reviews TESTED. REVIEWED. VERDICTIZED
8 MA XIMUMPC APRIL 2006
H
istory is repeating itself as the com-
puter industry approaches ratifi cation
of another wireless networking proto-
col: Manufacturers are eagerly jumping ahead
of the game and offering new products that
might—or might not—be compatible with the
slowly evolving 802.11n standard.
Although the IEEE and the Wi-Fi Alliance
are unlikely to fi nish establishing 802.11n
before early 2007, you can buy next-genera-
tion products today. But here’s the open (and
for now unanswerable) question: Will these
products be compatible with actual 802.11n
gear when it does become available?
Airgo Networks, a pioneer in the devel-
opment of MIMO wireless networking
chipsets was fi rst out of the gate with its
True MIMO Gen3 chipset, which promises
theoretical bandwidth of 240Mb/s and
actual throughput just beyond that of wired
10/100 Fast Ethernet. After taking a look
at two routers and two network adapter
cards based on that technology—Netgear’s
RangeMax 240 and Linksys’ Wireless G with
SRX400—we can report that both products
live up to their claim of delivering wired
speed without wires. At least sometimes.
In addition to
using the same
Airgo chipset, both
of these router/wire-
less access points are equipped with a
four-port 10/100 Ethernet switch. As of
press time, however, neither company
had shipped a USB adapter or PCI card
that would enable desktop PCs to take
full advantage of such a souped-up
wireless network.
If you decide that these speed benefi ts
are still attractive enough to roll the dice
on these products, you should be aware
that they might fall back to today’s 54Mb/s
802.11g standard once they’re in the com-
pany of next year’s genuine 802.11n gear.
—MICHAEL BROWN
LINKSYS WRT54GX4
AND WPC54GX4
The industrial-looking Linksys WRT54GX4
looks right at home in an IT department;
less so in a home environment. But its 5-
inch long antennae deliver excellent range
when paired with the WPC54GX4 wireless
network adapter: We achieved unen-
crypted TCP throughput of 57.4Mb/s at a
range of 75 feet from the access point, on
an outdoor patio surrounded by trees, with
two gypsum interior walls and one ply-
wood-siding exterior wall in between (see
“Environment 1” in the benchmark chart).
Testing inside the house approximately
25 feet from the access point, with four
gypsum interior walls separating the laptop
from the access point, we achieved aver-
age TCP throughput of 101.2Mb/s (see
“Environment 2” in the benchmark chart).
The SRX400 combo supports WPA
and WPA2 encryption, and we saw neg-
ligible throughput deterioration using
those standards. But we then configured
it to use the older 128-bit WEP encryp-
tion, because that’s the only standard
recognized by both of the A/V streaming
boxes we had. Imagine our surprise when
we saw TCP throughput drop by more
than 20 percent! Airgo tells us its perfor-
mance-enhancement algorithms for WEP
were disabled because the industry no
longer considers it a secure encryption
technique. Still, it’s the only technique
supported by many streaming boxes and
older laptops.
NETGEAR WPNT834
AND WPNT511
Netgear’s WPNT834 is prettier than Linksys’
entry, but this ain’t no beauty contest.
Equipped with comparatively stubby antennae
(3.5 inches, compared with the Linksys’ 5-
inch aerials), this router/wireless access point
equaled its competitor’s impressive range, but
fell just shy of its throughput.
In our patio test (“Environment 1”), the
RangeMax 240 duo managed to deliver unen-
crypted TCP throughput of 54.6Mb/s. When
we moved the tests indoors (“Environment 2”),
the Netgear products couldn’t quite manage
to break the wired 10/100 Fast Ethernet bar-
rier, posting TCP throughput of 99.7Mb/s. Still,
that’s a mighty impressive number for a wire-
less network. Unfortunately, the RangeMax
products exhibited the same drop in through-
put using WEP encryption—a compromise
rendered necessary by our A/V-streaming box.
Besides being a hair slower than Linksys’
twosome, Netgear has priced its products $50
and $30 higher, respectively. Huh?
Look, Ma! 100Mb/s
and No Wires!
New wireless products powered by third-generation MIMO
Linksys uses Airgo’s new True MIMO Gen3 chipset to deliver a potent
wireless-networking combo that’s as fast as wired Ethernet.
Netgear uses the same Airgo chipset
as Linksys, but in a prettier package.
Although it’s slightly slower, Netgear’s
combo is priced slightly higher.
$100, http://www.LinKsYs.com
LINKSYS WRT54GX AND WPC54GX4
GRASS-FED BEEF
Awesome speed; incred-
ible range.
FACTORY-FARMED BEEF^8
Butt-ugly formfactor; uncer-
tain future compatibility.
$10, http://www.netgeAr.com
NETGEAR WPNT834 AND WPNT511
FREE-RANGE CHICKEN
Very fast; impressive
range.
BATTERY HENS^7
Higher price tag for slightly
less performance.
Best scores are bolded. TCP throughput measured using Ixia’s QCheck network benchmark utility running on PC connected to router and
Qcheck endpoint running on a laptop with the vendor’s wireless net-work adapter installed.
BENCHMARKS
TCP THROUGHPUT IN
ENVIRONMENT 1 (MB/S) 57.4 54.6
TCP THROUGHPUT IN
ENVIRONMENT 2 (MB/S) 101.2 99.7
LINKSYS NETGEAR