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Digisol DG-WR3001NE wireless repeater review

by with No Comment InternetReviewsTechnewz

WiFi is like the core of any house when it comes to connectivity from the outside world. If you have a complex home with too many walls or if the router is not having good coverage, then you won’t get the network in all the rooms. This is a common problem for many homes and people use a device called repeater to extend the WiFi range. One such device from Digisol is the DG-WR3001NE wireless repeater. It’s a universal repeater which means you can plug it anywhere and repeat wireless signals which the device is in range of. Also, it has AP mode which lets you extend the wired network to a wireless medium. Let us check out the Digisol DG-WR3001NE wireless repeater review to find out if it is worth buying. I have used this repeater for 3 weeks and I am sharing my views through this review.

Digisol DG-WR3001NE wireless repeater review:

Design

The design of DG-WR3001NE is very basic with a cuboid like casing. What is noticeable are the two external antennas to provide better range of the extended network. The adapter is fit inside the repeater so that the whole thing gets plugged in any wall socket you want. On the bottom of the repeater, you will find the LAN port and USB charging port. On the left is the reset button and the WPS/power led with WiFi range meter, LAN led, WPS button on the front. The color for the repeater is plain white and has some grills on the left & right for heat dissipation. Overall the build and design are decent for the repeater.

Performance and features

The repeater DG-WR3001NE can work as a wifi Universal repeater which can repeat any wifi signal within its range. Also it has a feature of AP mode where you can plug a LAN wire which is a wired network and make it go wireless. It has a LED light to notify of LAN connection. You can also know the original wifi router signal strength using the LED bars. One can easily connect the repeater to a Wifi router using the WPS button. There is a USB charging port below the repeater to charge your smartphones in case of need. So it will work both as a charger and repeater if it is occupying the socket. But the current rating for the USB port is just 1A which is less as compared to fast chargers out there.

Position of repeater explained

It is said that there should be some distance between the router and the repeater for it to work properly. If they are too close then there might problem while switching between router and repeater wifi. But if it is too far such that the original router wifi has a very weak signal then also it will not work properly. So you need to decide such a spot where the repeater gets some good signal from the original router like two bars are enough and it is not too close to the router to cause interference in switching.

Configuring DG-WR3001NE

  1. Plug the repeater into wall socket by keeping in mind the position explained in the last point.
  2. Connect to the repeater hotspot which will be open by default with the SSID as DIGISOL.
  3. Next go to browser and type 192.168.2.1 and enter admin as username and 1234 as password. These are the default settings.
  4. Now the web panel opens up and it will ask you to setup SSID and password for the repeater. I would suggest you to choose clone the router settings option as it will not create any confusion with two wifi networks in one single home.
  5. Next you will see a table with all the Wifi networks in range to the repeater. You can choose the one which is your router wifi name/ssid and type the password.
  6. As soon as you do this, press finish and the repeater will restart and connect to the router. Once it connects successfully it will start extending the Wifi and you will have a connection.

The speed at which DG-WR3001NE was able to repeat were great. Hardly any loss in speed. But if there are walls or obstruction in between the repeater and our device then the speed drops. So in terms of penetration, it gets you the connection but the speed will drop so bear that in mind. I did connect like 4-6 devices to the repeater and it worked smoothly. Again there is no need of unnecessary restarting of the repeater as it works without any lag or hang. The only issue I faced was, it takes a bit of time to switch from router to repeater sometimes. In best case when you change the zone from router to repeater just toggle the wifi off and on once so that it connects to the repeater one. Same is applicable for the reverse case while moving from repeater zone to router. Apart from that the repeater is pretty easy to configure and works in a decent manner.

Price

The Digisol DG-WR3001NE repeater will cost you around 2,999 INR but it is available on Amazon for 1,949 INR. Now this is where I feel that there are other repeaters like TP-LINK which will cost you bit on the lower side. Digisol should have kept the price a bit competitive so that people could go with their products as performance wise it was good.

DG-BR5411QAC-Ver1B

Digisol DG-BR5411QAC router review

by with No Comment Reviews

Digisol is a company which makes products in the networking segment. They have products for consumers as well as industry/corporate solutions. Recently I got the Digisol DG-BR5411QAC router for review. This router is the latest one in their consumer segment with many features. People normally prefer low-cost routers from TP-Link/D-Link/Mi or any other brand. But this time let’s explore something different and see how this one performs. So today we will be doing Digisol DG-BR5411QAC router review. Do note that I have used this router for 2-3 weeks now and I am sharing my experience about it. I have around 10-15 different devices connected at a time and have a space of 3BHK which requires one repeater/extender too.

