DrayTek Vigor2862Lac review | TechSwitch

KEY SPECIFICATIONSWAN ports:  1x DSL, 1x Gbe WANLAN ports: 4 x RJ-45 1GbEWi-Fi: 802.11ac twin band (1,733Mbps)4G/LTE: Cat 4, 2 x antennasUSB 2.0 ports: 1 x FrontMaximum VPN tunnels: 32Most VLANs: 16Energy: 12v, 2.3ADimensions: 241 x 165 x 44mmWeight: 830 gramsWarranty: 2-years again to baseDraytek’s Vigor2862 collection is a business-focused vary of routers that basically focuses on community administration and management, alongside strong redundancy. There’s a spread of various fashions that add or omit sure options to greatest fit your specific atmosphere and set up. For this assessment we examined the Vigor2862Lac, which is the highest spec mannequin with in-built 4G/LTE connectivity. The Vigor2862 collection is mostly geared toward small- to medium-sized companies – particularly those that need to have the ability to simply increase their community capabilities sooner or later. The 4G/LTE outfitted Vigor2862 additionally targets companies who want a backup mobile web connection, or to arrange a community and web entry in an space with out a exhausting wired broadband connection. Additionally, the vary presents many options that might additionally go well with high-end house customers with massive networks, or customers who wish to keep away from having any web downtime. DrayTek Vigor2862Lac worth & availabilityAs the highest-end model of the Vigor2862 collection, the 2862Lac can be the most costly. It’s accessible within the UK for round £460 and in Australia at roughly AU$835. At the time of writing, it hadn’t been launched within the US.With 4 detachable Wi-Fi antennas, and two 4G antennas, the Vigor2862Lac has versatile wi-fi connectivity.Design & specsAs we talked about above, the Vigor2862Lac is the top-specced mannequin within the collection, that means it has probably the most options – nevertheless that does not imply it has all of them, and different fashions within the vary do embody sure options that are not discovered right here. It’s subsequently a good suggestion to check out the whole collection and see which mannequin most closely fits your particular necessities. The Vigor2862Lac is constructed round 4 Gigabit LAN ports, in addition to 4×4 MU-MIMO 802.11ac spec Wi-Fi, with 4 detachable antennas on the rear. Wireless bandwidth is as much as 1,733 Mbps, and may function as a bridge or a Wi-Fi repeater. This means you may can use the Wi-Fi like a WAN port, and join into an present community and share the connection. The 2862Lac may also deal with an ADSL or VDSL reference to an inbuilt modem and DSL port on the entrance. For these with a seperate modem or NBN connection, the 2862Lac has a single WAN port – which will also be switched to a fifth LAN port if wanted. You additionally get a single USB 2.0 port on the entrance that may deal with a mobile modem or add storage to your community. The actual drawcard of the 2862Lac over its siblings is its in-built 4G/LTE connectivity. The router has a SIM card slot around the again, and comes with two detachable mobile antennas. Each antennas has a 1m lead and a magnetic base, which helps make it simple to place them for greatest reception. You may also add your personal greater acquire antennas for even higher reception if wanted. The 2862Lac’s mobile modem supplies a Category 4 4G/LTE connection, which suggests it will possibly assist a most of 150 Mbps downstream and 50 Mbps upstream. Those most speeds will rely on an enormous variety of exterior components, nevertheless, similar to reception, variety of different customers on the tower, and even the climate. The 2862Lac can deal with all the present Australian 4G frequencies, so will fortunately work with any native service supplier. (The solely slight exception to that is band 42 (3500MHz) which is at present present process testing for fastened wi-fi connection, and as a consequence of be accessible in 2019.) The router will also be used to ship and obtain SMS alerts, and even report its standing by way of SMS.The net interface isn’t flashy, however presents a wealth of in-depth performance, in addition to a web based demo to attempt before you purchase.Setup & net interfaceA function wealthy, enterprise centered router is by necessity going to have a reasonably dense interface which may simply delay inexperienced customers. But the DrayTek engineers have been engaged on making their routers extra newbie pleasant than earlier fashions. While the interface isn’t fairly as slick as your typical house router, it does presents a wealth of far deeper performance.Handily, DrayTek has on-line demos for his or her routers, which makes it very easy to attempt before you