QNAP QHora-301W Review: Reliable but (Still) Sorely Lacking

The QHora-301W Dual 10G wifi 6 AX3600 SD-WAN router — the very first Wi-Fi broadcaster from QNAP, a known NAS server maker — is intriguing. As the name suggests, there are things about it you might have never heard of before.

OK, this is the first consumer-grade Wi-Fi 6 broadcaster that comes with two 10Gbps BASE-T (RJ-45) network ports and features software-defined WAN (SD-WAN). It has a lot of potentials.

On the downside, the new router’s Wi-Fi specs are relatively modest, and so are its features and network settings. In fact, its most valuable feature, namely SD-WAN, can only shine when you use multiple units at different sites, something most home users don’t need and only a few businesses do.

That said, at the current cost of around $350, the QHora-301W is pricy for what it has to offer. But if you’re looking for a router with some particular enterprise-class features, it can be a great purchase.

For everyone else, its reliable performance will prove to be valuable. But compared to the current top Wi-Fi 6 home routers on the market, this Wi-Fi box still has nothing to qualify as a must-have.

Dong’s note: I first published this review on December 7, 2020. In early 2021, QNAP upgraded the router via firmware to, among other things, supposedly open up the support for the 160MHz channel width and add a QoS feature. This updated review, published on June 4, 2021, is to reflect these changes.

QNAP QHora-301W: Plenty of what you (probably) do not need, little of what you sure do

I was very excited when QNAP pitched me the QHora-301W. Among other things, it’s like the Wi-Fi 6 router Synology hasn’t cared enough to make.

What does Synology have to do with this, you might ask?

Well, I can’t talk about QNAP without thinking of Synology. The two are direct competitors in NAS servers. (I have to admit that I’ve been leaning Synology on the NAS front, but the two vendors have a lot of similarities.)

And for years, Synology has had excellent Wi-Fi 5 broadcasters of its own, including the mesh-ready RT2600ac and MR2200ac, which are still on my list of best Wi-Fi 5 routers. But so far the NAS maker hasn’t shipped any Wi-Fi 6 machine yet, nor has it those with multi-gig ports.

So, the QHora-301W now dropped with a bang. QNAP’s first router seems to have everything a Synology fan would wish for. Or does it? We’ll find out below.

But up to this part of the review, QNAP deserved a round of applause for taking the initiative. I’ll remember the excitement while taking the QHora-301W out of the box.

QNAP QHora-301W: Detail photos

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A standard router with sub-standard local network settings

Well, the excitement was short-lived. The QHora-301W’s hardware didn’t turn out to be consistently cutting-edge. And its software was also a bit underwhelming.

Out of the box, the QHora-301W is a bit mundane. It’s a standard rectangle networking box with internal antennas, ports on the back, and status LED on the front.

That’s not a huge issue and I like the fact you can set it up the way you do any standard router via the web interface which is available at 192.168.100.1.

Note: The router’s default IP above is the same as that of most Cable modems. So, in many cases, it’s a good idea to manually that to something else — I used 192.168.50.1 for this review — before connecting it to an Internet (WAN) source. Else, you might run into issues.

And there’s more to the router’s WAN connection. But first let’s check out the hardware.

QNAP QHora-301W: Lopsided hardware specifications

Despite the impressive port speeds and high processing power, the new router can be disappointing when you look at its Wi-Fi specs.

For one, at launch, it didn’t support the venerable 160MHz channel width. Originally QNAP says it would in the first quarter of 2021 via new firmware.

On January 27, 2021, the company released firmware version 1.3.6.0001 build 20210126, which supposedly added the 160MHz channel width and QoS support. Alas! That wasn’t the case, I tried that firmware version plus the latest version (1.6.4.0001 build 20210521 released on May 25, 2021), but neither allowed for 160MHz channel width.

Interestingly, the company now claims that when using the 160MHz, the router function as a 2×2 broadcaster. In other words, its 5GHz band caps at 2400Mbps no matter what.

However, the router is still not mesh-ready, the way Synology Wi-Fi 5 counterparts are. On top of that, more things didn’t turn out as I had hoped.

