amped wireless Amped Wireless AP20000G Review!

[remixedcat]

Amped Wireless AP20000G Review by RemixedCat

Contents:

1. Intro

2. Setup

3. Features

4. Performance

5. Conclusion

Intro!

Please note that the Access Point is located on the 2nd floor office. My house is approx. 1800 sq ft and has 4 BR 2 BA and it has mixed construction dates, thus, a diverse set of materials and consistency. There are 5 other APs detected by my phone?s chipset and around the same amount seen by my USB adapter (Netgear WG111V3 connected to desktop for management and screen shots).

Wireless Devices used:

1 Desktop PC running windows 7 with a Netgear USB adapter (WG111v3)

2 LG Optimus S Android Smartphones

1 Xbox 360 with WLAN controller built in

Acer Aspire laptop with built in Atheros chipset

USB Storage devices used:

1 IOSafe Fireproof/Waterproof USB HDD

1 Sandisk Cruzer 16GB USB stick

Setup!

Unboxing and setup: Initial setup was extremely easy! It was actually easier then setting up my Netgear WGR614 Router. Just hook up the antennas, connect the Ethernet cable to the router, then plug the power cord in and go to setup.ampedwireless.com from a wireless client and enter a little bit of info in like Wi-Fi name, etc. and then you?re connected. Please note: If you are using this with an Amped Wireless Router you must input the AP?s IP address instead of setup.ampedwireless.com because that defaults to the router?s config instead of the Aps.

The initial setup wizard was very easy and quick and should get most typical users setup within 2 minutes including a reboot of the router.

When you first setup it?s protected with WPA and the password ?wireless? for you. This is a good thing unless you have neighbors that know that you have an Amped Wireless AP. LOL. I suggest changing this immediately as well as proceeding to the next paragraph?s instructions.

Going to setup.ampedwireless.com is much easier then accessing by an IP address. This is much easier to remember! Please note, however the config page is not password protected by default and a login must be setup after initial configuration. It can be accessed by doing the following: more settings>management>password. For the first time it did not accept my username I entered in. I chose a custom name and password and the AP did not accept it. However I chose the name ?Admin? and that was accepted. Strange.

Features!

Basic Settings: Configure your SSID, the broadcast, Data rate, etc?

From here you can configure and setup guest networks! You get 4 for each band (frequency)

As you can tell I?m a brony? LOL?. From here you can configure your security settings.

You can setup the security type of the guest networks from this screen here as well.

This is the MAC Address Filter menu. From here you can allow or deny MAC addresses for more security. I do this on my network in addition to having WPA2 security.

From here you can setup an access schedule. For example if you don?t want your kids being up all night online:

Here are the advanced settings:

Here?s the USB Storage menu with my SanDisk Cruzer Mounted. All you got to do is connect and then share!

Here?s how easy it is to browse to the files on it:

Network>Amped_AP_USB>mnt>and there are your files! They are contained in the /mnt/directory so you will have to click on that

Performance!

Wireless performance:

We are mostly going to do several tests on the AP.

First test.... streaming video:

I went outside around 175 feet from the AP20000G and I was able to stream YouTube videos with little buffer. This amazed me. Please note that there are 5 other networks near my house and my AP is placed at the opposite end of the house! HD did have some buffering at that distance, however it was actually tolerable. HD had NO BUFFERING/pausing at around 75 ft and pre- loaded 25% of a 35 min video is about 8-15 seconds. It takes 35-45 seconds or more for that much prebuffer to fill on my Netgear WGR614. Very nice!

2nd streaming video test: was able to stream SD video and at a decent speed with little buffering at 230ft!!! AWESOME!!!!

Gaming test: We setup an Xbox 360 with the built in WLAN controller on it and we put it through a few online games and it performs on par with the wired Xbox 360 that doesn?t have the WLAN controller! No lag related to the wireless at all even with other APs using the same channels and microwaves have been used close to it as well. AWESOME!!!!

Browsing on all wireless devices is on par with wired throughout the house.

Throughput measures:

I will be also gauging the throughput on the AP with an app called AirMapper from Fluke Networks. You can walk around various parts of the premises and it will tell you the throughput of the AP from wherever you are walking.

So far it?s looking like it caps at 10Mbps (subscribed 12Mbps connection) and goes no lower than 4Mbps within the confines of my house. Not bad.

Next I will be running through the readings using Fluke Networks Airmapper for Android

Please note: I am mostly using this app for throughput tests at various distances. This is currently set to test a 13mb .mp3 file hosted on a remote server that?s hosted on the east coast about 400 miles from my current location.

Here?s the results so far:

Location 1 (just outside of office): 15 ft: 9.5Mbps @ -20dBm @ 100 % sig str.

Location 2 (bottom of stairs in foyer area): 30 ft: 7.5Mbps @ -35dBm @ 100% sig str.

Location 5 (downstairs bathroom-tricky celling and lots of wonkies) 18 ft: 5.52mbps @ -50dBm @ 100% sig str.

Location 3 (back porch) 35 ft 4.34Mbps @- 65dBm 98% sig str.

Location 6 (white garage across the road from 2 neighbors away) 120ft 2.21Mbps -69 to -72dBm 65% sig str.

