TESTING METHODOLOGY

   To sufficiently test modem/routers we had to change our methodology quite a bit since we decided to make use of the online internet speed measurement application called SpeedTest (we use it with two different destinations/servers). SpeedTest may not be the most "accurate" way to test internet connection speeds since variables change all the time from our ISP to the ISPs of the servers SpeedTest makes use of but the same can be said for every single way one can test internet speed. Bottom line whatever the results always remember that they may not be 100% on the spot. To somehow "help" our results we also record the connected downstream/upstream values each modem/router is able to get into our charts (reboot the modem/router 6 times to get the average upstream/downstream value).

   The rest of our testing methodology involves testing the wireless capabilities of the modem/router at hand and thus it's the exact same we use when testing standalone routers. So once again we will be using the networking benchmark by Passmark (v8), the QCheck by Ixia and ATTO v2.47 (since April 2015). Since we need to test new features and specifications all routers are benchmarked with their highest available wireless standard/band (5GHz in this case). Our systems are outfitted with Kingston HyperX Predator 480GB PCIe SSDs, AC1200 USB 3.0 adapters (we received AC1900 models but so far our results have been somewhat inconclusive in order to replace our AC1200 with them) and CAT7 cables and are placed 15m away from the router with 3 concrete walls between them. Each test is repeated a total of 6 times after which the average scores are recorded into our charts. Both systems now have Windows 10 Pro installed with all the updates until the 1st of December 2017.

   We’ve received several requests by some of you to also measure power consumption when testing modem/routers and although differences are not that great between similar models we decided to do so (average power consumption during tests is placed in our charts). Also again after many requests from April 2017 we will also do our best to measure wired USB performance of any modem/router or standalone router that gets to our lab with the help of Crystal Disk Mark v5.1.2 and a Samsung T1 250GB Portable SSD.