| Buffalo High Power AirStation Router and Notebook Adapter | |||
|
Product: Buffalo WHR-HP-G54 High Power AirStation Router and WLI-CB-G54HP High Power Notbook Adapter Introduction: Wireless networking is becoming a big commodity for home users and computer enthusiasts a like. It is becoming cheaper and faster all the time and sometimes even quality of the devices are sacrificed. Today we are going to review one of the more expensive wireless routers out there, the AirStation G54 High Power Wireless Cable/DSL Smart Router , along with the Buffalo WLI-CB-G54HP notebook adapter. Hopefully this will turn out to be a fine example of “you get what you pay for” and not an expensive mistake.
Specs/Features: WHR-HP-G54 High Power AirStation Router • Built-in amplifier improves wireless performance and extends range WLI-CB-G54HP AirStation Turbo G High Power Wireless Notebook Adapter • Built-in amplifier improves wireless performance and extends range
Test Bed Toshiba MX35
Dell 600m
The Router:
After reading the instructions (just to be sure I set everything up correctly), I discovered that you set up the AirStation router just like any other router. This being said, setup went fairly fast until I logged into the web interface for the first time. As this is my first time using a Buffalo router, I was a little confused at where everything was at first. However, it only took a few minutes to familiarize myself with the interface and I was able to configure the router the way I wanted it with ease. Upon finding my way around the AirStation’s web interface, I was quite impressed by how customizable the router was. It had all the basic settings that almost any router has such as port forwarding, DMZ, DHCP, etc. However, I was also able to customize the level of firewall and intrusion detection that I wanted. I have never worked with a router that had a firewall as customizable as this. The only thing close that I have seen is the option to enable/disable the SPI firewall. I have to admit, I was skeptical at first about Buffalo ’s claims of increased range. However, this skeptism was soon laid to rest as I tested the range of the router. To my surprise, I was able to connect to the router and surf the web without noticing a decrease in speed 200 feet down the street. Only when I tried transferring large files did I notice network lag at long ranges. I was around 500 feet away from the router before I lost the signal, much farther than the range on my Netgear WGT624. The only bad thing is that the router needs to be used with the Buffalo WLI-CB-G54HP notebook adapter in order to take full advantage of the increased range. This graph shows the range differences between Standard 802.11G, MIMO, and High Powered technologies under ideal conditions.
While most computer enthusiasts don’t have a problem securing a wireless access point, there are many people that don’t (which can be observed by war driving around a few blocks). With AOSS, Buffalo attempts to solve this problem. I found AOSS very easy to use. All I had to do was push a button on the router and then click a button in the client manager. After a few minutes the router and card detected each other and automatically configured themselves to most secure protocol supported by all clients on the network. Probably one of the nicest features of AOSS is that you don’t need a Buffalo card to use it. The client manager software and AOSS is also compatible with the Intel Centrino wireless chipsets, which is defiantly a nice feature. All you need to do to make your Centrino laptop work with AOSS is install the client manager that is included with the AirStation router. While range and ease of use are nice features, one of the most important features of a router is stability. What good is a router if it is continually rebooting or crashing? I was unsure at first about how stable this router would actually be because of several of my friends had problems with their Buffalo routers. However, I was relieved to see that Buffalo ’s stability problems are a thing of the past. The router did not crash or reboot once in the 30 days that I was testing it. The Notebook Adapter:
Installation of the notebook adapter is no harder than installing any other notebook adapter. All you have to do is install the driver, insert the card, and install the client manager if you so choose which is required to use AOSS. One of the nicest features of the card is the ability to connect an external antenna to the card. While most people will probably not be overly concerned whether or not their card has this ability, many of us “geeks” look for this feature when buying a wireless network adapter for their laptops. At first I wasn’t sure how well the high powered notebook adapter would work with other access points. For the most part the card worked fine with the 10 different access points that I tested it with. However, I did notice that the speed at which the Buffalo card would connect to a non-Buffalo access point was generally slower than my built-in wireless card. While the difference was typically only a few megabits per second, it would have been nice at times to have those few extra megabits per second. Another nice feature of the card is that is supports Buffalo ’s Turbo G technology. For those that don’t know anything about Turbo G, it is basically Buffalo ’s version of Linksys’s SpeedBoost, D-Link’s Xtreme G, or Netgear’s Super G technology. It allows the wireless card to connect to a router that also supports Turbo G at speeds of up to 125mbps instead of 54mbps. However, this technology does not always work well. In order for me to take full advantage of the Turbo G technology, I would have to be sitting in the same room as the router with no obstructions between the computer and the router. As soon as I moved out of the room, I noticed that my transfer speeds would decrease even though Windows reported that the card had excellent signal strength and was connected to the router at 125mbps. This problem is not limited to just Buffalo ’s Turbo G; SpeedBoost, Xtreme G, and Super G all experience similar problems. While all speed boosting technology doesn’t always work the way it is supposed to, I noticed that the range at which Turbo G could provide transfer speeds faster than 54mbps was greaterthan other speed boosting technologies that I have worked with. Most times, these speed boosting technologies only have an effective range of about 15 feet and in most cases are only effective when you are in the same room. This is not the case with Turbo G. During my testing, I found that the effective range was about 30 feet and I was able to be in a different room. I can’t say for sure why Turbo G is three times as efficient as competing technologies but it is probably safe to say it is a result of these products having higher powered transmissions than the average consumer router.
Conclusion If you need extended range on the wireless network, then I would defiantly suggest you take a look at the Buffalo WHR-HP-G54 High Powered AirStation Router and WLI-CB-G54HP notebook adapter as option. At first I was skeptical about the claims of increased range but the claims actually had some truth to them. I was able to go up to 200 feet and still browse the web and instant message without problems. The router is both stable, easy to setup, and highly customizable. The notebook adapter is easy to setup as well and has the option to add an external antenna for increasing the range even more. The only real downside of both these products is that the Turbo G is only really effective within a distance of 30 feet and the notebook adapter will connect at slower speeds to non-Buffalo access points. These however are minor compared to the benefits of the router and notebook adapter. The Buffalo WHR-HP-G54 High Powered AirStation Router and WLI-CB-G54HP notebook adapter defiantly deserve a five out of five.
Router -Pros + Extended range
Router - Cons - Extended range and Turbo G only effective when used with a compatible Buffalo card.
Notebook Adapter – Pros + Extended range
Notebook Adapter – Cons - Turbo G only worked well within 30 feet of the router
*Distances and speeds used in the “Standard 11g vs. MIMO vs. High Power” graph were measured by Buffalo under ideal conditions. The end user is not guaranteed to recieve the same results. |
|||
