30 for a sixhour flight or 2. Why airlines charge so much for inflight wifi and who offers it for FREE Pricing and data plans vary greatly per. Google Google Wifi AC1200 DualBand Whole Home WiFi System 3pack WiFi in every corner of your home easy to setup with Google Wifi iOS or Android app AC. To prove a point, WiFi hotspot provider Purple snuck some nasty community service clauses into their signup agreement, and 22,000 users accidentally agreed to. For half the price, you can pick up a traditional midrange router, like our Editors Choice Linksys EA7. Max Stream AC1. 90. MU MIMO Gigabit Router, which delivers much better overall throughput and offers plenty of ports and management settings. Design and Features. The 3 pack system of routers reviewed here which Luma refers to as modules is designed for the typical home, but you can add more modules up to ten on a single network if you require more coverage. In the box, you also get three power supplies, and one Ethernet cable. The hexagon shaped modules are available in white, gold, orange, or silver, and measure 4. HWD. Theres a round LED ring on the face of the module that flashes blue during the initial setup, green when configuring the Wi Fi network, and red when theres an error. The light goes out when everything is up and running. The modules communicate with one another via a proprietary mesh network and are designed to be placed within 4. Wi Fi coverage. Each module is an 8. GHz and 5. GHz. They are AC1. Mbps on the 2. 4. GHz band and 8. 67. Mbps on the 5. GHz band, as well as support for Multi User Multiple Input, Multiple Output MU MIMO data streaming. As with the Asus Google On. Hub SRT AC1. 90. Luma uses automatic band steering and chooses which band is best, based on location and load. Its a nice feature, but it shows up as a single SSID, which means you cant dedicate a band to specific devices, such as gaming consoles and media servers. You only get one Gigabit LAN port on each module its on the back of the device and is joined by a Gigabit WAN input and a USB 2. The USB port can be used for charging peripherals, but at the time of this writing, it was not yet able to connect to USB hard drives. The Luma network is controlled using a mobile app for Android and i. OS users. As with the Starry Station, the Eero, and the Asus Google On. Hub routers, the Luma does not offer a Web based management console and can only be accessed and controlled using a mobile device. The app opens to the Wi Fi page, which shows the placement of each module in a generic home floor plan. It tells you how many Luma devices are online, as well as your current upload and download speeds. Swiping the screen to the left brings you to a page where you can see each module by name tapping a module displays the status and IP address for that module. The three bar icon on the upper left corner takes you to the Main Menu, where you can access Wi Fi and Account settings, launch an online help page, and shop for Luma devices on Amazon. Wi Fi settings are limited to changing the networks name and password and enabling the Guest Network, and Account settings are limited to changing the name of each module. There are no Qo. S, Firewall, or Port Forwarding settings, nor are there settings for creating access schedules. Parental controls include a Content Filter policy with five rating levels Unrestricted, R rated, PG 1. PG, and G. You can apply a rating across the entire network or add users, and assign a different level to each user as you see fit. When you add a user, you can also add their frequently used client devices to make sure the filters are always in place. You can use the Control page to give users access to your guest network via text or email and to add new Luma modules to the network. Theres also a Pause button that instantly switches off Internet access across the network until you disable it. The Luma offers a built in Security feature that continually scans all connected devices for malware and vulnerabilities to hacking and viruses. It will quarantine infected devices and attempt to purge them of infections, and will send a push alert to your mobile device when something is detected. You can check your status by tapping the Security icon on the bottom of the Home screen. Installation and Performance. To install the Luma routers, you have to download the free Android or i. OS app. When you first open the app, you press the Setup Luma button and select how many modules you are installing. Youll be asked to answer questions, such as what type of home you live in single family, apartmentcondo, or townhouse and how many floors are in your home. I chose single family home with two floors basement and main floor. You then have to tell the app where your routermodem is located by clicking on an area of your home front, back, middle, upstairs, or downstairs and then create a network name and password. The app will prompt you to plug in the first Luma module, connect it to your modem, and restart the modem. You can then name the module using a list of room names Master Bedroom, Kitchen, Office, etc. The light ring will spin blue briefly and turn solid blue when the module is initialized. Press the Start Wi Fi button and wait for the light ring to flash green seven times. It will turn off when its ready. The entire process took less than five minutes for me. You can tap Add Another Luma to install additional Luma modules or you can opt to add more at a later time. When adding more Luma modules, the process is similar to that of setting up the first module, but the app will tell you where to install your next module based on the location of the first device. In my case, it was the upstairs center of my house. It took around one minute to initialize, and 2. Wi Fi setup. The app had me install the third module in the center of my basement, and the installation was as quick as the first two. See How We Test Wireless Routers. Performance in testing was mixed. I ran my usual throughput tests, but since I could not isolate the radio bands, results are based on the Lumas band steering feature. On the close proximity same room test for the main module the one connected to my modem, the Luma delivered an impressive 4. Mbps. Thats right up there with the Linksys EA7. Iphoto 9 5 Download Dmg Iphone. Mbps and much faster than the Eero 1. Mbps and the Asus Google On. Hub 3. 07. Mbps. The Starry Station managed 3. Mbps on this test. On the 3. 0 foot test the Lumas score of 7. Mbps edged past the Eero 7. Mbps and beat the Asus Google On. Hub 3. 9. 8. Mbps handily, but couldnt keep pace with the Starry Station 1. Mbps and the Linksys EA7. Mbps. I ran the same tests on each of the two satellite modules and found that the close proximity throughput was significantly reduced 1. Mbps for the upstairs module, and 1. Mbps for the basement module, while the 3. Mbps and 7. 5Mbps, respectively. Conclusion. The Luma Home Wi. Fi System is a good bet if you seek simplicity when setting up and maintaining a home Wi Fi network. Like Eero, its relatively expensive, especially if you need more than three modules to cover your home, but technically challenged users will appreciate its built in parental controls and no hassle security features. If you want total control over your network, however, the Luma will likely disappoint, in which case youre better off with a traditional device, such as the Linksys EA7. Max Stream AC1. 90. MU MIMO Gigabit Router, our Editors Choice for midrange routers. Its about half the price of the Luma system, offers better throughput performance, and is packed with features, including multiple LAN ports and plentiful management settings.