How we test
We tested both wireless and wired transfer rates of the routers. We used the IxChariot tool by Ixia, the industry standard for measuring transfer rates in a network. We installed a so-called endpoint on all the systems on our test network. The software uses a test script to measure the number of megabits per second that are sent from one endpoint to another. We measured the wired speed from WAN to LAN and from LAN to LAN. This entails that packets are sent from a system via the WAN port on the router and transferred through a LAN port to another system. With LAN to LAN both systems are connected to two LAN ports.
The wireless speed is measured in both directions, from LAN to WLAN and from WLAN to LAN. Here we used a system that is connected to a LAN port on the router that is being tested. To connect wirelessly with the router we used a BTO laptop with an Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 WLAN chip and three antenna connections.
We do a 10 metre line-of-sight test, and one from 3 metres to simulate real-life scenarios. We also connect three BTO laptops (all with Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 chips) to the router. This gives an impression of how the router fares when it is in heavy use, and what the bandwidth is for the different laptops. We tested the wireless speeds at two different time intervals, removing the chance that sudden environmental factors influenced the router’s test results.