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The Buffalo AirStation HighPower WCR-HP-G300 is a budget router that is retailing only for S$59. Since it is targeted at lower end consumers, the specifications are just entry level.

The router is only able to support LAN/WAN speeds of 10/100Mbps and 2.4GHz band for Wireless-N speed up to 300Mbps. On a side note, the router is extremely light.

Specifications

• Wireless LAN Interface
  • Standard Compliance: IEEE802.11n/g/b
  • Transmission Method: Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS), OFDM, MIMO
  • Transmission Rate: EEE802.11n (Max. 300 Mbps), IEEE802.11g (Max. 54 Mbps), IEEE802.11b (Max. 11 Mbps)
  • Security: WPA2-PSK(AES), WPA-PSK(AES), 128/64bit WEP
  • Antenna: 2 x 8 dBi detachable antennas
• Wired LAN Internet
  • Standard Compliance: IEEE802.3/3u
  • Speed and Flow Control: 100/10 Mbps (Auto-Sensing)
  • Number of WAN Ports: 4
  • Connector Type: RJ-45 (Auto MDIX)
• WAN Interface
  • Transmission Rate: 100/10 Mbps (Auto-Sensing)
  • Number of WAN Ports: 1
  • Connector Type: RJ-45 (Auto MDIX)
  • WAN Security: Dynamic Packet Filtering, Intrusion Detector, NAT/SPI Firewall
• Others
  • Dimensions (WxHxD): 120 x 105 x 22 mm (Exclude antennas)
  • Net Weight: 208g
  • Warranty: 3-Year

Admin User Interface
The admin user interface loads extremely fast because there are no fanciful graphics, but the information architecture of the user interface as a while is quite confusing. It took me a while to get used to.

There are quite a lot of technically terms in the UI that I do not fully understand. It is weird that they are targeting lower end consumers because I am guessing these group of customers will not have sufficient knowledge to understand those terms. Honestly, I have no idea what the below screenshot does when I first saw it, I need to Google and read through articles.

Speed Test
Since this router only supports up to 10/100Mbps for LAN/WAN, transferring large file could take some time.

I am pretty satisfied with the LAN to LAN speed test because it almost max out at 100Mbps. For WiFi speed, I think it is acceptable because for 1/5 of the price of the Cisco Linksys EA4500 Router it can perform 50% of what the EA4500 can do.

Just a side note, my MacBook Air connects to the router at 144Mbps speed.

Signal Test

Don’t let the tall antenna of this router fool you, in fact the signal strength is pretty weak especially if you have multiple walls in between the router and the location (like my house’s toilet).

• MacBook Air – My Room: 80% (DIR-855) vs 78% (EA4500) vs 59% (WCR-HP-G300)
• MacBook Air – Toilet: 56% (DIR-855) vs 72% (EA4500) vs 33% (WCR-HP-G300)

Summary
Pros:

• Inexpensive
• Decent LAN and wireless speed

Cons:

• Weak wireless signal
• UI is too technical
• No Gigabit Ethernet support

You can also check out VR-Zone review on this router.