Belkin AC 1200 DB review

Although it’s designed for use with ADSL, the Belkin AC 1200 DB 802.11ac ADSL modem router doesn’t actually have a built in modem. Instead, it ships with a separate ADSL modem built into the power supply. This makes the power connector look like a bulky HomePlug unit at first glance, but means you still need only one plug socket for both modem and router. The plug socket has a built in RJ-45 port, but this is actually an ADSL input and will take your RJ-11 telephone cable. This non-standard port use is confusing, but everything still works.

Two cables come out of the mode: one supplies power to the router and the other connects to a yellow WAN port marked Modem. Note that you can’t just plug a standard Ethernet WAN connection into this due to lack of support within the current firmware. The router also has four Gigabit Ethernet ports and two USB ports, which you can use to connect external hard disks and printers that you’d like to share over your network. The AC 1200 DB stands upright and looks fairly snazzy, with a glossy black and matt silver plastic finish. You can’t wall-mount it and there aren’t many status lights: just one at the front, with a WPS button below it.

The AC 1200 DB’s web interface doesn’t take the glossy, simplified approach of some recent routers, but it’s fairly easy to see what’s what. Worth noting is the Norton-powered content filtering option, which allows you to use one of three block categories: malicious sites; malicious and adult sites; and malicious, adult and non-family friendly sites. Custom content filtering is not available, though. The router’s Intellistream QoS feature doesn’t give such fine control as some, but it’s very easy to use. Enable it, and automatic priority will be given to high-bandwidth, low-latency services such as voice chat, video streaming and online games. With this enabled, the router will also plot a chart of your internet traffic by type.

Theweb interface doesn’t take the glossy, simplified approach of some recent routers

The simultaneous dual-band Wi-Fi networks are secured by default using a security key that’s supplied on a slip with the device. A 2.4GHz guest network is also enabled by default, allowing you to give visitors internet access without giving them free rein to access your local network.

We tested the router using both our Centrino 2 laptop’s integrated wireless chipset and Belkin’s own 802.11ac F9L1106v1 USB wireless adaptor, which costs around £20. Our laptop supports both 2.4GHz and 5GHz, but only up to 802.11n speeds. The router uses the AC1200 standard, which has a theoretical maximum transfer speed of 867Mbit/s.

Using our laptop’s wireless chipset at 2.4GHz, we got transfer speeds of 35.6Mbit/s at 1m, 34Mbit/s at 10m and 11.3Mbit/s at 20m. This compares to the Belkin adaptor’s performance of 41Mbit/s at 1m, 52.7Mbit/s at 10m and a conspicuously poor 4.9Mbit/s at 20m. On the 5GHz band, our laptop achieved 87Mbit/s at 1m and 32.9Mbit/s at 10m, but failed to complete the test or maintain a connection when we took it into the next room for the 20m test. Using the own-brand adaptor, we got 101Mbit/s at 1m, 76.3Mbit/s at 10m and 26.3Mbit/s at 20m. These are decent, but not amazing results.

If it were cheaper, this capable ADSL router would have earned four stars easily, despite its unconventional non-integrated modem. However, the BT Home Hub 5 performs better, costs less and is a little easier to use.