You'll get top-of-the line quality and very good close-to-midrange performance at modest cost with this updated version of the Netgear RangeMax Next Wireless-N Router Gigabit Edition, WNR854T. At distances up to and including 80 feet, this access point fared the best in terms of throughput of all the routers in its class that I've tested so far, helped along by the Gigabit Ethernet LAN port, which doesn't restrict wireless performance to 100 megabits per second. Beyond that distance, the device was noticeably slower than other draft-n routers we tested, though. Still, the WNR854T continues to be a solid product in Netgear's 802.11n lineup.

This router comes with all of the standard wireless base stations features I've come to expect. The built-in WEP encryption via WPA-PSK and WPA2-PSK provides security, as does the MAC filtering. Basic URL filtering—a useful feature you don't see in many other products in this price range and class—boosts network safety. This is especially appealing to small businesses that can't afford an enterprise filtering solution but don't mind manually entering restricted sites into a list—if you find out that the whole company is wasting too much time on one specific fantasy football site, for example. The base station also supports the blocking of specific services and can schedule different filters to be active at different times, so business and home users have more granular control over Internet access. Unfortunately, you won't find QoS support, or the ability to operate in the 5-GHz band.

The WRN854T really showed its strength during performance testing. It beat out the competition at nearly every distance under 80 feet, peaking at nearly 140 Mbps. The closest competitor, the Buffalo Nfiniti Dual band router, couldn't beat that mark even though it, too, has Gig E ports and was operating in the 5.0-GHz band. The Gigabit Ethernet LAN ports of the WRN854T give it a distinct advantage over routers with Fast Ethernet.

Like most of the newer draft-n base stations, this one has an excellent Web interface for configuration tasks. The port-forwarding section of the interface comes preconfigured for a number of services and also lets you add any ports you desire. Unlike the other products I tested, the three WRN854T antennas are internal, so you can't reposition them to tweak performance. But given the router's impressive performance—and the sleek look internal antennas make possible—this arrangement is fine.

Although it lacks some features such as QoS and 5.0-GHz support, when compared with competitors in the same class, I find the Netgear RangeMax Wireless-N Router Gigabit Edition, WRN8546, to be one of the best all-around 802.11n access point/routers. It brings you top-of-the-line quality without an outrageous price tag. If you're in an area heavily saturated with wireless traffic and can afford to spend a bit more, the dual-band routers from either Apple or Buffalo may be the better choice. But if your business needs high-speed wireless, and members of workgroups tend to stay within 80 feet of the base station, the WRN8546 will serve you well.

Benchmark Test Results
Check out the Netgear RangeMax Next Wireless-N Router, Gigabit Edition, WNR854T (updated)'s test scores.

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