Synology Router RT1900ac High-Speed Wireless Router Review

Introduction Synology has a long experience producing network attached storage and surveillance devices so it was just a matter of time before they expanded into more similar areas. They got the knowhow and the expertise to do so and today I'm taking a closer look at their first router, the Synology Router RT1900ac Wireless Gigabit Ethernet router. Let us first have a look at the basic hardware specifications. The Synology RT1900ac is built around a powerful dual-core CPU with a 1GHz clock speed and it comes with 256MB DDR3 memory. The dual-band 802.11ac wireless router can transfer with up to 1300 Mbps on the 5GHz band and up to 600 Mbps on the 2.4GHz band. It is equipped with three external and replaceable MIMO omni-directional high-gain dipole antennas with 3.5 dBi for the 2.4GHz band and 4.6 dBi for the 5GHz band. With a hardware base like that, you don't need to worry about lags or bottlenecks. The RT1900ac has four Gigabit Ethernet LAN ports and one Gigabit Ethernet WAN port, all located on the rear in-between the three antenna mounts. The RT1900ac features a power button which is a nice thing to see on a router and while it isn't a feature that is used a lot, it is great to have when needed. Both the wired and wireless network connections will benefit from Synology's bandwidth prioritization and network traffic control system that allows you to prioritize the important traffic such as your games. After all, you will always want to have the lowest latency that will give you that extra edge on the virtual battlefield. But that doesn't mean that the Synology RT1900ac only is good for gaming, it is also awesome for streaming. You can enjoy buffer-free playback of your 4K movies when streaming them to your media devices around the house. You don't even need other devices in order to stream your favourite movies, shows, or music to your smart TVs and audio systems as the RT1900ac is DLNA compatible and comes with both a USB 3.0 and an SD card slot. You can also use it to stream from other network storage locations should you not want to use the direct storage features. The access to connected devices isn't just limited to media streaming. You can share any files on a USB storage drive or SD card (SDXC) via the Synology RT1900ac and access the contents from anywhere as well as share files with family, friends, and coworkers. The RT1900 supports all the common protocols such as SMB, AFP, FTP, or WebDAV. Whether you use a Windows PC, a Mac, an Android, or an iOS device, you'll have access to it all. As mentioned, Synology has quite some experience within the network area and they naturally created a great operating system for their new router. The new operating system is called Synology Router Manager (SRM) and it includes both basic and advanced tools such as VPN support, RADIUS server, and more. The operating system is very similar to DSM, Synology's NAS operating system, and comes with the same user-friendly interface and multi-task abilities. You can also go beyond the basic and pre-installed features and download more functions through the Package Center. Transform your router into a personal VPN server, professional RADIUS authentication server, 24/7 download hub or make it into your multimedia hub. The choice is yours. We have seen two out of four sides on the new Synology Router RT1900ac so far and below is the third side where we also find features to highlight - there is something everywhere on this router. On this side we find a button to turn the Wi-Fi completely off and back on again for when it isn't needed. There is a growing concern among some people who fear that exposure to wireless signals of all sort can affect us and those people, and everyone else too, have the ability to easy switch the wireless signals on and off depending on when they are needed. Next to the Wi-Fi on-off switch we find the WPS button for easy connectivity between the router and other devices. A simple touch of the button on both devices and they will pair with each other and establish a connection. No need to search for the correct Wi-Fi network among all the possible ones and no need to enter any complicated passwords. There is one more thing that I haven't shown you yet and that is located right on the front of the router, around the corner from the USB port and SD card slot, and it is the one button that I have been missing on every single device with these ports since they came into existence. A hardware eject button. Simply press the button and the operating system will safely unmount the drive and make it ready for safe ejection. This is so much easier than having to log into an administration interface just to press a button to eject the drive. Now that we've seen what the Synology Router RT1900ac is all about, it is time to mount the antennas and get a closer look at them. The squared antennas look out of the norm and fit well with the router. Synology also added smart Beamforming technology that lets the RT1900ac focus wireless signals toward up to six simultaneous devices and thereby increase the range, reduce the latency, and economize the power consumption. Synology packed the Router RT1900ac