Netgear WNDR4500 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router review

With all the hype around 802.11ac it’s easy to forget that 802.11n is still the most prevalent Wi-Fi standard in use and can still deliver excellent value and speed. We’ve been mightily impressed by recent Netgear routers, especially the 802.11ac R6300, but although they’ve delivered great performance, not all of them have provided the more comprehensive features of rivals, such as a print server.

We were therefore pleased to get hold of the top-of-the-range WNDR4500, a dual band router that has four Gigabit Ethernet ports, two USB2 ports and built-in media, file and print servers. It has concurrent dual band, which means you can use the 2.4GHz and the less congested 5GHz bands simultaneously, so those with compatible devices can enjoy the faster speeds and greater range of the 5GHz band while those with 2.4GHz-compatible continue to enjoy network access.

The unit looks sophisticated and high quality, being a sleek black router mounted on a transparent plastic stand. The icons on the front of the router are writ large, so you can see them from a distance, and are easy to understand. This is a router you really wouldn’t mind having on show next to your TV or home cinema system.

With a router, performance is the most important factor in its desirability, and we’re pleased to report that the WNDR4500 performs brilliantly. Somewhat predictably, its weakest data transfer speeds were recorded when we connected to the WNDR4500 using our Centrino laptop’s built-in Wi-Fi adaptor. We recorded 48.4Mbit/s at one metre, 48.4Mbit/s at 10 metres and 25Mbit/s at 25 metres. These are extremely good 2.4GHz band data transfer speeds, with no other routers we’ve tested under the same conditions coming close, making the WNDR4500 perfect for those whose devices have basic Wi-Fi adaptors.

We tested the WNDR4500 again using the 2.4GHz band, but with Netgear’s WNDA3100 Wi-Fi adaptor (£8.50, www.pixmania.co.uk) in place of our Centrino’s Wi-Fi adaptor. We saw a slight but welcome increase in transfer speeds, getting 55.9Mbit/s at one metre, 53.6Mbit/s at 10 metres and an impressive 36.6Mbit/s at 25 metres. The first two scores are fast, although the DrayTek Vigor 2850n comes close.

Of course, it’s the 5GHz band where we see the fastest scores. When we connected to the WNDR4500 on the 5GHz band using our Centrino’s built-in Wi-Fi we got transfer speeds of 90Mbit/s at one metre, 93.2Mbit/s at 10 metres and 16.7Mbit/s at 25 metres. These speeds are good for an 802.11n router, but not phenomenal, with recently reviewed 802.11ac routers such as the Netgear R6300 and Asus RT-N66U providing similar scores.

When we performed the same test using the WNDA3100 Wi-Fi adaptor, we experienced a sudden speed boost, scoring a phenomenal 139.8Mbit/s at one metre, 139.8Mbit/s at 10 metres and 60.1Mbit/s at 25 metres. These are the best scores we’ve ever seen for an 802.11n router and single the WNDR4500 out as the must-have router for busy wire-free offices and media enthusiasts who don’t want to invest in an 802.11ac setup.

Indeed, we could play Full HD video at 25 metres using the WNDA3100 adaptor on the 5GHz band and could quickly jump to other locations within the video with barely noticeable buffering. When using the 2.4GHz band our built-in Wi-Fi adaptor we could still watch and move through 720p video smoothly but there 1080p video played jerkily and took around four seconds to buffer when moving to a point in the video. The video was played from a USB drive connected to one of the WNDR4500’s USB ports.

Accessing a connected USB drive is straightforward. In common with other Netgear ReadyNAS routers, you just open the run command and type “readyshare”. You can configure it for HTTP and FTP access, too. Streaming media from it is also hassle-free.

To connect to USB printers you must download Netgear’s Readyshare utility and install it on each PC that will share the printer. The utility lists connected printers and from there you choose the one you need and click connect to use it as you would a locally attached printer.

Despite its features and great performance, the WNDR4500 isn’t particularly expensive. At £115, it’s excellent value compared to the AVM Fritz!box 7390, which has similar features. If you want the best 802.11n experience, purchase the Netgear WNDR4500 and WNDA3100 Wi-Fi adaptor.