Over the holidays I have given my home Infrastructure a serious upgrade, I have replaced my ADSL router and added a new Wireless Access Point to the network.

I replaced my old faithful Draytek 2800 ADSL router with a new Draytek 2830 Triple-WAN ADSL2+ Router with 4-port Gigabit LAN Switch, the upgrade now gives me a couple of features that I have been waiting for:

  • IPv6 support, I can now use the native ‘dual-stack’ IPv6 that is part of my Internode connection
  • Azure Virtual Network VPN (router support all the IPSec setting required)
  • Gigabit LAN connections
  • USB port with support for my Telstra 4G modem, as an emergency backup

The upgrade when very smooth, I am now syncing a bit faster than with the old router, download speed are a bit better, I am on a Telstra RIM that has been TopHat upgraded to ADSL2.

The new access point is a EnGenius EAP600, EAP600 is a concurrent dual-band 2.4+5GHz Wireless-N Indoor Access Point that features high transmit RF power (29 dBm on 2.4GHz and 26 dBm on 5GHz) for long range connectivity. With wireless speeds up to 300Mbps on each radio and a Gigabit port for connecting to a switch, which looks like a smoke detector.

I have now installed this strategically in the family area to cover all of the house and the back deck with strong wireless signal.

I now need to look at upgrading the wireless card in one of my Dell laptops so it can take advantage of the high speed wireless.

The router also has an Ethernet WAN port so when, in the distant future, the NBN comes to Beaconsfield, I am ready.

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