Full Name	QNAP QHora-301W  Dual 10G Wi-FI 6 AX3600  SD-WAN Router
Model	QHora-301W
Wi-Fi Technology	Dual-Band AX3600
2.4GHz Wi-Fi Specs	4×4 Wi-Fi 6: Up to 1182Mbps (20/40MHz)
5GHz Wi-Fi Specs	4×4 Wi-Fi 6: Up to 2475Mbps  (20/40/80MHz) Or 2×2 Wi-Fi 6: Up to 2475Mbps (20/40/80/160MHz)
Backward Compatibility	802.11a/b/g/n/ac
AP Mode	Yes
Gigabit Ports	4x Software-Defined Ports
Multi-Gig Ports	2x 10GBASE-T WAN/LAN
Link Aggregation	No
Dual-WAN	LAN 1 and 1Gbps LAN1
USB	2 x USB-A USB 3.0 for storage  (FPT-only, no SAMBA support)
Special Features	SD-WAN and QVPN
Processing Power	Qualcomm IPQ8072A Hawkeye 2  Quad-core 2.2 GHz 64-bit CPU, 4GB Flash, 1GB RAM
Dimensions	9.84 x 7.07 x 1.89 inc  (250 × 180 × 48 mm)
Weight	4.19 lbs (1.9 kg)
Antennas	8 Internal 5dBi Antennas
Power Consumption	12V DC / 24W
Suggested Price (U.S)	$399.99

The QNAP QHora-301W reminds me of the TP-Link Archer AX3200 in hardware specs. Both are routers with multi-gig ports yet modest Wi-Fi.

By the way, the router has an internal speaker that makes high-pitch beeps to respond to certain user inputs or power status. Trust me when I tell you that I was delighted to find out I could turn these audio alerts off via the web interface.

The SD-WAN effect

The most noticeable feature of the QHora-301W is its SD-WAN. The router itself doesn’t come with a hardware WAN port. Instead, you can use any of its two 10Gbps network port, or the LAN 1 port, as the WAN port.

Out of the box, any of these ports will work as the WAN if you plug it into an Internet source (such as a modem.) But if you connect any of them to a local device, such as a computer, it’ll then work as a LAN.

To be safe and save time, though, you should not connect any local device to the LAN1 port during the setup process, which will help you designate which port to work as WAN. And you can change that at any time. All via the router’s web interface.

But the flexibility of picking a WAN port is just a small part of SD-WAN. This is an industry standard that allows for connecting multiple local networks with ease via the Internet. It’s like a mesh network at the WAN level.

I’d take QNAP’s word for this since the only way to test SD-WAN out is to use multiple QHora-301W units at multiple sites. Most of us only have home and of those lucky few with more, chances are there’s no need to link them together via the Internet.

In other words, you will unlikely see the benefits of the router’s SD-WAN at all.

Some unique enterprise-class settings

What you sure can take advantage of, however, are some enterprise-class settings and features.

These include the support for Virtual LAN (VLAN), a powerful programable Firewall, and a flexible VPN feature. Again, these are great in case you need to link multiple offices together or if you need to manage VPN or remote connections to a specific device.

The QHora-301W also comes with three sets of virtual Wi-Fi networks. You can turn on just one (default), two, or all three at any given time. With each, you can make the band work in the Smart Connect mode, which combines both bands into a single network name (SSID), or separating them, and even schedule each SSID’s availability.

In all, if you want to segment your home network, the QHora-305W has a lot of options.

Responsive but primitive interface, lacking in common features/settings

The QHora-301W’s firmware, called QuRouter, is totally different from QTS, QNAP’s NAS servers’ operating system. (That can be a good thing since QTS is quite messy and bloated, in my opinion.)

(Again, I draw these parallels since Synology’s router firmware called SRM, or Synology Router Manager, is very similar to that of its NAS operating system, which is DSM or DiskStation Manager.)

Unfortunately, in this case, there’s barely anything good. QuRouter has a relatively primitive web interface and is sorely lacking in features and settings. Those that are available all lack depth.

That said, if you have a top-tier router from Asus, TP-Link, or Netgear before, chances are you’ll run into some unpleasant surprises with the QHora.

Here are a couple of most disappointing examples.

Pseudo Dynamic DNS support

With the latest firmware update, the QHora-301W now has a DDNS feature. Unforatenly, it’s not a generic one. Instead, it’s tied to QNAP’s account, making it useless. This is a major shortcoming since DDNS one of the most powerful features of a router that opens up many WAN applications.