purchase, or simply experiment with the totally different choices consequence free prior to creating adjustments in your real-world gadget. The Vigor2862 collection demo could be discovered at http://eu.draytek.com:12862.Out of the field, the router wants the antennas related, energy plugged in, and to be related to a neighborhood community or WAN. Inserting a SIM card requires eradicating two screws and a canopy, and it’s price noting that it wants an old-fashioned full dimension card, not the micro or nano sizes usually utilized in at this time’s telephones. That shouldn’t pose an excessive amount of of a difficulty although, as most suppliers will ship a SIM in pop-out sections that embody the total dimension. It is a little bit of a ache if you’re wanting to make use of a SIM card faraway from a cellphone, however a SIM adaptor is only some on-line on eBay or any nearly any phone-accessories retailer.  Configuration is carried out by way of the everyday web-browser interface, which at first look must be fairly acquainted to anybody that is arrange a router earlier than. At second look and after a little bit of exploring, it’s a bit extra intimidating. At third look, you will realise that a lot of the difficult performance has wizards that may stroll you thru the setup. It’s nonetheless not easy, however DrayTek has a lot of how-to articles that may assist bridge any information hole, all accessible on their web site assist pages. You can search the pages for a selected situation as nicely, and so they cowl every little thing from the fundamentals by means of to advanced options. DrayTek additionally has e mail assist accessible when you grow to be really caught someplace.Dual 4G antennas with magnetic bases and 1m cables make it simple to get the perfect reception doable on your location.Internet redundancy featuresA key function of the Vigor2862Lac is its 4G/LTE connectivity and exterior mobile antennas. So what kind of cellular-broadband situation is the 2862Lac suited to? For a begin, higher-end house customers or small companies may wish to have mobile connectivity as a backup in case their important web service goes down. After including an inexpensive month-to-month or pay as you go SIM card, the router could be configured to mechanically failover and use the mobile connection in case your important web line goes down. There are additionally in-depth controls to restrict information use, and even mix each connections collectively for further pace. You may even configure the setup to solely use the mobile connection for further bandwidth as soon as the primary connection is maxed out. As far as routers go, the 2862Lac is nicely outfitted to be used within the subject. For instance, it may very well be used to offer internet-equipped Wi-Fi for non permanent or transportable places of work, on tour buses, or for out of doors occasions. It additionally permits point-of-sale companies the place an web connection is required. For companies dealing with web connection delays  organising a brand new location, the 2862Lac can be utilized to offer 4G connectivity as a cease hole measure. The router additionally has the choice to create an web hotspot and portal that permits friends to log into the community utilizing a social media account and a PIN issued by way of SMS. For private use, the Vigor2862Lac is well-suited to those that want an web connection however don’t have any hardline connectivity. It’s additionally a stable, if considerably overkill, possibility for many who wish to add web to a cellular house or boat, and even for off-road driving.The 2862Lac is a reasonably high-end possibility, and received’t go well with all functions. But in comparison with fundamental hotspots, the router is supplied with numerous business-orientated options as beforehand mentioned. It additionally comes with twin antennas to assist enhance reception high quality, and may simply be upgraded to even higher-gain antennas.The 2862Lac runs from 110V/240V by way of a plugpack, however the router itself solely makes use of 12V. This means it’s very simple to run immediately from a automobile accent energy port, or from a battery. The 4G antennas use customary FME connectors, making it simple so as to add third social gathering excessive acquire antennas to be used in areas of very low sign.Advanced administration & VPN optionsWith solely 4 LAN ports (or 5 when you reassign the WAN port), the 2862Lac will not be going to deal with a really massive community by itself. Instead, for bigger networks it’s designed to be the central controller and modem. If paired up with different DrayTek units, the 2862 vary can present distant monitoring and