with quite a few great features such as application layer quality of service (QoS) that lets you see how much bandwidth is consumed by individual applications and devices and then lets you restrict the amount of bandwidth the device or application is allowed to use. It also comes with parental controls such as time scheduling for individual devices as well as intelligent and manual web filtering. Synology also added support for their QuickConnect service which makes remote control and access as easy as the local. Just register a unique and customizable QuickConnect ID, and you’ll to be able to log in to Synology Router Manager, access connected storage devices, and do much more from anywhere with an Internet connection. Packaging and Accessories Synology packed the RT1900ac in a simple brown box which is all that is needed. It has a sticker on the front showcasing the router itself and its feature highlights. The rear side of the box has another sticker with a few more details and the device's specifications and usage scenario as well as what the package contains. Inside the package is a power adapter with connection options for the region where you purchased the device, in this case there is a UK and a slim-EU plug included. There are also three high-gain antennas and the extra stand in case you should want to have it in an upright position. A Closer Look It is time to take a closer look at the Synology Router RT1900ac and the first thing that we haven't seen close up on the first page are the available LEDs. There is one for each wired and wireless connection as well as a status one. A full set. The eject button also features a multi-coloured LED to show the status of attached devices. The bottom of the router has mounting holes in the middle that can be used for the included stand or to wall mount it. The two feet seen at the top of this image can easily be removed should you wish an even flatter design, they're just attached with the one screw each which can be placed back into the router once the foot has been removed. The middle features a sticker with the relevant information such as default router settings, MAC address, and serial number. We can also spot the reset hole at the top of the photo. We find a PCB that is fully occupying the space inside the chassis once we open the RT1900ac up. This is naturally not something you should do yourself. The first thing that springs into the eye is the large passive heatsink placed over most of the motherboard. A size like this should ensure proper cooling for the CPU, RAM, and other parts soldered underneath. The rear of the PCB doesn't feature much besides a few chips and a switch. You can see a few close-up shots of some of the features below and there really isn't that much to say to it. Buttons, switches, and ports. Operating System & Specifications Login and Dashboard The SRM 1.0 login screen resembles the one we know from Synology's NAS powered by DSM quite a bit. The login screen instantly tells us the device local time and date too. Once logged in, we once again see something very similar to what we know from Synology's NAS line-up. A dashboard with a taskbar at the top containing a start button to left and system, status, and search functions to the right. The Network Center is the heart of the operation and it could also have been called Control Panel. More features can be installed through the Package Center and SRM Help provides instant in-app help. There are a few more items in the start menu and you can simply drag and drop them onto the dashboard for quicker access. Specifications The specifications are taken directly from the manufacturer and might as such be subject to future changes, revisions, and modifications. Initialization and Connectivity Connecting to your new Synology RT1900ac router is a breeze and everything you need to know is written on the label at the bottom of the device: Its default IP address, username, and password; and you can use any browser that you like for this. Initialization The first time you connect to your new Synology router, you'll be presented with the initialization and setup guide. It is only a few step and you are ready to use your fancy new hardware. The first thing that you'll need to provide are the details for your administrator account. You can also choose to send anonymous statistical information to Synology if you wish to do so. Next you will need to give your wireless network a name and define the password for it. You should also pick the correct country in order to make sure that it works flawlessly with the rest of your hardware. Not all regions use the same specifications. The final part is to decide what operating mode you'll want the RT1900ac to use and whether external access to the operating system should be allowed or not. I picked Wireless Router as it is the device's main usage and as such I'll also need to define my internet connection type. Available options for this are automatic IP assignment (DHCP), manual settings, or PPPoE. That was all, your new RT1900ac router will now apply your settings and get the router ready for usage. When it has completed the setup, you can hit the big button on the final page to head on over to the