Instead, you can hook the QHora-301W to a QNAP account for VPN and remote management. But then, well, the system is now part of QNAP’s server. (By the way, you will need this account if you choose to use its SD-WAN and QVPN features.)

Sure, you can still use the router with a third-party DDNS host, but you’ll need a device within the network to maintain the domain association. The point here is most home routers, even a low-end one, have this feature built-in.

No compatibility-favored Wi-Fi settings

With the latest firmware, the QHora-301W now switches its Wi-Fi approached. You now can set each band to work in 20MHz, 40MHz, or 80MHz, but there are no longer the settings that support all three, which it had at launch.

And mentioned above, there’s still no support for the 160MHz channel width. Chances are there never will. So, it’s safe to say, you won’t see amazing Wi-Fi 6 speeds out of this router.

No SAMBA or NTFS support for USB

Considering QNAP is a NAS maker, I was having high hopes that the QHora-305W will dub as a serious mini NAS server when hosting an external storage device via its two USB ports. Boy, was I disappointed.

Even with the latest firmware, the router doesn’t support popular file systems, including NTFS (Windows), or HFS+ (Mac). Instead, it only does the ancient FAT16/32 or Linux-only ones, such as ext2/3 or 4.

If that’s not bad enough, there’s no SAMBA support, meaning you can not share the storage the traditional way, locally to your Windows or Mac computers. There’s no local media streaming or data sync support, either. Instead, the only way you can access the storage is via FPT, which is inconvenient, to say the least.

(Again, to put things in perspective, Synology routers are excellent when it comes to hosting a storage device.)

Pseudo QoS, shallow Parental Controls

Similar to the case of DDNS above, with the latest firmware, the QHora-301W now has a QoS feature. However, it’s still part of QWAN, meaning you can’t use it unless you use the router as a part of an enterprise network.

It does have a Parent Control feature, but it’s quite lacking, even with the latest firmware. All you can do is block the entire network from certain websites and apply safe search to popular search engines.

QNAP QHora-301W: Reliable and fast but only at short range

I was too thrilled with the QNAP QHora-301W’s performance the first time around. In this second round of testing, I was disappointed. The router showed no improvement at all, especially in the range where it really fell short.

The QHora did well in my testing in performance numbers, mostly thanks to its multi-gig ports. For a router that doesn’t support the 160MHz channel width, it did well in the short rangetests.

Specifically, my test clients registered the real-world speeds of 630Mbps and 900Mbps within the range of some 40 feet (12m) away. When I used two clients and transferred data from one to another, the sustained rates now reduced to between some 350Mbps and 385Mbps .

On the 2.GHz band, the router did quite well with the sustained speed of 150Mbps and 230Mbps at 40 feet (12m) and 10 feet (3m) ranges, respectively. These numbers were about the similar most other wi-Fi 6 standalone routers.

The QHora also did well with Wi-Fi 5 clients. At a close range (<10 feet), my 4×4 device registered almost 880Mbps. Father out, at some 40 feet (12m), a 3×3 device got close to 700Mbps.

What the router didn’t impress me, however, was its range. It had almost the shortest I’ve seen for one of its price range — just about the same as low-end routers, like the TP-Link AX10 or eero 6. It’s hard to quantify a router’s range, but if your home is larger than 1500 ft² (139 m²), it’s probably not a good idea to get this one.

The QNAP QHora-301W passed my weeks-long stress test with flying colors, however. During this time, there was no disconnection at all. So, it’s definitely a reliable Wi-Fi 6 machine for a small home.

Conclusion

Other than the name, the QHora-301W Dual 10G Wi-Fi 6 AX3600 SD-WAN router has nothing to show that it’s a product from a known maker of NAS servers. On this front, QNAP’s first router is far behind Synology’s Wi-Fi 5 counterparts.

In fact, as a Wi-Fi 6 machine, the QHora-301W remains behind most I’ve reviewed, even some six months later with the latest firmware. Sure, it’s a reliable one, and the two 10Gbps are tempting at first. But in daily needs, you’d likely be more upset about what it doesn’t have than happy about what it does.

So, consider the QHora-301W only if you care no more than reliable Wi-Fi for a small home or if you need the enterprise feature it has to offer. Most home users should consider another standalone router instead.