Is a router OK for file sharing?　Comparing the NAS functions of 4 models of 4-stream MIMO compatible routers

I think it was around spring this year. At a certain NAS product explanation, when I asked reporters from various media who gathered, "What kind of NAS do you personally use?"

Well, the reason was that I wasn't home most of the time.

When I touched on the latest multi-functional NAS, many of the NAS functions of the router are "simple" as the function name suggests, and I personally feel that they are unsatisfactory. If you think about it carefully, even if it is a full-fledged NAS, the main use is file sharing between multiple PCs and media playback on DLNA compatible TVs.

If you work from home like the author, it is indispensable for exchanging files with the outside, but in fact there are few cases where so many functions are required.

If you think about it, it's reasonable to think that even if it's "simple", the NAS function of a router that can share files and media is sufficient.

However, the NAS function of conventional routers was not only lacking in functions, but also many of them were unsatisfactory in terms of performance. When the performance of file sharing is about the same as a USB 2.0 local HDD, it often feels a little unsatisfactory in cases where large files or a large number of files are handled.

However, with the evolution of the wireless LAN standard to IEEE 802.11ac and the increase in the number of MIMO streams, routers themselves are required to have powerful processing capabilities, and this situation has begun to change.

Nowadays, routers equipped with CPUs of 1GHz or more and multiple cores have become commonplace, and the performance of NAS functions has been improved by taking advantage of the extra performance.

In fact, I tried to verify how far the NAS function of the router can be used with 4 IEEE 802.11ac compliant wireless LAN routers that support 4 streams.