RX4-1500 AX Router

tldr: This is a great router. It is very cheap for what you get. If it lasts a year it will have paid for itself by not renting one from an ISP. Signal is ok, could be stronger. Don't buy unless your wifi can already take advantage of at least 802.11ac, and preferably ax to get the most out of it. Buying our own router instead renting from the ISP saves about $10 to $15 per month, so they have a tendency to pay for themselves if you choose wisely. We had an Archer C7 router for about 6 years that I paid about $100 for and although it worked great overall it was starting to show its age a little too much. When the time came to upgrade I looked for an ax router to future proof our home network for a while and was hoping to find something in the same price band. For an ax router in this price band the pickings were slim. I ultimately chose this one because (a) it was the cheapest option, and (b) it had good reviews. So far I am very happy with the selection. It was very easy to set up out of the box. In a ~2600 sq ft three level townhouse with the router on the middle floor we get signal throughout, although the 5 ghz band is weak upstairs and on the far side from the router. The Archer C7 5 ghz band didn't reach there consistently, though, so at least now there's access. Previously, I had to use the 2.4 ghz band and was getting about 2 Mb/s over usb wifi using 802.11n. A combination of this router, an ax-capable PCI-E wifi card, and being able to get a 5 ghz signal means I now get about 80 Mb/s on the same computer, which caps out what the ISP will give me. The difference is night and day. So far, any issues I have would be nitpicking. I wish the 5 ghz signal were just a little stronger and the router's interface is merely functional which means it could be cooler to interact with. I personally am very happy that it just has one small LED indicator light on the front instead of the nearly dozen flashing icons on the Archer, but I guess some other people might prefer it the other way. I had to get a new wifi receiver for the computer to take advantage of the 802.11ax standard, but that was something I knew going into this. Do not buy this router unless you (a) already have a wifi receiver that can use at least 802.11ac, or (b) plan to buy a new one that can use the 802.11ax standard. If you don't do that then just get an even cheaper one that still uses 802.11n because the extra bandwidth will never be used.

I live in a rural area where AT&T is 3mbps, Spectrum is non-existent, and Excede/Viasat is the only limited 35mbps (throttled) option available. (By the way, I do NOT recommend Viasat). My current internet service provider (ISP) is Excede/Viasat. :c I purchased the Vanin RX4-1500 in hopes to device control traffic better and increase the Viasat modems limited and weak signal to my open floor plan 2300sqft house). My current router (Viasat RG1100) touted specs of 802.11 ac 3x3 MU-MIMO 2.4/5.0 GHz Dual-Band, but it drops every device I try to connect to it AND service is spotty at best; it’s a horrible router. I did a speed test via the Vanin RX4-1500 and got wireless test speed 46.62mbps down and 3.49 mbps up!! With my desktop connected directly to the Viasat RG1100 the test speed results yielded 38.90mbps down and 2.20 mbps up with my current internet service provider (ISP) (Viasat). Excuse the profanity, but WHAT THE HELL???? Enough of the ISP rant. The Vanin RX4-1500: I have to say, this product is simple, but it WORKED. The simple and easy setup got me up and running quickly. I am NOT a techie, but I understand technical instructions fairly well. The setup instructions are a little confusing for the first read, but the below details may help other non-techies like me: 1- Follow the printed “Step 1: Basic Installation” instructions BUT make sure you use a desktop and/or laptop to connect DIRECTLY to the RX4-1500 (This is Important). I had a difficult time finding the landing page via my iPhone. 2- Step 2 is self explanatory 3- Step 3 AND 4: Click on the “NETWORK” tab, then click on each sub-tab for “2.4 WIRELESS” and “5G WIRELESS” and reset the passwords for the 2.4G and 5G. This, essentially, is all there is to it. The Vanin RX4-1500 manages the data traffic much better than my current ISP router alone. I could not explain how this logically works, but it works!

When I first booted up the router, it took a bit longer than expected to initialize. Once it did, it was pretty easy to configure (and it worked better than my $450 Linksys) The admin section of the router often has issues loading, but with a few page refreshes it loads OK. Router applies changes fast and they work as expected. Although, make sure time format is followed. I tested the website block and removing access for some devices. I was able to download latest firmware without any issues. I hope that this brand will exist for quite some time to deliver improvements to the Web UI and firmware.