Bin Your ISP Router (Part 3) : Belkin Play N600, BT Home Hub 3

Belkin Play N600

A high price, lack of features and poor all-round performance make this router one to avoid

The Belkin Play N600 looks very similar to its flagship cousin, the AC 1200 DB, and is reasonably easy on the eye. With its rounded corners and slender, wedge-shaped profile, this ADSL router will fit unobtrusively into all but the most stylish of settings.

Look at the specifications, however, and you’ll see it’s missing several key features. For instance, the four network ports running along its spine all run at 10/100 speed rather than the Gigabit of most other routers here. It has only one USB port while the other Belkin has two, and it also lacks the cutting-edge 802.11ac technology of its sibling.

Belkin Play N600

The latter shouldn’t be a huge problem. As we’ve shown in this Labs, 802.11ac holds little appeal other than short-range speed, and even then it doesn’t offer much of a boost. Alas, the N600 doesn’t compensate with decent performance in other areas.

At long range, although we were able to connect over both 5GHz and 2.4GHz, speeds were slow, at 1.4MB/sec and 3.8MB/sec respectively.

At close range, speeds were worse. As with the AC 1200 DB, we had problems when switching to 40MHz mode, and when changing the security method and password, forcing us to reset to factory defaults to achieve even remotely respectable speeds. Even then, the final results were poor, with average file-transfer speeds hitting only 6.5MB/sec over 5GHz and 5.8MB/sec over 2.4GHz.

At close range, speeds were worse

With our USB test disk attached to the Play N600’s single USB socket, we saw an average transfer rate of only 2.3MB/sec. That’s atrocious, ruling out the Play N600 as a practical network file-sharing tool.

In fact, there’s little else to compensate for the N600’s general lack of get-up-and-go. There are no advanced parental controls, nor Android or iOS apps to help you manage the router. Combined with a price that’s rather too high, we recommend you steer clear.

Belkin Play N600 specs

Pricing

·         Part code: F9J1102v1

·         Price: $128 ($153.6)

·         Supplier: www.broadband, buyer.co.uk

·         Dimensions inc antennae (WDH): 204 x 75 x 217mm

·         Warranty: 2yr RTB

Core specifications

·         Internet connection type: ADSL2/2+

·         Dual band (2.4GHz/5GHz): yes

·         Concurrent dual band: yes

·         Wireless standards: 802.11 abgn

·         Maximum throughput (2.4GHz/5GHz): 300/300Mbits/sec

·         40MHz channels (2.4GHz/5GHz): yes/yes

·         Gigabit Ethernet ports       : no

·         10/100 Ethernetports: 4

·         USB ports (device support type): 1 (storage, printer)

·         Security and parental controls

·         Security types: WEP, WPA (personal), WPA2 (personal)

·         Web content filtering: no

·         URL whitelisting: no

·         URL blacklisting: yes

·         Schedule-restricted internet access: yes

·         WPS button/router PIN/device PIN support: yes/yes/yes

Other 

·         IPv6 support: no

·         Wireless repeater functions: no

·         Wireless on/off switch       : no

·         Power switch: no

·         User-configurable QoS: yes

·         Media server: yes

·         Torrent server       : no

·         Storage format support: FAT16, FAT32, NTFS

·         Guest network: yes

·         Android/iOS app: no

·         Extendability via apps: no

·         Online firmware updating: yes

Measured average speeds (MB/sec)

·         2.4GHz short range: 5.8

·         5GHz short range: 6.5

·         802.11ac short range: N/A

·         2.4GHz long range: 3.8

·         5GHz long range: 1.4

·         USB speed (wired): 2.3

·         ADSL download (wired): 2.3

BT Home Hub 3

BT made a big fuss about the Home Hub 3 router when it first arrived in 2011. The central thrust of the advertising campaign focused on the unit’s ability to dodge interference and maintain fast wireless speeds.

BT made a big fuss about the Home Hub 3 router when it first arrived in 2011

The Home Hub 3 does this by actively monitoring interference, not only from other wireless routers in the vicinity, but also from other wireless devices using the 2.4GHz spectrum - devices such as baby monitors, video senders and cordless phones. When it detects a strong source of interference, it automatically switches channels.

This is no longer the unique feature it once was - Sky’s router does the same thing - but it works. We turned on a cheap video sender in the same channel as the BT router, and, using our spectrum analyzer, saw the router switch to a less cluttered channel 30 seconds later.

This should ensure stable wireless connectivity in all but the most extreme circumstances, and in many cases this is all most people will need

This should ensure stable wireless connectivity in all but the most extreme circumstances, and in many cases this is all most people will need. However, the BT Home Hub 3 won’t give you the fastest performance possible. At 2.4GHz long range, we measured a speed of 4.1MB/sec, and at close range speeds hit 5MB/sec - both acceptable, but only a third of the speed of the 5GHz-capable routers here, and half that of the best 2.4GHz router. The Home Hub 3 has a USB port for sharing storage, but performance isn’t particularly strong, hitting an average of only 3.6MB/sec; it doesn’t support NTFS-formatted drives.

The rest of the feature list is underwhelming. Its parental controls are rudimentary: you can block particular devices at specific times, but there’s no option to blacklist or whitelist websites (although BT provides McAfee software to do this at the PC level). There are no wireless repeating functions, no user-configurable QoS settings, and no iOS or Android apps to help manage router settings or add features.

The rest of the feature list is underwhelming

The BT Home Hub isn’t awful, and it’s better than the one Sky provides, but its mediocre speed and limited feature set means that we suggest you opt for something better - the award-winning Asus or Netgear routers would do the job nicely.

BT Home Hub 3 specs

Pricing

·         Part code: N/A

·         Supplier: www.bt.com

·         Dimensions inc antennae (WDH): 183 x 60 x 108mm

·         Warranty: 1 yrRTB

Core specifications

·         Internet connection type: ADSL2/2+, BT Infinity (requires separate modem)

·         Dual band (2.4GHz/5GHz): no

·         Concurrent dual band: no

·         Wireless standards: 802.11 bgn

·         Maximum throughput (2.4GHz/5GHz): 2.4GHz, 300Mbits/sec

·         40MHz channels (2.4GHz/5GHz) : yes/no

·         Gigabit Ethernet ports: no

·         10/100 Ethernetports: 4

·         USB ports (device support type): 1 (storage)

·         Security and parental controls

·         Security types WEP, WPA (personal), WPA2 (personal)

·         Web content filtering: no

·         URL whitelisting: no

·         URL blacklisting: no

·         Schedule-restricted internet access: no

·         WPS button/router PIN/device PIN support

Other

·         IPv6 support: yes

·         Wireless repeater functions: no

·         Wireless on/off switch: no

·         Power switch: yes

·         User-configurable QoS: no

·         Media server: no

·         Torrent server: no

·         Storage format support: FAT16, FAT32

·         Guest network: no

·         Android/iOS app: no

·         Extendability via apps: no

·         Online firmware updating: yes

Measured average speeds (MB/sec)

·         2.4GHz short range: 5

·         5GHz short range: N/A

·         802.11ac short range: N/A

·         2.4GHz long range: 4.1

·         5GHz long range: N/A

·         USB speed (wired): 3.6

·         ADSL download (wired): UTT