VDSL2 |
Wi-Fi standard | 802.11ac |
Bands | 2.4GHz, 5GHz |
Stated speed | 1,600Mbit/s |
Security | WPA2-PSK, WPA-PSK |
Upgradable antenna | No |
WAN ports | 1 |
LAN ports | 4x 10/100/1000Mbit/s |
USB ports | 2x USB |
Wall mountable | No |
Size | 191x65x198.5mm |
Software | |
Guest networks | 2 |
Media server | DLNA, FTP |
USB services | Print sharing, NAS |
DDNS services | Netgear No-IP DDNS |
Buying Information | |
Price including VAT | £150 |
Warranty | Two years RTB |
Supplier | www.pcworld.co.uk |
Details | www.netgear.co.uk |
Part code | D6400 |