Kasda KA1900 AC 1900M review: Affordable dual-band wireless router with advanced features

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TA-ratings-94With the number of connected devices in a household at any given time, wireless access can be a bit of an uphill battle at times. Our Kasda KA1900 AC 1900M review takes a look at a dual-band wireless router with advanced features and sees how it performs in a typical household.

Specifications

The Kasda KA1900 Wireless Router has the following features and specifications:

  • 1 USB 2.0 and 1 USB 3.0
  • Multi-Antennas support for 5GHz and 2.4 GHz dual-band
  • Firewall: MAC Filtering, URL Filtering
  • Internal Antenna design
  • IPv4/IPv6 Dual Stack
  • NAT, static routing and RIP v1 /v2
  • Management and Configuration via Telnet and web GUI
  • Customized free URL to set up personal FTP server
  • On/off LED lights option
  • Wi-Fi Band: 2.4GHz/5GHz
  • Wi-Fi Performance: 1300Mbps for 5GHz and 600Mbps for 2.4GHz
  • Security
    • VPN support—secure remote access
    • Guest network access—separate & secure
    • Wi-Fi Protected Access® (WEP, WPA, WPA2, WPA/WPA2-PSK)
    • Double firewall protection (SPI and NAT)
    • Denial-of-service (DoS) attack prevention
  • Processor: BCM4709+2xBCM4360
  • Memory: 128MB flash and 256MB RAM
  • Ports: Gigabit Ethernet WAN, 4x Gigabit Ethernet LAN, USB 3.0, USB 2.0
  • Buttons: On/Off switch, reset pinhole, WPS button
  • System Requirements: Microsoft® Windows 7, 8, 8.1, Vista®, XP®, 2000, Mac OS®, UNIX®, or Linux®; Microsoft® Internet Explorer® 5.0, Firefox® 2.0, Safari® 1.4, or Google Chrome™ 11.0 or higher, Microsoft® Internet Explorer® 5.0, Firefox® 2.0, Safari® 1.4, or Google Chrome™ 11.0 or higher
  • Warranty: 1-year warranty
  • Dimensions: 10.24 x 6.30 x 2.36 in (260 x 160 x 60 mm)
  • Weight: 1.32 lbs (600 g)

What’s in the box

  • Kasda KA1900 AC1900 Dual-Band Wireless Router
  • Power adapter
  • Ethernet cable
  • Quick Setup Guide
  • Warranty Card
Kasda-KA1900-AC1900-Dual-Band-Wireless-Router-review-02
What’s in the box…

Design

While many routers are gravitating towards the flat “spaceship” design which takes up a lot of desk or counter space, there are a few models which still feature the slim, small footprint stand up design. The Kasda KA1900 AC1900 Dual-Band Wireless Router is one of the latter.

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Kasda-KA1900-AC1900-Dual-Band-Wireless-Router-review-06
Side view of the Kasda KA1900 AC1900 Dual-Band Wireless Router.

The router itself is black, roughly 10 ¼” wide, just over 6 ¼” in height and just under 2 ½” deep. The Kasda logo is printed in copper on the front with a row of status indicator icons (power, Ethernet ports, internet, 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and USB) and LED lights sitting below it. Sharp angles up the sides and top add a bit of extra design to the router. The shiny surface, while slick looking, is pretty prone to fingerprints.

The base of the router is just under 2 ½” and supports the upper portion of the router which is 1 ½” near the base and 1″ wide near the top. Just above the base is where you’ll find your USB 3.0 port, USB 2.0 port, Gigabit Ethernet WAN port, four Gigabit Ethernet ports, power port, On/Off switch, reset pinhole, and WPS button. The rest of the back of the router consists of a grid of vent holes to dissipate heat from the unit.

Kasda-KA1900-AC1900-Dual-Band-Wireless-Router-review-08
Kasda KA1900 AC1900 wireless router back view.

While the Kasda KA1900 wireless router isn’t much to look at, it’s a nice design and small footprint allowing you to tuck it away and save valuable desk, table, shelf, or counter space.

Ease of Use

If you’ve used a router before, the Kasda KA1900 AC1900 Dual-Band wireless router isn’t much different. Start by connecting your modem to the WAN port on the router, then connecting your internal devices to the Gigabit Ethernet ports (if wired). Next, using a computer directly connected or wirelessly connected to the router via DHCP, or your smartphone, open up your web browser and navigate to the IP address given in the Quick Start Guide, log in using the default credentials and follow the Quick Setup page. Once you’ve set up your external connection (usually DHCP but sometimes Static IP), you can then change the Wi-Fi network names and passwords for both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks.

