Buffalo's AirStation High-power N600 Gigabit Dual Band Wireless Router WZR-600DHP replaces the previous generation model WZR-HP-AG300H. Buffalo uses a factory customized DD-WRT firmware on this product and also supports community based DD-WRT which you can tweak to your heart's content.
The pre-installed factory customized DD-WRT firmware is almost like the community developed DD-WRT with some added goodies for simplifying the configuration process which I found very useful. The factory DD-WRT firmware has support for USB/NAS and SAMBA file sharing modules which have the USB `auto-mounting' of attached NTFS drives and sharing the same on your wired and wireless network from this router.
It was several years ago when I first attempted to get Belkin Share Max N300 Wireless N Router to do the same Automatic USB drive mounting and I found it super complex with DD-WRT and I am happy to see that Buffalo's implementation of Core USB drive support for NTFS attached drives is excellent and there is no need to tweak the factory firmware to achieve this feat -very good news!
The SAMBA performance is in par with most other routers that I have come across and works very well with HD videos and photos. The auto mounting feature makes it extremely easy for non-tech savvy users to get access to their USB attached drives connected to the router.
Having dual Wireless Radios (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz) in a router these days are very useful indeed, the heavily used 2.4 GHz bands due to multiple routers in your neighborhood could severely cause interference thereby causing packet retries and reduced throughputs. Not to mention interference from Microwave devices, baby monitors and host of other radio frequency interferences from cordless phones etc;
Having said, Buffalo's WZR-600DHP has two Qualcomm Atheros based radios that are capable of driving the two independent Wi-Fi radios with channel widths were seen to be Dynamic (20/40 MHz), Turbo (40 MHz), Full (20 MHz) For tech savvy users let me share with you that `Ath0' is the 2.4GHz radio and `ath1' is the 5GHz radios. If you create a Virtual AP for 2.4GHz or 5GHz radio the VAPs will be labeled `ath0.1' and `ath1.1' respectively.
The Dynamic (20/40 MHz) mode of operation proved the best in my tests which has broader compatibility with various wireless NICs. Set the wireless frequency to `AUTO' and let the router decide which is best in your environment. The 5GHz band's range is pretty good compared to most of the routers with this technology. (Remember in order to use the 5Ghz band you need compatible NIC cards on your Laptop or any other networking devices that connect to this router)
The 5GHz band was not intended to be used in long distances but for short distances (15 feet or less) I found my laptop and other 802.11n devices maintained consistent 300+Mbps link. The dual antennae can be twisted and tuned to achieve the best performance in a given environment. Place the router where you intend to keep it permanently and slightly adjust the antennae till you obtain optimal results. The 2.4 GHz radio has very good range in my single story 1350 SqFt average home and maintains 130Mbps throughout the house - impressive indeed.
PROS
[+] DD-WRT supported Router
[+] Very FAST GUI response
[+] Secure shell access for tech savvy users
[+] Very good range both in 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands
[+] USB & NTFS based Network attached Storage support
[+] Very low power consumption and barely gets warm.
CONS[-] The Router's base attachment seems flimsy and falls out too easily
There are no glaring issues seen and the packaging is just perfect for this tiny shinny router which is priced right and performs very well. At this current time there are no firmware updates available for me to try but when the router functions perfectly (except for one issue) why do you really need a firmware update?
Buffalo has delivered an excellent DD-WRT based dual band router and I am very pleased with this router. I am sure it will be a winner. I can surely recommend this to anyone who is looking for a reliable Wireless N dual band router with USB based NTFS attached NAS support.
EDIT: OCT 01, 2012 --- (Loses one star!)
It is close to about a week now I have been using this product and I find that while it still *does* work but at times it does slows speeds down wherein HD streams tends to suffer time to time. I cannot seem to isolate what the issue is.
EDIT NOV 30, 2012 --- Little improvement but still 3 Star product!
BUFFALO silently released a new DD-WRT firmware update for this product and upped the level from v24sp2-19438 to v24sp2-20180. Now the "AOSS" button can be used to turn the Wi-Fi ON/OFF also if you schedule to automatically reboot every day you can now turn the Wi-Fi OFF and turn the Wi-Fi ON demand! (Thank you Buffalo! Firmware developers)
Having said, v24sp2-20180 still has issues. I think BUFFALO forgot to tweak the Wi-Fi MultiMedia (WMM) settings as the data rate suffers from time to time especially when watching live TV stream for example.
The "User friendly" firmware has the Movie engine but that firmware is buggy in other ways and does not have other tweak-able features that can be found in DD-WRT firmware.
My good old Belkin Share Max N300 Wireless N Router which used to maintain 300Mbps connection all day all week all month despite using 2.4Ghz bandwidth (150+150 Dual Streams). This router while it does operate in the less congested 5 GHz band but the poor range (less than 15-20 feet) makes it unusable. I do understand the limitations of 5 Ghz band and my expectations are realistic. I just want the connections to be stable for extended periods of time. The 2.4Ghz band works but I cannot sustain anything greater than 130 Mbps in my house and it is useless for HD streaming on my TV. Simply switch on the microwave and my TV video freezes!
The AOSS button which can be used to turn Wi-Fi ON/OFF does not work (I reported this to Buffalo techsupport) I was told that this being a new product no new firmware updates are available as of yet and my request was forwarded to engineering.
With all these issues bothering me I lowered the total rating down and until new firmware updates come out which addresses some of the issues experienced by me and other users of the product this device is going into the box and sitting there till next firmware comes out for testing.
