Cheap reliable router jam packed with features! (Zoom ADSL X6 5590AF)

Member Name: smoothgroover22

Product:	Zoom ADSL X6 5590AF
Date:	14/08/09 (38 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Reliable, feature-rich, slimline and lightweight

Disadvantages: Documentation and admin user interface leave a lot to be desired

I bought the Zoom ADSL X6 5590AF broadband wireless modem/router from eBuyer to replace an old and temperamental Thomson box that was supplied to me for free when I signed up to my ISP over a year ago.

***** Looks *****

It's a lightweight, sleek unit which offers 4x LAN connections and multiple wireless connections. Sadly it isn't wall mountable like my old Thomson unit but it's not too much of a problem as it's sitting on my desk anyway.

The front of the unit has five LEDs for wired LAN connections, wireless connections, ADSL link status, modem status, and power. It also has eight rear panel LEDs which report port speed, activity, and link status for each ethernet port.

It has a fairly small swivel antenna for wireless connections (and also has another internal antenna to boost signals).

My unit is on pretty much 24/7 and doesn't really generate much heat.

***** Features *****

The Zoom X6 has an abundance of features and configuration options which you could spend hours tweaking! The main features are:

- Four 10/100 Mbps auto-sensing RJ-45 ports
- Compliant with IEEE 802.11g and 802.11b wireless standards
- Up to 54 Mbps wireless data rate (125Mbps with "Zoom 125 Speed Booster" - although you need compatible network hardware in your system to work with this)
- Static routing
- DNS server
- DHCP server and client and relay
- Quality of Service (QoS)
- NAT (Network Address Translation)
- Virtual server/DMZ support
- Advanced firewall port filtering
- Attack and Denial of Service (DoS) protection
- Port scan detection and prevention
- MAC filtering for both wired and wireless connections
- Universal Plug and Play (UPnP)

***** Ease Of Use/Configuration *****

Like most routers, you can configure the Zoom X6's settings via your web browser by going to http://10.0.0.2 and typing in the default username and password supplied with the unit.

That's the easy bit!

The hard bit follows - basically configuring it! Because of the vast array of options and settings to go through, and the sparse level of useful documentation available, it can be quite tedious to actually get it up and running. It took me nearly an hour to set it up to work correctly with my ISP, and I am by no means an IT novice.

The amount of configuration options I don't think is the negative point really, in my opinion I think the router admin layout needs an overhaul to make it more user friendly and some better paper documentation wouldn't go amiss.

Once you have got used to navigating your way around the admin section things do begin to make sense (sort of), and you can tweak the settings to your heart's content. For those of you that download from P2P (file sharing) systems you can set up port forwarding fairly easily, and if you want to restrict speeds to certain computers you can adjust the Quality of Service settings.

***** Reliability *****

Having used routers from other brands such as Thomson, Netgear, and Linksys, I think that the Zoom X6 has been the most reliable out of the routers/brands I've used in the past. Uptime has been very good, the only problems I've had only relate to configuration annoyances in Windows Vista/XP, so I think this is a good reflection on this unit (and my ISP as well I guess!).

You can download detailed product specs and documentation from Zoom's website: http://www.zoom.com/techsupport/adsl/adsl_5590A-BF .shtml

Summary: A great little router, aimed I suspect at IT gurus rather than IT novices

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