Anthony Caruana19 June 2008, 9:00 AM
Minitar's MWNAPR-1 is a basic but unspectacular router that has great wireless range but doesn't do much else to raise its head above the pack.
Minitar is a brand we've not seen in the wireless LAN space for a while, so we've been keen to look at some of its kit again. The MWNAPR-1 ticks most of the boxes you'd expect in an entry level home router with 802.11n on the 2.4GHz frequency and four 10/100 ports. The MWNAPR-1 isn't an ADSL modem.
The MWNAPR-1 is a basic looking device although the blue and green decals were a little too gaudy for our taste. The Quick Installation Guide, provided as a leaflet and in PDF form on the accompanying CD, provided just enough information to get started. However, we were disappointed to find that the wireless networking was enabled with no security and that the router's in-built firewall was disabled. Worse still, the Quick Installation Guide gives no indication of these issues, referring us to the user manual on the CD.
The user manual, while describing all the options in the clearly laid out set-up screens, did little to guide us through simple operations such as configuring wireless or taking advantage of WPS. The quick setup wizard helps set the time on the router and configure the internet connection. After that, you'll have figure out how to set up a wireless connection yourself. We tried using WPS so that we could configure the Wi-Fi securely but the instructions were unclear. It seemed easier to simply create the encryption settings rather than try to get WPS working. If you find yourself in the same position we'd recommend removing the internet connection from the router until it's locked down.
Having negotiated the Setup Wizard we found that all of the options in the configuration utility, accessed through a web browser, were clearly identified. Some options, such as different internet connection options were supported with clear descriptions whereas others were completely bereft of clarifications. This gave us the impression that the router firmware, while reliable from an operational point of view, still needed some further work.
Performance was solid. We connected our test systems, a Toshiba Portege R500 and Apple MacBook Pro by wireless and ethernet. Connections were easy to create with network performance satisfactory. Access to network shares, file reads and writes over both wired and wireless connections were trouble free.
QoS, or Quality of Service, is increasingly becoming a required feature on home routers. The MWNAPR-1 delivers QoS so that traffic from VoIP, network gaming and other network dependent activities can be prioritised.
One area where the MWNAPR-1 excelled was wireless range. While both the router and the client machines influence the outcome of range tests, we've been using the same client machines to test wireless routers for a while now. We were pleasantly surprised as the MWNAPR-1 delivered excellent wireless range. We found that we could maintain an almost full signal at over 25 meters. Even through a brick wall, two plaster walls and 15 meters of distance, we could keep a connection that was adequate for browsing, email and filesharing although our ping test did drop 6% of the 800 packets we sent to the router during our tests.
At the end of testing, we were left questioning whether we would either buy or recommend the MWNAPR-1. The answer is that there's nothing really special about this offering from Minitar. The lack of gigabit and dual-band 802.11n means that this is very much an entry level specification. The wireless range was excellent and, in some circumstances, might be a deal-maker for some but it wasn't enough to make the Minitar MWNAPR-1 stand out in an increasingly packed market for home routers.