Hence about 3 stars for this product. If you have any questions, please feel free to comment and I will try to answer them to best of my knowledge.
Cheers!
You can buy this from Amazon here: WZR-600DHP N600 Gigabit Dual Band Wireless
The pre-installed factory customized DD-WRT firmware is almost like the community developed DD-WRT with some added goodies for simplifying the configuration process which I found very useful. The factory DD-WRT firmware has support for USB/NAS and SAMBA file sharing modules which have the USB `auto-mounting' of attached NTFS drives and sharing the same on your wired and wireless network from this router.
It was several years ago when I first attempted to get Belkin Share Max N300 Wireless N Router to do the same Automatic USB drive mounting and I found it super complex with DD-WRT and I am happy to see that Buffalo's implementation of Core USB drive support for NTFS attached drives is excellent and there is no need to tweak the factory firmware to achieve this feat -very good news!
The SAMBA performance is in par with most other routers that I have come across and works very well with HD videos and photos. The auto mounting feature makes it extremely easy for non-tech savvy users to get access to their USB attached drives connected to the router.
Having dual Wireless Radios (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz) in a router these days are very useful indeed, the heavily used 2.4 GHz bands due to multiple routers in your neighborhood could severely cause interference thereby causing packet retries and reduced throughputs. Not to mention interference from Microwave devices, baby monitors and host of other radio frequency interferences from cordless phones etc;
Having said, Buffalo's WZR-600DHP has two Qualcomm Atheros based radios that are capable of driving the two independent Wi-Fi radios with channel widths were seen to be Dynamic (20/40 MHz), Turbo (40 MHz), Full (20 MHz) For tech savvy users let me share with you that `Ath0' is the 2.4GHz radio and `ath1' is the 5GHz radios. If you create a Virtual AP for 2.4GHz or 5GHz radio the VAPs will be labeled `ath0.1' and `ath1.1' respectively.
The Dynamic (20/40 MHz) mode of operation proved the best in my tests which has broader compatibility with various wireless NICs. Set the wireless frequency to `AUTO' and let the router decide which is best in your environment. The 5GHz band's range is pretty good compared to most of the routers with this technology. (Remember in order to use the 5Ghz band you need compatible NIC cards on your Laptop or any other networking devices that connect to this router)
The 5GHz band was not intended to be used in long distances but for short distances (15 feet or less) I found my laptop and other 802.11n devices maintained consistent 300+Mbps link. The dual antennae can be twisted and tuned to achieve the best performance in a given environment. Place the router where you intend to keep it permanently and slightly adjust the antennae till you obtain optimal results. The 2.4 GHz radio has very good range in my single story 1350 SqFt average home and maintains 130Mbps throughout the house - impressive indeed.
PROS
[+] DD-WRT supported Router
[+] Very FAST GUI response
[+] Secure shell access for tech savvy users
[+] Very good range both in 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands
[+] USB & NTFS based Network attached Storage support
[+] Very low power consumption and barely gets warm.
CONS[-] The Router's base attachment seems flimsy and falls out too easily
There are no glaring issues seen and the packaging is just perfect for this tiny shinny router which is priced right and performs very well. At this current time there are no firmware updates available for me to try but when the router functions perfectly (except for one issue) why do you really need a firmware update?
Buffalo has delivered an excellent DD-WRT based dual band router and I am very pleased with this router. I am sure it will be a winner. I can surely recommend this to anyone who is looking for a reliable Wireless N dual band router with USB based NTFS attached NAS support.
EDIT: OCT 01, 2012 --- (Loses one star!)
It is close to about a week now I have been using this product and I find that while it still *does* work but at times it does slows speeds down wherein HD streams tends to suffer time to time. I cannot seem to isolate what the issue is.
EDIT NOV 30, 2012 --- Little improvement but still 3 Star product!
BUFFALO silently released a new DD-WRT firmware update for this product and upped the level from v24sp2-19438 to v24sp2-20180. Now the "AOSS" button can be used to turn the Wi-Fi ON/OFF also if you schedule to automatically reboot every day you can now turn the Wi-Fi OFF and turn the Wi-Fi ON demand! (Thank you Buffalo! Firmware developers)
Having said, v24sp2-20180 still has issues. I think BUFFALO forgot to tweak the Wi-Fi MultiMedia (WMM) settings as the data rate suffers from time to time especially when watching live TV stream for example.
The "User friendly" firmware has the Movie engine but that firmware is buggy in other ways and does not have other tweak-able features that can be found in DD-WRT firmware.
My good old Belkin Share Max N300 Wireless N Router which used to maintain 300Mbps connection all day all week all month despite using 2.4Ghz bandwidth (150+150 Dual Streams). This router while it does operate in the less congested 5 GHz band but the poor range (less than 15-20 feet) makes it unusable. I do understand the limitations of 5 Ghz band and my expectations are realistic. I just want the connections to be stable for extended periods of time. The 2.4Ghz band works but I cannot sustain anything greater than 130 Mbps in my house and it is useless for HD streaming on my TV. Simply switch on the microwave and my TV video freezes!
With all these issues bothering me I lowered the total rating down and until new firmware updates come out which addresses some of the issues experienced by me and other users of the product this device is going into the box and sitting there till next firmware comes out for testing.
Hence about 3 stars for this product. If you have any questions, please feel free to comment and I will try to answer them to best of my knowledge.
Cheers!
You can buy this from Amazon here: WZR-600DHP N600 Gigabit Dual Band Wireless
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