Draytek 2920n

[Westyfield2]

'evening all.

I'm after a new router for home. I've had lots of the common consumer routers previously... Netgear DG834GT (now just using as an AP), Linksys WRT600N for the last three years and a Netgear WNDR3700 (also running as an AP).

Whilst working as a Systems Administrator I did learn just how **** the homegrade stuff is compared with proper Cisco/Juniper kit. Though surely that's overkill for home.... Plus the fact that I know diddly squat IOS so I wouldn't have a clue what I'm doing! At the same time I'm replacing the ****y Netgear switches with some proper ProCurves. Oh and building a pfSense box isn't really an option space/energy wise.

Features like StorageLink/Readyshare/etc on a router wouldn't be used, I'll use a proper NAS for that. Also VLANs or a 'Guest Network' wouldn't be used.

As such I'm looking for something between your homegrade stuff and business grade stuff... so that's how I've landed at Draytek. Someone recommended the Draytek 2820n to me, but that lacks Gigabit ... so instead I'm looking at the Draytek 2920n.

Right now I'd only be using one of the WAN ports, to my O2 Supplied Modem/Router in bridge mode (though possibly to be replaced with a Draytek Vigor 120 as it is kinda double NATd right now).

However.... in the review here (of the non-wireless 2920) the Routing Performance wasn't exactly great at 147.5.... especially when the Netgear WNDR3700 got 408.9.


Does anyone here have a Draytek 2920 and care to comment with real world experience? It's just that for it to be completely beaten speed wise by something £60 cheaper makes it kinda hard to justify.

TY all.

 

[thiggins]

So you have > 150 Mbps Internet service? Router speed higher than 10% or so more than your service provides no benefit.

 

[Westyfield2]

So you have > 150 Mbps Internet service?

Pfft, in my dreams!


Bearing that in mind, does anyone here have any real world experience of the Draytek? The review here on SNB is the only one I've seen online!

 

[randfee]

I ordered the 2920n yesterday. Will report back.
I'm a bit confused with Drayteks offers though:

• 2130n
• 2920n

both are new. The 2130 has a four times great WAN 2 LAN throughput though. Shouldn't the higher numbers mean higher performance? Since I wouldn't want my VPN speed limited to the 1,5Mbit/s (2130n), I went for the 2920n now, the 150Mbit/s WAN 2 LAN of this one won't be in my way anytime soon. Still, why is this performance only one fourth of the 2130n, I don't get it.

Now I worry, that the wireless performance of the 2920n might also be worse than that of the supposedly inferior model 2130n. Since this page only reviewed the 2920 (no wireless) I just have to test it myself. Does Drayteks naming scheme make sense anyways? What does the third digit stand for, the 2930 is 2 years old, the 2920 seems new, I just don't get it.


@thiggins
Too bad you didn't review the 2920n. What's your opinion of this? Do you have a recommendation? I've owned a WNDR3700 for several months, quite happy with the wireless performance. Now I want a wireless router with decent VPN (IPsec) performance. Or should I just keep the wndr3700 as an AP and get another Router/Firewall combo for VPN? I usually don't want several devices if I can get it all in one, waste of space and energy.

 

[thiggins]

@thiggins
Too bad you didn't review the 2920n. What's your opinion of this? Do you have a recommendation? I've owned a WNDR3700 for several months, quite happy with the wireless performance. Now I want a wireless router with decent VPN (IPsec) performance. Or should I just keep the wndr3700 as an AP and get another Router/Firewall combo for VPN? I usually don't want several devices if I can get it all in one, waste of space and energy.

We chose to review the wired version because the wireless version is way overpriced. And for business applications, why introduce another possible point of failure.

Others may disagree, but it's hard to do better for wireless performance than the WNDR3700.

 

[randfee]

so you'd recommend using the WNDR3700 as AP and get a decent VPN Router to put in front of that?

edit:
why do you rekon that the 2920n (wireless) version is overpriced? At least here in germany it's only 40€ more (200€ vs 160€).

 

[Osamede]

Well the 2920n is a single band(2.4ghz) I think, vs dual band in the 3700. And it seems to perform not as good as the 3700 in the test charts here.

On the other hand the 2920 does have VOIP and other features the 3700 does not have. So depends on what you are after I guess.

 

[Osamede]

Well the 2920n is a single band(2.4ghz) I think, vs dual band in the 3700. And it seems to perform not as good as the 3700 in the test charts here.

On the other hand the 2920 does have VOIP and VPN and other features the 3700 does not have.

So depends on what you are looking for I guess.

 

[Westyfield2]

We chose to review the wired version because the wireless version is way overpriced.

I've just had a look at Dabs.com & Broadbandbuyer.co.uk.... Dabs price the 2920n at £11.25 more than the 2920, and BroadbandBuyer have the difference at £25.32.

I haven't seen any reviews of the 2920n, but I'd like to assume the Access Point on it is decent enough.... and I'm not sure what MIMO three-antenna 802.11n (300Mb/s) 2.4GHz Access Point I would buy with £11.25.

Others may disagree, but it's hard to do better for wireless performance than the WNDR3700.