At the basic level, that’s all you need to do to get up and running, but if you’re more network savvy and/or want to set up additional functionality, you can do so through the web interface.

Software

As mentioned above, the Kasda KA1900 wireless router interface is accessed through a web browser from a computer or other device connected to the same network. The interface itself is pretty plain but is laid out for easy access to all the additional settings.

The top of the page displays your current firmware version, the time, load average, and the IP of the router itself. As for the other options, there are tabs for Setup, Wireless, Services, Security, Access Restrictions, NAT/QoS, Administration, and Status. The Setup tab lets you configure your WAN connection type, IPv6, DDNS, MAC Address Clone, Advanced Routing, VLANss, Networking, and EoIP Tunneling.  Each page has a handy cheat sheet down the side to help you understand what each feature does. The Wireless tab lets you further configure your wireless networks including setting Regulatory Modes, MAC Radius, Wireless Security, MAC Filters, Advanced, and WDS (Wireless Distribution Settings). The Services tab is where you’ll find your PPPoE Server, VPN, USB, NAS, and Hotspot settings while the Security tab lets you enable, disable, and configure the SPI Firewall and VPN Passthrough settings.

Kasda-Web-Interface
Kasda KA1900 web interface.

For parents, the Access Restrictions tab is a great one to peruse as it allows you to set up to ten different policies, as well as times, days, services, websites, and even keywords that you want to prevent access to for specific computers. You can specify which computers or devices by name or MAC address. In addition, there are some default P2P services that can easily be selected including by game title (i.e. Battlefield), service name (i.e. XboxLive), or site family (i.e. Yahoo). The NAT/QoS tab lets you set up Port and Port Range Forwarding, Port Triggering, UPnP, DMZ, and QoS (Quality of Service) priority settings. The Administration tab is where you can change the Router Password, upgrade the firmware, reset the router to factory defaults, backup your configuration, run command lines through a command shell, as well as adjust WOL (Wake-On-LAN) and Keep Alive settings.

The last tab, Status, lets you view your Router, WAN, LAN, Wireless, Bandwidth, and Router information at a glance. While most of these sub-tabs track usage over time, the Bandwidth tab only displays information while it is currently open.

Overall, there are plenty of options and features to adjust, and as mentioned it’s pretty easy to find what setting you are specifically looking for based on the header tabs.

Performance

So just how well does the Kasda KA1900 AC1900 Dual-Band Wireless Router perform? Regardless of simple or advanced setup, the router performed pretty much as expected. Devices connected with no issues wirelessly to the 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks and speeds were exactly what one would expect. In testing port forwarding and Access Restrictions, the router also performed as expected, forwarding the proper traffic to the desired computer and restricting access to websites and services during specific times as set up.

In addition, with multiple computers, consoles, and smartphones connected and in use at the same time, there was no noticeable slowdown in overall speeds across the home network. Range was pretty decent and I was able to get a signal in my basement with the router placed on the second floor. While it wasn’t the strongest of signals, it was still reliable and speeds were still as expected.

One note about firmware. This router uses SmartWRT/DD-WRT firmware. As of the writing of this review, the current firmware is dated March 2016, and there are no firmware updates on the company’s website. According to Kasda, the router ships with the most recent version and if there are updates to the firmware made, then the firmware is published on the website for download and update on the router through the web interface. The reason I felt this was worth mentioning is that given the constant discovery of new security threats these days, a firmware from March 2016 seems a bit old. That’s not to say it’s not secure, but it does leave a bit of room for doubt and concern — especially considering it’s SmartWRT/DD-WRT based.

Price/Value

With an MSRP of under $125USD, the Kasda KA1900 wireless router is reasonably priced and slightly cheaper than a lot of competing AC1900 dual-band wireless routers on the market. With its sleek, small footprint design, ease of setup, advanced networking options, and straightforward software interface, it’s definitely more than fairly priced.

Wrap-up

The Kasda KA1900 AC1900 Dual-Band Wireless Router is a solid multi-device router for use in a typical household setup.

*We were sent a sample of the Kasda KA1900 Wireless Router for the purposes of this review.

Last Updated on July 4, 2017.

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