SynologyRT2600ac Wireless Mesh Router

I have been fighting against Wi-Fi dead spots at home for a long time, and this is my first time victory.Previously I have been a long term Linksys user since the golden ages of WRT54GL. I have also used Linksys EA6700, and even flagship like the EA9500. I have also tried various Wi-Fi repeaters (range extenders) of various brands, but they all shared a common issue: any device in the area where signal strength is about the same from two signal sources (one router and one repeater, or two repeaters) would intermittently drop package because the device decides to switch signal source, even when it is not moving. This is a pain because it results in dropped video calls and stuttering live streams. The so-called "seamless roaming" is totally useless and cannot avoid periodical and temporary disconnections. The lesson learnt here is that only a single router without any additional add-ons like repeaters can be the most reliable, robust and consistent solution.When it comes down to fighting against the Wi-Fi dead spots at home, the options narrow down to a single router with the best 2.4GHz range. I have done my research online for many days, and eventually found a tech geek doing tests and reviews at smallnetbuilder. The measurement data seem legit to me from a prospective of engineering, at least not biased/subjective as other reviews with merely vague descriptions. It appears that by looking into the "Throughput vs Attenuation" charts, this Synology RT2600ac holds best against signal loss, i.e. it will penetrate most walls among all routers they tested. Further looking into their routing performance spreadsheets, I have noticed that this Synology RT2600ac has least number of retries for TCP and least number of lost packages for UDP under stress tests, and beats the flagships of other brands (e.g. Linksys, Netgear, ASUS, TP-Link etc) by several orders of magnitude.I decided to give it a try by myself and see whether it is really that good. As a long term user of Synology NAS, I like the consistent UI offered by this RT2600ac. The initial setup procedure has been very smooth and I updated the OS to SRM 1.1.4-6509 straight away. The result is very satisfying: I can confirm that the dead spots in my bedroom are now gone finally, and the signal strength bar has been obviously improved with stable connections compared against the bulky EA9500 with 8 antennas! It just proves that the measurement data from smallnetbuilder are telling some truth. My devices also no longer intermittently drop connections! I have tried to stress test with multiple computers downloading from the internet and at the same time uploading to my Synology NAS, and everything went smooth and stable! The router has been up and running for a week now and I have never had to restart anything.Pros:State-of-the-art hardware specs: 1.7GHz quad-core + 512MB RAMBest 2.4GHz range as of H1 2017Extremely stable connections without maintenanceSynology's SRM router OS with next generation UI and functionsVery fast and easy to set up out of the boxCons:Maybe a little bit pricy?

Having owned Synology products already, I was expecting good things and I didn't think it was possible but this exceeded the highest of spectations!High quality build, easy setup and countless features with the ultimate flexibility, control and security for your home and/or office network.My particular favourite is the possibility of 5 vlans without requiring anything more than this router!!

Like many things with technology, you can pay a variety of prices to get performance required, but with the proliferation of smart home kit, the limitations of cheaper routers is becoming apparent. This is especially true of the routers provided free with broadband connections as many struggle with more than a couple of dozen connected devices. This is one of the reasons I went for the Synology MR2200ac router - the other being I am a fan of Synology equipment, having one of their NAS boxes for many years.What you get is a sleek black plastic router with built in antennas - so no ears sticking up. There is a bank of LEDs shaped like a triangle on the front. The back has a single gigabit Ethernet port, a single RJ45 WAN port, power socket, USB3.0 port, Wi-Fi/WPS buttons and power button. There is also a small hole for resetting the router.Setting up the router was easy - just plug a cable between my modem (I have G.Fast so used a BT Openreach modem) and log into the router interface to set up the PPPoE connection. The router connected first time, although there is no way to see the connection speed as this is internal to the modem and not the router. The routers interface will be familiar to those who have used Synology NAS boxes and is a bit like a desktop inside your browser.There are a huge amounts of different settings you can configure within the router, including setting up user profiles so you can control what your children can and cannot get up to and what times their internet connections should cease. The router also supports safety databases like the Google Safe Browsing database, helping to reduce risks of going to bad sites at a router level. This means all devices are covered at the edge of the network and do not need tools installed on them (note that you should still have anti-virus installed on computers). There are also so applications you can install like VPNPlus to make your router a VPN endpoint - allowing you access into your network from away from the home/office. It supports up to 10 clients using SSTP, PPTP, L2TP or OpenVPN protocols - I would recommend SSTP or OpenVPN, although SSTP is a Windows protocol so not suitable for Apple or Android by default). The VPN server comes with 1 client licence and you have to purchase the others, although Synology have been running a free licence campaign during lockdown and any purchased free do not appear to have an expiry date on them.The built-in USB port can serve a couple of functions as required. It can have a 3G/4G dongle fitted (you need to make sure it is compatible) to provide an internet failover in the event that the primary link is down, it can have a USB printer plugged in to make this a network printer or it can have a storage device (pen drive or hard drive) fitted and provide a basic file share. Unfortuately it does not appear that the storage device can be used to supplement the built in storage for any Synology apps you may install.The Wi-Fi has 3 channels - 2 5GHz and 1 2.4GHz and runs quickly even with over 50 devices connected. It supports up to ac standards but like all Wi-Fi, it will slow down as more devices connect. For bandwidth hungry devices, cable connections are best and this is one of the weaker points of the router as it only has a single LAN port - you will also need a switch if you want to connect more than 1 device via cable. The maximum number of devices the router claims to support is 90 and I have seen no issues with over 70 connected - my older mesh setup claimed 100 but suffered with more than 50 devices.A nice additional feature of the router is its ability to be part of a Synology mesh with other Synology SRM mesh routers - they do not all have to be MR220ac models. I have not found a need to add a second router yet as the coverage I am getting from the single unit placed fairly central in my home is good enough and beats the coverage I had from other routers (both ISP supplied and expensive bigger brand ones).There are many more benefits to this router than can be covered in a simple review. If you have questions, ask in the question section and I will answer where I can.

This router has been used to extend the WiFi network from my Synology RT2600. Set-up was extremely simple as the RT2600 just automatically detects and configures the extender. There is no need to plug in a network cable when used as an extender. This device has generally boosted the WiFi around my home so I no longer have any dead spots. It is also very easy to move the device to another location around your house without any reconfiguration. The BIG complaint that I have is that the power supply comes with a EU type plug instead of a UK type. This is not acceptable considering how much it costs. Using a plug adapter makes the power supply hang-out a long way from the wall socket.