administrator interface and continue with your settings. Dashboard I already showed you the dashboard on the first page, but it's worth showing again. The Synology Router Manager (SRM) looks very much like Synology's DiskStation Manager which is nice. It is a great system that's easy to use for advanced and novice users alike. The taskbar at the top makes multitasking as easy as it is to view the traffic and notifications right away. Network Center The network center could also be called the control panel as this is where you'll find all the basic router features. The initial page is a status page that quickly gives you a view on the routers connections, both wired and wireless, as well as usage information. Wireless (Wi-Fi) Moving on and further into the Network Center and the first thing that we find are the Wireless settings. It has all the settings that you'd expect from name to mode selection and encryption, but there is an interesting function at the bottom of the first tab. You can downgrade your USB 3.0 port to USB 2.0 speeds in other to reduce interference with the 2.4GHz band. WPS allows you to connect devices to your router with ease, either by use of the WPS button of a device PIN number for those devices that come without a button but still support WPS. Synology's RT1900ac also features guest networks, allowing you to give visitors a more controlled access to your network and internet connection. The final tab is a basic MAC filter page. Internet (WAN) We only saw a small part of the internet connection options during the initialization and we find the rest here. The first page is very similar to what we saw and this is where you set all the basic internet properties. The Synology RT1900ac also supports VPN modes for your internet, a thing that's a must these days. VPNs used to be a thing only large companies used, but it has since made its entry into homes all over the world in order to maintain a bit more anonymity and safety. Naturally, the RT1900ac fully supports IPv6 That was only the first of many tabs in the internet settings and the next we get to is for easy connection to the device from anywhere. Synology added QuickConnect support that we also know from their NAS. It is a simplified dynamic DNS service that allows you to connect safely to your router no matter where you are - as long as both devices have connectivity. The RT1900ac also supports classic DDNS services such as NO-IP.org and a lot more. Port forwarding and port triggers are vital roles for your router, at least for the part where UPnP doesn't take care of it for you. For the port triggers you're able to create your own or select pre-made settings from the drop down combo box. DMZ might not be a service that will be used a lot by home users, but it is good to have when needed and naturally it's also supported here. IPv6 should have taken over a long time ago, however, quite a few device still rely on IPv4. The RT1900ac supports IPv6 tunneling over existing IPv4 network infrastructures. Should you not need the built-in USB port for storage, then you can connect a USB modem and make the RT1900ac into a mobile connection for 3G and 4G connections. Local Network (LAN) Your local network is the last part of the basic network setup and you'll find what you'll expect here. You can define the routers IP and LAN settings as well as toggle the DHCP settings and view the UPnP client list. IGMP snooping and NAT are also found at the bottom of the first tab. We got our basic IPv6 settings. We can define static routes for our interfaces. And we can view the active DHCP clients as well as reserve them based on their MAC address. Traffic Control Synology's SRM has one more feature in the connectivity segment that is really cool, and that is the Traffic Control. With it you can define a list of devices on your network that should have either guaranteed or maximum speeds set. You can also define images for each device for easy recognition in the list. Features, Functions, and more Settings We've had a look at how to set up the router itself and the network connectivity on the previous page, but the Synology RT1900ac has a lot more to offer than just plain networking. Parental Control The parental controls can come in handy in more situations than just to protect your children. You can schedule the times specific computers are allowed to connect to the internet which can come in handy in several situations. The parental control section also features allow and block lists where you simply can enter URLs that are either always allowed or blocked. Here I've added eTeknix to the allow list as that's naturally a safe site to visit. You can block by category or customize with URLs of your choice. Security Parental control and Wi-Fi passwords are just part of the security that the RT1900ac offers. There's also the basic login/logout protections along with DoS protection and VPN pass-through options. There is a basic firewall built-in too And there is an automated blocking on the login attempts when a login attempt fails too many times. The automated block feature also has allowed and block lists for always or never blocking of login attempts. Last but not least, you can change the self-signed SSL