Totolink N600R Performance Test

In 2016, Totolink launched the N600R series - This is a wireless router designed specifically for home use. The device is compliant with the IEEE 802.11 standard and provides wireless speeds on the 2.4 GHz band up to 600 Mbps. MIMO technology supports 4 antennas simultaneously, allowing the user to access the internet quickly and conveniently. The main reason we got the Totolink N600R is the built-in Turbo button, which when activated instantly extends the default WI-FI range. How does the Totolink N600R perform in 2021? Let's find out!

Totolink is a company that started back in 1998 by establishing ZIONCOM in South Korea. At the initial stage of its existence, the company manufactured products under the ipTime brand only for the local market. In 2009 the company decided to enter the world markets under a new brand Totolink. Currently the brand is represented in 50 countries around the world. The manufacturer offers a wide range of network devices for home and office. Among others, routers, switches, WI-FI adapters, Powerline and wireless access points. The manufacturer's mission is to provide as many users as possible with high quality products at affordable prices.

Let's start with technical specifications, Totolink N600R is compliant with IEEE 802.11 standard and operates in 2.4 GHz band. In addition, the manufacturer has used four 5 dBI antennas to provide wireless data transmission of up to 600 MBps. This is the fastest Wi-FI connection operating in the 2.4 GHz band so far. There's also an interesting Turbo button used by the manufacturer to increase the router's output power by 6 dBI, which in theory should improve signal quality and coverage. In addition, N600R supports WPS, which greatly facilitates the connection of new devices to our network. All with a single touch of a button on the casing. Totolink N600R can operate in four modes:

• Gateway mode
• Bridge mode
• Repeater mode
• WISP mode

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The N600R has a very simple and compact "crab-like" design. The device is equipped with 4 external high performance antennas reaching 5dBI, which in theory provide stable WI-FI transmission over long distances. Unfortunately, the antennas are fixed permanently, so in case of any failure we are not able to replace them. The front panel is unusual, we will not find the classic indicators of ports, Internet connection status or WI-FI activity here. Instead, on the top panel there is a LED indicating the operation of the device in Turbo mode. It lights up red or green depending on the activation.

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Turbo button is located on the right side of the case. Based on the manufacturer's specifications, when turned on, the router's output power increases to 6dBm. According to the manufacturer's claims, Turbo mode expands the wireless range by three times.

On the left side of the chassis is the RST/WSP button - press it for 1 second to activate WPS, 5 seconds or more to reset the router to factory settings.

On the back of the device there is a power connector, 1 WAN port for Internet connection and 4 LAN port for connecting devices on the local network. The speed of all network ports is 100MB/s. In addition, each port is equipped with LED activity indicator. This type of LED placement is very inconvenient.

Connecting and configuring the Totolink N600R is very simple and intuitive, without any special problems. Everything is literally done in a few clicks using the wizard.

Configuration Guide

• 1. connect Ethernet cable from your provider to WAN port (yellow).
• 2. Connect an Ethernet cable from your computer to any LAN port.
• 3. open any browser and enter the address 192.168.0.1.
• 4. enter the default user name and password "admin".
• 5. Select the type of Internet connection of your service provider, set a WI-FI network name and password.
• 6. Click Apply, the router will reboot and after about one minute you will see a successful configuration message.

Note:

We recommend that you enable "BG Protection Mode" -> AUTO and "Preambule" in the Advanced Setting. -> AUTO and "Preambule Type" -> Short Preambule

System status - Shows the router's active ports, operating mode and time, Internet, Wi-FI and local network connection status, and traffic statistics.

Operation Mode - Here we have access to the operation mode of the device: Router, Bridge, Repeater, WISP.

Network - Here we have the access to network settings such as WAN, LAN DHC and port speed.

Wireless - This tab gives you access to advanced Wi-Fi settings.

QOS (Quality of Service) - Here we can create up to 10 rules for the device's clients to limit incoming and outgoing Internet speed.

Firewall - In this tab we can set Firewall: filtering rules by IP/MAC, port forwarding, DMZ zone settings, VPN Passthrough.

Managment - In the management tab, we access service functions such as changing the administrator password, time setting, remote control, software update, saving current settings, reboot, and Wi-Fi network schedule.

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Before we get into performance testing, we need to do a little introduction. The Totolink N600R router uses MIMO (multiple input, multiple output) technology with a 4x4 antenna configuration. Thanks to this application, connection speed should theoretically reach 600 MB/s for 2.4 GHz band. The aim of our tests is to verify the range of the wireless network both in terms of signal coverage and real speeds available in the building.

For 2.4GHz connections, we assumed the maximum channel width to be 20MHz. The testing device was a MacBook Pro A1502 equipped with a built-in AirPort Extreme wireless card (Broadcom BCM4360 3x3, 1.3 Gbps PHY) operating in the 802.11a/b/g/n/ac standards.

Performance measurement

We tested the work of Totolink N600R with a meter designed for wireless devices. The first test we performed was with the Turbo button turned off. Despite the 20/40 MHz channel width setting, the device worked very well in the 20 MHz range. The device was tested in active environment with other 2.4 GHz Wi-FI networks and Bluetooth devices.

After turning on the TURBO button, the characteristics of the device have changed significantly. As you can see, the level of interference has increased, as well as the signal strength.

Signal map

To make the signal map we used the AirSurvey software. To read the signal levels correctly please pay attention to the color legend at the bottom of the picture. Location of the access point is marked with an appropriate icon.

Speed test

Before speed testing, we verified the maximum performance of the LAN and iperf3 server. The aforementioned laptop was connected via a 10/100/1000Mbps network card to a switch. We obtained the following maximum speeds for a single TCP stream:

Download: 894Mbps.

Sending: 958Mbps.

Download 51Mbps

Upload 74Mbps

Download 49Mbps

Upload 70Mbps

Download 51Mbps

Upload 77Mbps

Download 49Mbps

Upload 70Mbps

Download 51Mbps

Upload 77Mbps

Download 49Mbps

Upload 70Mbps

We have to admit that the Totolink N600R didn't score satisfactorily in our review in the Wi-FI networking segment. The device performed relatively without panache, if we were to compare the N600R to other 2.4Ghz Totolink devices then the router should get going at download speeds above 60Mbps. Unfortunately, the device did not want to enter the highest modulation. Fortunately, upload was much better and at times it reached 80 Mbps. To sum up - Is this a good device? Yes. Are there better devices? Certainly. Although in this price segment we get pretty good equipment performing all the required functions of a home router.