4 or 5 gigabit lan ports?

[frogfoot]

does the 8900 ax-2400 have 4 Gigabit lan ports plus one gigabit WAN port that can be configured as a LAN port or is it limited to just 4 LAN ports.

I currently have a 8800axl and and I'm happy with it apart from the woeful WiFi coverage compared to other routers I have owned. I live in an old house with thick stone walls and am looking for good 2.4GHz coverage rather than fast 5Ghz speeds. Is the 8900 ax-2400 essentially just the same router with external aerials or does it have significant updates to the wifi hardware, such support for beamforming. Have any comparisons been done between the 8800 axl and 8900 ax-2400 wi-fi performance, specifically at longer ranges.

Cheers
Tom

[billion_fan]

does the 8900 ax-2400 have 4 Gigabit lan ports plus one gigabit WAN port that can be configured as a LAN port or is it limited to just 4 LAN ports.

I currently have a 8800axl and and I'm happy with it apart from the woeful WiFi coverage compared to other routers I have owned. I live in an old house with thick stone walls and am looking for good 2.4GHz coverage rather than fast 5Ghz speeds. Is the 8900 ax-2400 essentially just the same router with external aerials or does it have significant updates to the wifi hardware, such support for beamforming. Have any comparisons been done between the 8800 axl and 8900 ax-2400 wi-fi performance, specifically at longer ranges.

Cheers
Tom

I can't really comment on your environment as they are all different with different interference, distance, obstructions etc

What I can say is the Bipac 8900AX-2400 has 3 x 3 antenna (2.4ghz) configuration were as the 8800AXL only has 2 x 2 (2.4ghz) antenna configuration.

Beam forming is normally only implemented on the 802.11ac band

It has 5 Ethernet ports, 4 normal LAN ports and a fifth EWAN port, which can be used a fifth Ethernet port (all Gigalan ports) (if you setup a Ethernet WAN connection the fifth port can not be used a LAN port)

[frogfoot]

Thanks for the reply, how about the LAN ports, the specs on the web page specify that the 1600 has 4+1 gigabit ports but makes no mention of using the WAN port as a LAN port on the 2400

[frogfoot]

With regard to beamforming, are you saying that the 2400 supports Beamforming on 5Ghz freq?

[billion_fan]

It has 5 Ethernet ports, 4 normal LAN ports and a fifth EWAN port, which can be used a fifth Ethernet port (all Gigalan ports) (if you setup a Ethernet WAN connection the fifth port can not be used a LAN port, this will be the same for both models 1600/2400)

Yes the 2400 has beam forming enabled by default on the 5ghz band.

On the 1600 you might need to enable it if needed

[Tomken]

While this article doesn't mention Billion products - a bit more on beamforming.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2061907/ ... eeded.html