certificate with another one of your choice. Notifications The Synology RT1900ac also features several notification features to let you know about events. The most common used feature will probably be the one for email notification and it has preset settings for popular services such as Gmail. SMS notification is also possible, but it requires extra services from the SMS service provider of your choice. You can also get notifications pushed onto your mobile devices that you have connected with your Synology hardware. The final page allows you to set when what kind of notification is sent on what service. Administration The last part of the Network Center is the administration section and this is where you can set the basic functions on your router, the first being the operation mode choice between wireless router, wireless access point, or wireless client. You should always make sure that your router has the latest firmware and the RT1900ac features both online and offline installation of this. You can also create a backup and restore your settings as well as reset it to default. The operating system, Synology Router Manager (SRM), has its own small page here too where you can define the routers name and ports for the administration panel. You can enable SSHm SNMP, and NTP when needed. You should make sure that you have the right regional settings define in order to have the best possible connection with your other devices and prevent interference. Not all regions use the same specifications. There is also a pretty good LED control where you can manage when they are lit and how many of them. The final tab is where you can set whether you want to help Synology by sending anonymous usage information. External Storage Synology added a USB 3.0 port as well as an SD card reader to the RT1900ac and you can naturally share attached storage from these ports over the network. The interface provides quick links for all file systems, including mobile QR codes and external IP which makes it quick and easy to connect to any attached drive. There are file services for everything as well as media indexing and network printing function for attached USB printers. Package Center As mentioned earlier, SRM comes with a package center from which you can install more features. Right now there aren't that many to choose from, but it is a start and more will surely follow. Testing & Methodology Testing a router's performance is a pretty straight forward process from my point of view. I will first test the wired network performance with several tests followed by the wireless performance on each available band. When testing the wireless performance I will adjust the distance between the router and the receiving WiFi connection from short over medium to long distance throughout my apartment. Hardware Supermicro C7Z97-OCE Intel Xeon E3-1230Lv3 Corsair Vengeance 16GB 1866MHz Kingston HyperX 240GB SSD Sapphire R7 240 2GB be quiet! Dark Power Pro 11 850W Thermaltake Water 3.0 Performer Lian Li T-60 Asus PCE-AC68 Dual-Band wireless adaptor Software Lan Speed Test PassMark PerformanceTest Suite Storage Drives Angelbird SSD2go Pocked 512GB Kingston SDA3 256GB SDXC We would like to thank our sponsors for supplying us with the equipment needed to perform these tests. For both the wired and wireless tests, I'll be using both static and variable package sizes. The final test will be of the built-in storage ports such as USB 3.0 and eSATA with their file-sharing functions if they exist. These test together should give us a fair image of what the router is capable of. Possible USB 2.0 ports aren't really needed to test as they always perform the same; slow. In this case there's also an SD card slot which also will be tested. While it's easy to test and give you comparable view on the wired connections, we need to keep in mind that environmental factors can't be avoided with the wireless signals. I live in a pretty big apartment complex where many of the residents have multiple WiFi networks. This will have a natural impact on the shown performance, but at the same time give a great view of how the device can handle itself in a heavy traffic area. Wired LAN Performance Fixed Block Size To test the maximum throughput speed that a connection can handle, a fixed block size of 16384 Bytes is sent from the client to the server over a period of five minutes. The higher block size will allow the transfer rate to stay as high as possible – in the same way that large files transfer from one drive to another quicker than lots of small files of the same total size. Variable Packet Size In a real world situation, the blocks of data that pass through a network adaptor are not of the same size each time, so to give a more realistic impression of how an adaptor performs, the adaptor is once again tested for a period of five minutes. This time, however, the block size will vary from 32 Bytes up to 16384 Bytes in increasing steps of 148.7 Bytes each time. TCP Performance UDP Performance WLAN Performance: 2.4GHz Band WLAN 2.4GHz 802.11n The 2.4GHz band is the older of the two wireless bands that are in use today. On this band, we find 802.11b/g/n wireless standards with up to 600Mbps bandwidth on offer when using