Digisol DG-BR5411QAC router review

Design

Well the very first time when I received the router, I must say that the design lacks the modern style. It looks like a very simple router which is very serious about doing its task. Some of the routers from TP-Link have quite good design and even the latest one from Mi. Though the design factor doesn’t matter much, but I feel consumer products should have a bit of style factor so that they look good while placing it at home. The plastic used is quite sturdy and it has 4 antennas which are all facing up perpendicular to the surface. You can bend the antennas a bit to maximize the coverage or else just keep it in the perpendicular position. On the top, it has holes grill design with LED indicators for power, dual-band WiFi, WPS and LAN. The LEDs are yellow-greenish in color. The WAN and LAN ports are at the rear side along with the DC power-in jack. The antennas are given a bit diagonal cut which adds a bit of style to the router. Overall, durability wise the router is good, the design could have been a bit more stylish.

Performance

This is the main thing to look for while you are buying a networking device for your home. A router is like the heart when it comes to connecting your house with the outside world. Digisol DG-BR5411QAC router has 4 antennas of 5dBi each to provide a good coverage across your house. It almost covers my 3BHK flat with almost negligible coverage in the extreme corner room, but that is ok as there are too many walls and even the other routers don’t cover it. I am pretty happy with the coverage of this router. 

After coverage, the second main thing I look for is the stability of holding connection continuously. Many times I see cheap routers require you to restart them from time to time as they drop connection or run out of resources to server the clients. In my case, I got some great stability in the connection. There was rarely any need to restart the router. Secondly, the router handles multiple connections in a great way. So I have one smart TV which is connected to the 5GHz network, with 2 Laptops and others are smartphones connected to 2.4GHz network. In total at a time 10-15 devices are easily connected and the router is able to handle this number easily. Other cheap TP-Link/Mi routers have failed in the past probable due to insufficient resources. But Digisol DG-BR5411QAC router has satisfied in this segment too.

After these points, the next thing to discuss is about the features. Despite the design fact, I like that the router comes loaded with advanced networking features. If you are an advanced user then you will enjoy using this router. To start with, the router supports dual-band Wifi that is 5GHz and 2.4GHz. It has gigabit LAN support that means speeds can go up to 1000 Mbps over LAN considering your PC/Laptop has a gigabit port. As for wireless, it supports 802.11ac which can go up to 867 Mbps as for the conventional 802.11n goes up to 300 Mbps. This speed is quite sufficient for gaming as well as high-quality video streaming. It also has IPv6 support. Apart from all this, the router has many functions to support VPN, dynamic DNS, dedicated firewall section, and a status page to display all the information. This status information tells if the connection is proper, or if there is some issue in the WAN cable. It also identifies the type of cable connected to the router. This all things helps a network expert to debug the network properly without even requiring third-party tools.

One amazing feature that I was able to spot was different modes of this router. This router can act as an AP hotspot and connect to existing router simultaneously. Also you can use this router as an extender. For an office, you can create a mesh network using many such routers which is an amazing feature to find in a budget router. The advanced customizations this router offers are very rare to find in a router with this price point. The router settings interface is simple as it gets and they have a quick setup for people who don’t want to mess around with all the options. Though I did not find any option to create guest network, though there is an option to have multiple AP which did not have an option to set password for that. Below screenshots have all the options available with this router.

Pricing

The router Digisol DG-BR5411QAC is priced at Rs. 3,999 and I was unable to find it online. I guess Digisol is focusing more on offline network and sales, though I had wished they make it online to attract greater number of users and gain some name quickly in the consumer low budget segment.

Verdict

Design wise the router is pretty simple. It has 4 antennas which are capable of covering a small office or large home. Performance wise I have tested the device for 10-15 number, though I am sure you can squeeze in some more. Or you can have multiple routers to create a mesh network. For small offices, the custom options available for networking are great. People should shift to these routers which are priced a bit higher than those cheap ones. But this router can give you maximum speed across your home and a stable connectivity. Overall I would suggest that you can go for this router and consider it as an option for stable connectivity.