By: Aaron Lai
December 11, 2020
As I have mentioned before, I have been helping out with my church's children program. Due to the current situation, we have been holding our program online over Zoom. However, as the year-end and Christmas season approaches, I was tasked with doing some deliveries for the kids in my group, which meant driving to their houses and delivering some treats as well as the club currency we use. We also had to contact the parents to confirm addresses and delivery times. As such, I went and called up each of the parents to get confirmation. I spread out my deliveries over two days while being able to see most of the kids in my group, albeit socially distant. On the other hand, my colleague Jonathan decided to make this more of an optimization problem, determining the most efficient path per the classic traveling salesman problem to loop to all of the houses. I know both him and I were not too happy about having to call people, but while I bit the bullet, he decided to text them. Interestingly enough, he was still able to contact everyone in his route and deliver everything on time within a matter of hours. This was in spite of the fact that he had to visit more homes and drive almost double the distance that I had to. As I look back, I think his choice of contacting was probably more efficient and quicker with added benefits, such as being able to text his contacts. It is clear then that Jonathan was the victor in covering greater range in a shorter time, making him the faster and more efficient delivery person. I guess this is why he has a PhD or a Pizza Hut Delivery degree, haha. When it comes to routers and networking, similar problems of range and speed can be seen, although this is more about covering your place of dwelling rather than a quadrant of the city. Today, we have the EnGenius ESR580 router, which is a mesh router system built to conquer the difficulties of range in a wide sprawling house. How does the EnGenius ESR580 fare in 2020? Let us read on to find out!
Today's review unit of the EnGenius ESR580 arrived from a PR firm in Newport Beach, California. Traveling with USPS and Canada Post operating in their respective companies, this box was wrapped in brown packing paper and packing tape. Unfortunately, this packing method does not do a whole lot in protecting the inner contents, as corners and edges can easily bruise. However, it does at least protect the surface of the box from light scratches. Otherwise, this box arrived in average condition, as you will see later on.
Unwrapping the shipment, you can see the EnGenius ESR580's retail container. This practically all-white box is clean, at least when it comes to the box design. Unfortunately, there were quite a few surface marks and damage to the corners. As you can see from here, we received the two-pack setup, which has two mesh router nodes. On the top corner, we have the EnGenius logo, while the bottom right corner shows the name of "Smart Mesh Router ESR580-2Pack". The front shows off an image of the routers, while the bottom left corner shows the two smartphone applications to use with the ESR580. Around the box, we have some more information and specifications about this mesh router setup in various languages.
Before we continue on, I have grabbed the specifications from the manufacturer's website for your perusal:
Technical Specifications
Standards
IEEE 802.11b/g/n on 2.4 GHz
IEEE 802.11a/n/ac Wave 2 on 5 GHz
Processor
Qualcomm® 717 MHz Quad-Core CPU
4x ARM Cortex A7
Antenna
2 x 2.4 GHz: 4.4 dBi
4 x 5 GHz: 5.6 dBi
Integrated Omni-Directional Antenna
Physical Interface
2 x 10/100/1000 BASE-T, RJ-45 Gigabit Ethernet Port
1x DC Jack
1 x Reset Button
LED Indicators
1 x Power/LAN/2.4 GHz/5 GHz
Power Source
12VDC /1.5A Power Adapter
Wireless & Radio Specifications
Operating Frequency
Tri-Radio Concurrent 2.4 GHz & 5 GHz & 5 GHz
Operation Modes
Access Point Mode
Router Mode
Frequency Radio
2.4 GHz: 2400 MHz ~ 2472 MHz
5 GHz: 5150 MHz ~ 5250 MHz, 5250 MHz ~ 5350 MHz, 5470 MHz ~ 5725 MHz, 5725 MHz ~ 5850 MHz
Transmit Power
Up to 19 dBm on 2.4 GHz
Up to 21 dBm on 5 GHz
Tx Beamforming (TxBF)
Radio Chains/Spatial Stream
2x2:2
SU-MIMO
Two (2) Spatial Stream SU-MIMO up to 1267 Mbps to a single client
MU-MIMO
Two (2) Spatial Stream MU-MIMO up to 867 Mbps to two (2) 1x1 wireless devices simultaneously
Supported Data Rates (Mbps):
2.4 GHz: Max 400
5 GHz: Max 867
5 GHz: Max 867
802.11b: 1, 2, 5.5, 11
802.11a/g: 6, 9, 12, 18, 36, 48, 54
802.11n: 6.5 to 400 Mbps (MCS0 to MCS15)
802.11ac: 6.5 to 867 Mbps (MCS0 to MCS9, NSS = 1 to 2)
Supported Radio Technologies
802.11b: Direct-Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS)
802.11a/g/n/ac: Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM)
802.11n/ac: 2x2 MIMO with 2 Streams
Channelization
802.11ac Supports Very High Throughput (VHT)—VHT 20/40/80 MHz
802.11n Supports High Throughput (HT)—HT 20/40 MHz
802.11n Supports Very High Throughput (VHT) Under the 2.4 GHz Radio—VHT 40 MHz (256-QAM)
802.11n/ac Packet Aggregation: AMPDU, ASPDU
Supported Modulation
802.11b: BPSK, QPSK, CCK
802.11a/g/n: BPSK, QPSK, 16-QAM, 64-QAM
802.11ac: BPSK, QPSK, 16-QAM, 64-QAM, 256-QAM
Management Features
Internet Speed Test
Parental Control
Wireless Client Connected List
Guest Network
Fast Roaming (802.11k & 802.11r)
QoS
Mesh Speed Test (between two nodes)
Port Forwarding
Band Steering
DMZ
Auto Firmware Update
Backup/Restore Settings
DoS
UID/DDNS
UPnP
Airtime Fairness
Website Filter
Internet Schedule
Mesh Network Connection Quality
Wireless Security
WPA2 Enterprise (AES)
Hide SSID in Beacons
Client Isolation
Device Dimensions & Weights
ESR580 Device
Weight: .43lbs lbs. (195g)
Width: 5” (127mm)
Length: 5” (127mm)
Height: 2.2” (57 mm)
Warranty
1 Year
Inside the retail container, we have a white carton to hold all of the items included with our EnGenius ESR580-2Pack. I am glad to see this more environmentally-conscious packaging compared to foam or other less recyclable materials in its place. It should do a good job in protecting the inner contents from any impact that this package may face while in transit. Out of the box, you will receive the following:
- 2x ESR580 Tri-Band AC2200 Whole-Home Wi-Fi System
- 2x 12V/1.5A Power Adapter
- 2x Wall Mount Screw Kits
- 1x RJ-45 Ethernet Cables
- 1x Quick Installation Guide
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Hardware
3. Configuration and User Interface
4. Performance Tests
5. Conclusion