wireless-n compliant devices. Due to the lower operating frequency, 2.4GHz signals offer a wider level of coverage, but the lower throughput speeds are a disadvantage to this aging band. Fixed Block Size To test the maximum throughput speed that a wireless connection can handle, a fixed block size of 16384 Bytes is sent from the client to the server over a period of five minutes. The higher block size will allow the transfer rate to stay as high as possible – in the same way that large files transfer from one drive to another quicker than lots of small files of the same total size. Variable Packet Size In a real world situation, the blocks of data that pass through a wireless adaptor are not of the same size each time, so to give a more realistic impression of how an adaptor performs, the adaptor is once again tested at each range for a period of five minutes. This time, however, the block size will vary from 32 Bytes up to 16384 Bytes in increasing steps of 148.7 Bytes each time. Short Distance Medium Distance Long Distance WLAN Performance: 5GHz Band WLAN 5GHz 802.11ac 5GHz is a more recent addition to the consumer WiFi specification and on this frequency we find both 802.11n and AC standards on offer. We note that 802.11n is the only standard to run at both 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequencies and this is the most common standard for ISP routers to feature. Unlike the 2.4GHz band, 5GHz radio waves and solid brick walls do not go that well hand in hand, so whilst it does support a much faster throughput speed, its range can be severely crippled in a dense operating environment. Fixed Block Size To test the maximum throughput speed that a wireless connection can handle, a fixed block size of 16384 Bytes is sent from the client to the server over a period of five minutes. The higher block size will allow the transfer rate to stay as high as possible – in the same way that large files transfer from one drive to another quicker than lots of small files of the same total size. Variable Packet Size In a real world situation, the blocks of data that pass through a wireless adaptor are not of the same size each time, so to give a more realistic impression of how an adaptor performs, the adaptor is once again tested at each range for a period of five minutes. This time, however, the block size will vary from 32 Bytes up to 16384 Bytes in increasing steps of 148.7 Bytes each time. Short Distance Medium Distance Long Distance Connected Storage Performance Synology's Router RT1900ac comes with both USB 3.0 and an SD card slot built-in and both of these will naturally also be tested. The management of the USB ports is real easy as we've seen on the previous pages, but how does it perform. I'm using LAN Speed Test for this benchmark. It's a simple tool that allows me to test network connected storage by setting the amount of packets and their size for the test. I get minimum, maximum and average throughput speeds in return. USB 3.0 SD Card Final Thoughts Pricing I couldn't find the Synology RT1900ac listed for US purchase at the time of writing, but that should change very shortly. British readers can find the RT1900ac at Amazon for £155.45 plus shipping and German readers can find a deal starting from €151.01 through Geizhals. Conclusion Synology's first router can without a doubt be called a success right away. It looks great and offers a versatility in position options from flat over vertical to wall mounting. The simple black design will look great anywhere and there is no shortage on great hardware features either. You get four LAN and one WAN Gigabit Ethernet ports as well as a great wireless AC1900 connectivity. Further Synology added a USB 3.0 port and an SD card slot for extra connectivity options with the bonus of a hardware eject button for said same. The three MIMO antennas use beam forming technology to strengthen the already top of the line AC1900 signal, making sure that you got coverage in your entire home. You can also replace the antennas with aftermarket versions if you need even more performance. We saw a good performance in our benchmarks with results that should be right on par. The operating system is probably one of the nicest ever made for routers and I quite like it. Not only does it remind a lot of Synology's NAS operating system, it is easy to use for novice and advanced users alike. Plenty of features and access to the synology package center make it a solid choice that also comes are a very fair price for an AC1900 router. The only thing that was a bit surprising, considering Synology's storage systems. was that they chose to only add one USB port next to the SD card slot as storage options; maybe the next version will have more storage options. Pros AC1900 dual-band Good and powerful antennas USB 3.0 and SD Card slot Multiple mount and setup options Awesome operating system Good price Cons Only one USB port Limited availability at the time of writing "Synology's first entry into the world of routers with the RT1900ac is without a doubt a huge success. Great hardware coupled with great software make it a sure winner that's affordable at the same time." Thank you Synology for providing us with this review sample