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The article is subjective and expresses the personal opinion of the author.
Performances
The tests that we performed involved file transfers, in different contexts and in two distinct environments, the first rather professional (offices) and the second particular oriented (duplex apartment). A PC computer was connected wired (Gigabit LAN) on the source router and a (second) laptop equipped with a USB3.0 AC1200 Wifi key (Netgear A6210) was connected to the Wifi network at different measurement points on which the values have been measured.
During testing, the source router was a Netgear XR300, but also an Internet box for the particular environment (in addition to the Netgear XR300 router).
For each test, the readings were performed with and without additional connected devices (2x Wifi smartphones that were playing videos on YouTube), in order to measure their impact on global Wifi reception performance. In addition, the measurements were made in both directions of transfer and this for small files (500 photos for a total of 2.66GB) and a larger file (1 video of 5.37GB).
When there is the slightest doubt about a value, a rate or a speed, the measurement has been restarted to make sure that there is no error.
On the measurement boards, the EX7300 repeater (X4) is present, as we had several Netgear hardware (XR300 router and the X4 / EX7300 and X4S EX7500 repeaters), we found that it would be interesting to carry out tests with the 2 repeaters connected in cascade on each other, and to check if this installation worked (and what that could give in term of performances Wifi: flows and range).
As a general rule, we find that the presence of additional devices connected to the same Wifi terminal (router or repeater) slightly impacts the bit rates for our transfer, it even happens that it does not change anything, but it can happen that debit be divided by two.
As for the EX7300 / X4, we find that the presence of the repeater too close to the source can be harmful to the WiFi speeds of the devices that would be connected (on the repeater).
Differences (increase or decrease in throughput with repeater placement) may also depend on the file size (s) transferred: large or small.
For a "cascade" implementation of the repeaters, there is only the sense (Router (upstream) - EX7500 (connected to the router) - EX7300 (connected to the EX7500)) which worked and one found an acceptable flow rate at the measuring point C, where the signal did not even pass with the router alone.
The ping is worse with the EX7500 than without (whether connected to the XR300, the EX7300 access point or the Internet box). This may be due to the processing time of the information to be repeated, however this difference is small and even the tough gamers of FPS should not see the difference.
When we connect a device away from the source signal, the rates are better when the EX7500 repeater is installed (up to 2x better) and is the gateway.
The presence of the repeater has made it possible to better capture the measurement point C, and to take advantage of a little signal that will allow a light Internet navigation.
Below are the results in the particular environment (duplex apartment).
The most visible element of these measures is that the Wifi connection of our domestic box is mediocre, and the setting up of an annex router (here the Netgear XR300) or a point of access Wifi (here the repeater the EX7300 in access point mode) will have good Wifi speeds for its wireless devices.
In the same way as during our tests in the professional environment, we observe that the presence of the two additional connected devices each viewing a YouTube video (720p on the band of 2,4Ghz and 1080p on the band of 5Ghz) comes almost not impact the flow of our test transfer.
We can also note that in all cases, the ping is slightly higher when the repeater is used, but this is not felt given the already low values. Here too, this must be due to processing when repeating the signal by the device.
The presence of a repeater makes it possible to extend the signal, this is clearly seen in the values reported by the devices that are connected (signal power in Mbps).
As we have noticed with his fellow EX7300, the installation of a repeater too close to the source is not necessarily beneficial, so the flow rates may be lower in the area close to the source transmitter. However, this "near" zone is very small when it comes to the Internet box that transmits the basic signal.
Consumption
During our tests, we found a power consumption (at the socket) between 5.5W and 7.1W, which is equivalent to about half of the consumption of a router (like the XR300).
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