Synology-RT2600ac-Router
Synology – a young company founded in the year 2000 has been making its mark with the latest innovation and technological products for network attached storage (NAS), IP surveillance solutions and network equipment with cloud solutions.
Synology has provided me with the RT2600ac router for review which a quite powerful router and can be used by gamers.
Design & Specifications
The Synology RT2600ac router which I received, came in an eco-friendly brown box (RoHS Compliant) with a sticker of the router and details. Opening the box, the RT2600ac router is packed separately in a soft protective cushion type cover. Below the router, it has 4 antennas packed individually in the transparent plastic packets. In separate compartment in the box has the AC power adaptor and the RJ-45 LAN Cable and the Quick Installation Guide.
The RT2600ac is black matt finish rectangle shaped router box with dimensions of 77 mm x 280 mm x 169 mm and it weighs 0.7kg. It has lines of vent for proper circulation of air to keep the router cool and the router can operate from 5°C to 40°C temperature.
The antennas MIMO Omni-directional high-gain dipole (2.4GHz / 5GHz). The angle of the antennas can be changed as per the preference of the user. The consumer can hang the router as it has keyholes on the back to hang the router or can be kept on the flat surface.
As for the operating system, it uses Synology Router Manager (SRM) and to access the SRM from anywhere, you use the Synology QuickConnect & Dynamic DNS (DDNS). It has Qualcomm dual-core 1.7 GHz for CPU and with 512GB RAM. It comes with SDXC/SDHC card slot, USB 3.0, and USB 2.0 for external additional storage and the router comes with 4×4 802.11ac wave 2 dual-band Wi-Fi capability thus allowing it to reach a maximum performance of 2.53Gbps when multiple clients simultaneously transfer data across the wireless network.
On the back side of the router comes with 5 gigabytes Ethernet ports with the power button, reset pinhole and SD card slot for extra storage. On the left side of the router, there is USB 3.0 and eject button and on the right side, there is Wi-Fi and WPS button. On the Top just below the Synology logo, there are the indicators for Status, 2.4G, 5G, WAN1, WAN2, 4 Ethernet ports and on the front side, there is SD slot for external additional storage.
The Review
So before connecting the router, you have to connect the 4×4 MIMO Omni-directional high-gain dipole to the unit which can be hand screwed to each point on the back and on two on the sides, as mentioned you can adjust the angle as per your preference for the maximum coverage. Connect the AC power adapter and connect the Ethernet cable to the router.
For my review, I have connected the RT2600ac to my Du provided router via the LAN connection.
Via LAN cable connected to my laptop, as I connected the RT2600ac router, it started the simple installation process, it detected automatically and on click took me the setup page on the Synology website. I followed the instruction step by step and in short while I was ready to use the router. Just the like the DSM software which I have used the while using the Synology NAS drive installation, the Synology Router has SRM (Synology Router Manager) application is a simple task for any user. The software is very simple to use and can teach you to step by step installation. On completion with all the updates, the application restarts the router with the latest update on board and you are ready to use the product.
What makes Synology RT2600ac product different and powerful compared to other competitor devices is the SRM application and additional features. From parental control to control the bandwidth of usage of internet, everything can be controlled by the software. The most important thing for the gamer or IT tech guys, now you can also control the bandwidth of the particular links, for example, a gamer would require more dedicated bandwidth to have uninterrupted speedy gaming, he can assign higher bandwidth to the particular link and control the other assigned application. If IT guy wants to have FTPs line to be more open or controlled, he can assign the task and controlled the bandwidth speed for particular links on social media or torrent links. This has been possible with Synology exclusive technology L4/L7 Hardware Acceleration Engine.
With SRM application, a network administrator can keep a tab on the Traffic on the network and even get traffic data to report weekly, monthly or yearly and which can be done via device, application or domain.
With SRM installed you can access the packages available to install like the VPN Plus server, Media server, Intrusion Prevention, Cloud Station, DNS Server, etc.
You can connect to Synology RT2600ac via mobile phone with the DS-router application which is available on Android and iOS platform. As per Synology claim, 120 devices can be connected at the same time. Synology has online help and website is provided with video tutorials which are very helpful for non-technical guys while using and setting up the Synology router or NAS devices.
Conclusion
Synology RT2600as is an awesome product and with the simple usage of SRM application for the setup and using the product has been a great experience. Especially, I liked the option to control the bandwidth of the multiple users via device, application and domain. This has been possible with Synology exclusive technology L4/L7 Hardware Acceleration Engine. DS Router application available for the mobile platform.
So to people who are planning to buy a router especially, gamers should see the Synology RT2600ac router and even for family, it would be one stop solution for protection and control on the internet and user.
Cost: AED950
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