Linksys Max-Stream AC600 Wi-Fi Micro USB Adapter Review

WLAN Performance: 2.4GHz 802.11n

The 2.4GHz band is the older of the two wireless bands that are in use today. On this band, we find 802.11b/g/n wireless standards with up to 600Mbps bandwidth on offer when using wireless-n compliant devices. Due to the lower operating frequency, 2.4GHz signals provide a wider level of coverage, but the lower throughput speeds are a disadvantage to this ageing band.

Fixed Block Size

Testing the maximum throughput speed that a wireless connection can handle, a fixed block size of 16384 Bytes is sent from the client to the server over a period of five minutes. The higher block size will allow the transfer rate to stay as high as possible – in the same way, that large files transfer from one drive to another quicker than lots of small files of the same total size.

Variable Packet Size

In a real world situation, the blocks of data that pass through a wireless adaptor are not of the same size each time, so to give a more realistic impression of how an adaptor performs, the adaptor is re-tested at each range for five minutes. This time, however, the block size will vary from 32 Bytes up to 16384 Bytes in increasing steps of 148.7 Bytes each time.

Performance Analysis

Each of the lines below represents a single test, and the colour represents the distance between the two network devices during this test. Blue is for a short distance, green is for a medium range, and red is for the longest distance.

Fixed Packet Size

Variable Packet Size