administration from one easy-to-use console interface. For an increasing enterprise, the router can handle as much as 20 Vigor wi-fi entry factors, 10 Vigor community switches, and as much as eight different Vigor routers. The 2862Lac additionally helps as much as eight IP subnets, which could be assigned to as much as 16 digital LANs. The wi-fi LAN will also be used to create eight SSIDs (4 for the two.4GHz band, and 4 for the 5GHz band) that may be assigned to totally different digital LANs.For distant entry similar to workers working from house, the router can deal with 32 VPN tunnels – 16 of which could be SSL-VPN tunnels. There’s additionally a complete firewall, which may filter content material and IPs, assist forestall DoS assaults and extra. In different phrases, the Vigor2862 is nicely outfitted to handle a spread of enterprise setups – from ones the place every little thing’s arrange in a single location, to networking environments unfold between a number of websites. It’s additionally perfect for a enterprise who needs a small community now, however the choice to increase sooner or later with out having to study to make use of new gear. The Vigor2862Lac’s WAN port could be reassigned to function as a typical Gigabit LAN socket when you do not want WAN performance.Performance & testingWe examined the wi-fi community utilizing a Netgear A6200 USB Wi-Fi dongle, rated for 867Mbps on the 5GHz band. Keep in thoughts that the final word wi-fi speeds you are capable of obtain will rely on the shopper units and antennas used.In Wi-Fi benchmarks, we managed a typical however not excellent throughput of 586Mbps at a distance of 1 metre. At 10 metres, that pace dropped off to 312Mbps. That’s not a very stunning or regarding end result, however the the 2862Lac is de facto designed to hyperlink into a spread of wi-fi entry factors, relatively than get the utmost vary simply by itself.For testing 4G/LTE connectivity, we used the Australian Optus Network. We ran benchmark assessments in areas with each a robust sign in addition to ones with no sign in any respect for an unusual cellphone. Testing was completed with the included antennas, in addition to with a pair of multiband high-gain RFI CD7195 antennas.The 2862Lac had no downside opening and sustaining steady VPN connections throughout our 4G assessments, or utilizing its failover and cargo balancing options to take care of and handle (respectively) an web connection.In an space of robust 4G sign, the 2862Lac was capable of obtain speeds of 74Mbps down and 23Mbps up. Not reaching the total 150/50 Mbps doable is probably going not a failing of the router (as we talked about above) as the utmost pace is extremely depending on components similar to what number of different individuals are utilizing the identical cell tower.In an space of extraordinarily low sign, the 2862 managed 4Mbps down and 1.6Mbps up. To put that end result into perspective, in the identical space a 4G cell phone had zero sign, and a transportable 4G router with inner antennas may solely preserve an intermittent connection.Testing with the excessive acquire RFI CD7195 antennas in the identical low-signal space gave us a obtain pace of sevenMbps and an add of two.2Mbps. While a good enchancment, the bigger antennas would provide higher ends in a extra open atmosphere, relatively than within the sign shadow behind a mountain we used for testing.These outcomes present that the router is ready to obtain wonderful 4G speeds in areas with a robust mobile sign, and may nonetheless carry out nicely in an space the place a cell phone received’t work in any respect. The testing additionally confirmed that the flexibility to make use of third-party, high-gain antennas could be very helpful, and can provide a noticeable enchancment in areas with poor sign. Final verdictWhile the Vigor2862Lac has loads of assist accessible, it is geared in direction of those that have already got some networking information. It has a great deal of enterprise centered options that enable loads of flexibility and enlargement sooner or later. That mentioned, it’s nonetheless fairly a complicated router, and the very in=depth featureset wants fairly a posh atmosphere to be totally utilised. If contemplating the router, ensure to very fastidiously assess the options you want, and take a look at among the different Vigor2862 collection to see if a barely feature-reduced model may very well be higher suited. All in all, the Vigor2862Lac is a dear however extraordinarily well-equipped possibility for small or medium companies that want in-depth community administration and 4G/LTE connectivity for web, or as a versatile backup possibility.