Signal Quality and consistency:

For my environment my config was the following:

Basic Settings:

2.4 GHz:

Channel: 9 (least congested on average in my location)

Channel Width: 40 MHz

Data Rate: Auto

----------------------------------------------------

Advanced Settings:

Control Sideband: Upper

WMM: Enabled

Preamble Type: Long Preamble

IAPP: Enabled

Protection: Disabled

Aggregation: Enabled

Short GI: Enabled

WLAN Partition: Disabled

STBC: Disabled

20/40MHz Coexist: Enabled

Please Note: There are a lot of APs in my area. I am still getting way better performance than my Netgear WGR614 with most anything. RSSI values stay better than the Netgear by at least 20 points or more.

Average RSSI Values: (using the Amped Wireless Analytics tool for Android)

Amped Wireless AP20000G: 30-50ft avg. @ -22 to -32dBm/50-75ft avg. @ -47dBm/ 170ft @ -72dBm

Here?s a few screenshots from Amped Wireless Wi-Fi Analytics software for windows:

This is on the desktop with a weak Netgear USB adapter that has a little issues?. It?s very old and has been beat up a lot:

This is a funny result using the Acer laptop that has a built in Atheros adapter:

It?s funny how everyone else?s APs were flipping out while Amped Wireless was chill! LOL!

Here?s the readout from 45 ft away on the back porch, door closed, stormy weather:

USB Drive testing:

I have tested the speeds in the following USB drives:

IoSafe 500GB USB HDD

Sandisk Cruzer 16GB Pen drive

And both drives performed decently. I had no stuttering with HD videos being played back through VLC media player or no skipping sounds through windows media player. Image galleries loaded just as fast as if the drive was attached to the desktop via the USB. I am very pleased with the performance and ease of use of the USB sharing! Works fine with all OSes I?ve tested. I have tested this on Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2012 (my workstation) and all OSes pick it up effortlessly. Transfer rates were around 3-4MBps read and write on both drives from wired and wireless clients. I highly recommend this AP if you really want an effortless file server on the cheap. ;-) The speeds may not be blazing fast, however this should be fine for most people.

Transferring YouTube videos I downloaded?.. and look.. it?s EPIC MEAL TIME! LOL.

Please note: I am now running Windows Server 2012 and check out the new file transfer dialog! Nice!

Conclusion!

The Amped Wireless AP20000G is a very nice access point. It has awesome coverage and tons of features. It sets up easy and is very stable, has USB sharing added for even more awesomes!

Pros:

? Hardcore coverage!

? Easy setup

? Lots of features

? Dual band

? Guest networks

? USB sharing

Cons:

? Somewhat slow USB transfer speed in comparison to direct USB connection

? No print server

Overall rating 9.0/10

Recommended: Yes!

[+LogicalApex MVC]

Nice review :D

Though I do have to ask, do you work for AMP Wireless? or have some other financial interest in them? You talk about them a lot... :)

[remixedcat]

Thank you redbull and LogicalApex!!!! ;)

It reads fast but the transfer into speed is a little slow... however the USB feature is, to me, a bonus feature and the core strengths are the HARDCORE COVERAGE, guest networks, dual band, and the fact you can actually upgrade and antennas. Most routers these days are internal weak antennas and the only way you can upgrade the coverage is to use repeaters, thus increasing the cost and you have another device to mess with.

A applaud Amped Wireless for going the right direction and making a great AP with HARDCORE COVERAGE and doesn't afraid of anything!

hopefully they will work on the USB speed

they are well on thier way to beating the other home brands! scratch that! They are beating them!!!!!! The firmware is excellent, and the hardware is awesome. ;)

I do not work at Amped Wireless. I wish I did!!! LOL

[*RedBull*]

Amped Wireless is HARDCORE COVERAGE!!!!!

[+LogicalApex MVC]

Thank you redbull and LogicalApex!!!! ;)

It reads fast but the transfer into speed is a little slow... however the USB feature is, to me, a bonus feature and the core strengths are the HARDCORE COVERAGE, guest networks, dual band, and the fact you can actually upgrade and antennas. Most routers these days are internal weak antennas and the only way you can upgrade the coverage is to use repeaters, thus increasing the cost and you have another device to mess with.

A applaud Amped Wireless for going the right direction and making a great AP with HARDCORE COVERAGE and doesn't afraid of anything!

hopefully they will work on the USB speed

they are well on thier way to beating the other home brands! The firmware is excellent, and the hardware is awesome. ;)

I do not work at Amped Wireless. I wish I did!!! LOL

Agreed internal antennas are... Well useless since this is a family forum.

They really should hire you on :) I had never heard of them until I heard you mentioning them on here a year or two ago and now I want one of their products to see how good their coverage is :)

[remixedcat]

Ha ha!! Yeah!

I would so work there!!! :)

[*RedBull*]

I agree. You got me buy one from them. LOL

You would be excellent technical sales person. :)

[remixedcat]

Ha ha ha!

Ha ha... well thank you!!! ;)

[HawkMan]

Agreed internal antennas are... Well useless since this is a family forum.

They really should hire you on :) I had never heard of them until I heard you mentioning them on here a year or two ago and now I want one of their products to see how good their coverage is :)

Internal MIMO antennas aren't any worse than external antennas unless you need actual external antennas.(the big extra ones for outdoor mounting) and can in fact provide better coverage and speeds due to being MIMO. Linksys/Cisco only uses MIMO on their high end routers, and they have with their latest top end ranges been scoring best on reviews at coverage.