Edimax BR-6288nS review: A perfect 5-in-1 router for your home

Most houses and offices are large and your devices are usually spread out in various places around the rooms. It becomes pretty much necessary for one to get the best wireless network range when using devices across the house. There comes in the need for a powerful router or a wireless repeater. Then there are some elegantly designed houses which cannot run wires as easily across the walls. A wireless network is definitely a requirement, especially for your smart television along with your internet radio and gaming console. The next requirement of a wireless bridge comes in where you need to interconnect devices across networks.  

  

Previously, a wireless router was used just to share the internet or local network to laptops. Then came the age of mobile devices, such as tablets and smartphones, which now needs an internet connectivity, for even the smallest of reasons. Today, you do almost everything on your smartphone and the laptop is usually the last resort. However, with the amount of data connectivity speeds increasing and mobile devices also featuring better networking chips, it becomes necessary for your older router to retire, just to be replaced by a newer, faster and more sophisticated one.

But do you really need a new wireless router? Well, if you have just two or three mobile devices at home and don’t require much internet speeds, then your older router should suffice. But if you need to get more throughputs of data across your devices at home, and if you have a larger house, then the router needs to be upgraded.

Edimax has a simple, yet robust solution for those who need a wireless networking solution for a large office or home. The Edimax BR-6288nS is a simple, 5-in-1 wireless router. Apart from performing as a usual wireless internet router, the Edimax can be set up for use as an access point, range extender, a wireless bridge or a WISP.

Router: Setup the Edimax as a router and connect your DSL modem or internet connection to the WAN port of the router. You can also connect a physical Ethernet cable for sharing the internet to your desktop, laptop, gaming console and others. This is the basic networking method used in most homes.

Access point: If you need to use the router as a simple wireless networking medium, all you need to do is to configure the Edimax as an access point to convert a aired network to a wireless one.

Range extender: This is one of the most useful part of the Edimax, where it can be used as a middle-man unit for increasing or extending the range of your existing router at home or office. Best use for long rooms or to ensure you get better range for devices that are far away from the internet router. Set up the Edimax as an extended and it will repeat the signals from your router to the device, thus increasing the range of the wireless signals.

Wireless bridge: Best for creating a large networking zone between two homes or offices within a short distance (provided they are close enough and in good range of each other). Basically, it is a simple method to join two networks using the wireless medium instead of wires (where wires are difficult to lay). Both the networks are joined wirelessly using two wireless routers.

WISP: If you have an internet service provider that brings the internet to your home using a wireless CPE, you can use the Edimax as a CPE. The Edimax will then connect to the wireless ISP and then act as a router to share the internet to all your devices at home or office.

Each of these modes can be individually setup and switched whenever you need it. You don’t need to configure the router each time you want it to act as a different peripheral. All you need to do is to connect to the router using a laptop, tablet or smartphone, hit the device’s home page, login using the Admin credentials and switch the service you need. Additionally, you can also setup the router with multiple SSIDs (up to 5) so that you can connect your devices with ease or share your network and internet with your friends and family (this works in access point mode only). The router also supports guest mode for isolating your friends or guests for temporary connectivity needs in router mode.

The Edimax BR-6228nS is an N150 802.11 b/g/n router. It features great design, shaped like a spaceship, but has a highly glossy white surface. Well ventilated from upfront, the front panel sports a grille with a few LEDs for power internet, network and connectivity. The rear panel features all the connectivity options—one WAN port for the internet, four Ethernet ports for physical connectivity, a power jack, a WPS/reset switch and a single non-replaceable uni-directional antenna. The base has rubber feet for grip on the flat surface, but there are no options for wall mounting the device. The Edimax BR-6228nS measures (WxHxD) 190mm x 42mm x 162mm and weighs 230g.

The Edimax additionally features IGMP proxy and IGMP snooping, DDNS and DHCP, Port triggering for special applications, Virtual server and DMZ hosting, MAC/IP filter and URL blocking, iQoS for smart bandwidth management, Static routing, UPnP architecture, VPN pass-through (IPSec/PPTP), Wi-Fi schedule control, and Fault tolerance firmware upgrade. The WAN protocol supports PPPoE, static IP, dynamic IP, PPTP and L2TP. The Edimax also has security features, which includes NAT/NAPT IP sharing, 64/128-bit WEP encryption and WPA-PSK and WPA2-PSK security, QoS for critical operations and SPI anti-DoS firewall.

Setting up the router is pretty simple and it won’t take you more than 15 minutes, unless you are a novice. Simply connect your PC/laptop/tablet to the Edimax wirelessly without any password and hit the url http://edimax.setup from a browser and the router can be configured thereon. The opening screen will ask you if you want to configure the Edimax as a router or any of the other modes. Using the setup screen you can proceed with the quick setup (novice mode) or manually configure the router (advanced mode).

Rounding up the whole experience, the Edimax 150N wireless router is a good investment for your home or small office. With future-ready modes for enhancing and managing your networks, the Edminax stands out as a value for money peripheral and add on for your wireless needs. The Edimax 150N BR6228nS V3 is available from Savera Marketing in India and you can purchase it from Snapdeal for an MRP of Rs 1,999.