I agree entirely. I've got two of them (don't have a clue what revisions) and the wireless performance is great... heck I bought one of them back at £143 solely to use as an Access Point(s).

Well the 2920n is a single band(2.4ghz) I think, vs dual band in the 3700. And it seems to perform not as good as the 3700 in the test charts here.

On the other hand the 2920 does have VOIP and VPN and other features the 3700 does not have.

So depends on what you are looking for I guess.

As a Firewall & Router & VPN (i.e. ignoring the Wireless Access Point) there's not really any contest between the Draytek 2920 and Netgear WNDR3700.... heck just look at the maximum simultaneous connections in the reviews here - 34,925 vs 4,096.

 

[randfee]

so Westyfield2,
if you wanted VPN, you'd also get a separate Router (any recommendation) and keep the WNDR3700 as AP? Apparently there are no highly rated wireless routers with decent VPN implementations.

 

[Westyfield2]

so Westyfield2,
if you wanted VPN, you'd also get a separate Router (any recommendation) and keep the WNDR3700 as AP? Apparently there are no highly rated wireless routers with decent VPN implementations.

My current plan is (and comments from anyone on that would of-course be welcome ):

• Modem - Draytek Vigor 120
• Router - Draytek Vigor 2920n (IMHO for the sake of £11.25 you might aswell get the n over the normal 2920)
• Switches - HP ProCurve 1810G-8 - as many as appropriate (I personally have one CAT5e from the router in the study going upstairs, so it would be one switch on the first floor)
• Wireless Access Points - Netgear WNDR3700 - as many as appropriate (depends how big your house is / other interference)

Regarding the Router, for the sake of £11.25 I'd get the Draytek 2920n over the 2920 as another Access Point can't hurt (though if you don't need Gigabit in your router you could look at the 2820 instead).

Regarding the Wireless Access Points, it does seem a shame to be buying a router and then turning it into an Access Point, but I can't find anything that gets as good reviews wireless performance wise as the WNDR3700 at its price point (£125) and I've been perfectly happy with the wireless performance of my two.

 

[randfee]

I have the 2920n here now.

On the wireless side I can get an average of 7.5MB/s (g/n mixed, 2,4GHz 20/40MHz) in a location where the WNDR delivers 16MB/s @ 5GHz.

Hard to say if I should keep the WNDR as AP, it'd be a bit of a waste of energy, even if I return the 2920n and just get one without wireless or maybe some other Router with SSH-VPN.

 

[Westyfield2]

My current plan is (and comments from anyone on that would of-course be welcome ):

• Modem - Draytek Vigor 120
• Router - Draytek Vigor 2920n (IMHO for the sake of £11.25 you might aswell get the n over the normal 2920)
• Switches - HP ProCurve 1810G-8 - as many as appropriate (I personally have one CAT5e from the router in the study going upstairs, so it would be one switch on the first floor)
• Wireless Access Points - Netgear WNDR3700 - as many as appropriate (depends how big your house is / other interference)

I've attached a diagram of my plan. Anything that isn't labelled as a location (Router/Modem/NAS/PC/Printer) is in the study.

Of the three 802.11n 2.4GHz Access Points I'll have them on channels 1, 6 & 9. They'll all be on 40MHz wide for upto 300 Mbit/s (if using 20MHz wide I'd use the normal 1, 6 & 11).

Of the two 802.11n 5GHz Access Points I'll have them on channels 36 & 48. They'll both be on 40MHz wide for upto 300 Mbit/s.

Annoyingly all the access points are needed . I believe it's a combination of metal-reinforced double layer breeeze-block walls and the military nearby, but a laptop in the lounge cannot see (let alone get a stable connection to) the wireless AP in the study... even though they're just across the hallway from each other! Be it on 2.4GHz or 5GHz, with a DG834GT or a WRT600N or a WNDR3700 (and a massive high-gain antenna!) a laptop in the lounge cannot connect to it. The neighbours find the same (and one did some testing with a spectrum analyser) - our houses just kill wireless!
The advantage of that though is I don't need to be particulary careful about overlapping channels, as there aren't very many places where multiple AP signals can be received!

Unfortunately as our houses are 50 years old they aren't wired for networking or anything, so that's why the lounge runs from the loft rather than from the study. The CAT5E from the study to the loft, loft to first floor rooms and the CAT6 from the loft to the lounge are cables that I've dropped/pulled myself (not fun when the walls have insulation in the cavities!).

Off the top of my head, the wireless devices commonly used are iPhones, Blackberry, PSPs, iPad, Dell Latitude, MacBook Pro, MacBook air, etc.... so a right mixed bunch both of 802.11b/g and 802.11n!


@randfee: How you finding the 2920n otherwise? And what, for comparisons sake, do you get out of the WNDR3700 at 2.4GHz?
I'd keep the WNDR3700 on as an AP. The energy consumption doesn't really bother me (and I'm a tree-hugging Mac user ). Besides, what I really want would be a few servers.... a Domain Controller, a File Server, a DHCP Server, etc.... keeping the WNDR3700 is nothing compared with running a server or two!