Just a Note: USB3 and Interference on WiFi Routers

[ameerat42]

Specifically, the 2.4GHz N band...

Yes, because I got interested in specs of routers recently, I noticed that some had USB3 ports, not just USB2
(Yes, and Oh, Goody! - Visions of streaming quickly over a network, etc...)

But then I saw this - albeit 2013 article.
(And so, Hmm! and other cautions.)

I found a few more articles on the theme using a Google search of "usb 3.0 wifi interference". The solution seems to be
(at least partly) well shielded USB cables. Hmm!

Any hardware-ites have any ideas on this?

Ta.
Am.

[arthurking83]

USB3 on most routers .. I think will be a pretty disheartening affair.

Most will use the cheapest 'sheet' USB3 chip to begin with .. but more importantly will be the file system you choose to use on the USB3 storage device connected to the router.

I'm fairly confident that you wont see the sorts of file transfer rate difference between USB2 and USB3 as you do on your computer systems.

So, eg. lets say you used to get 10-20MB/s on USB2 on your PC and now you get 85MB/s from a similar but USB3 version of the kind of device.
Most routers will probably net you 10MB/s in USB2 and maybe 20MB/s on USB3 .. and as before .. the file system format on the hdd connected to the router can be a major factor in throughput too.

I remember reading a test report on a couple of higher end .. kind'a latest model routers.
One Linksys, one Netgear and a TP-Link models .. AC1200 I think.
One of the points that I look for are USB storage throughputs.
The Linksys router had USB3 ports and the Netgear and TP-Link both only used USB2 ports.
The netgear's USB storage throughput was fastest in NTFS format with about 30MB/s read - 20MB/s write(give or take a MB/s or two) and the Linksys's 'supposedly faster' USB3 had something like 27MB/s read and 10MB/s write speeds! .. using NTFS. It was only just a tad faster in write times using FAT32(but who uses FAT32 nowadays anyhow!)
The strange one was the TP-Link router with struggled with something in the low 10MB/s -15MB/s range for both .. but FAT32 format was about 50% faster than NTFS for all test(read/write).

But there are a few model routers out there that can and do make really good use of some good hardware(ie. the USB3 chips).
My next router will almost likely be a Netgear R7000 or R8000 as I use the USB storage feature quite a lot .. and these newer models are better at it than my current router.
So there's a good possibility that the latest and greatest current gen uber gear may well work as you'd expect them too.

Anyhow .. my point is be weary of USB3 on such devices .. do some research first.

Oh! .... and how's your router travelling?

[ameerat42]

Hmm! Yes! There is rather a TOUT factor to "analyse"* when it comes to things like this.
Router-wise I'm making do with my original one while experimenting with the other and
"researching".

*Ie, discount.