MaximumPC 2007 11

70 MAXIMUMPC NOVEMBER 2007

BENCHMARKS

BELKIN N1 BUFFALO D-LINK LINKSYS NETGEAR

F5D8231-4 WZR2-G300N DIR-655 WRT350N WNR854T

MIXED MODE (802.11b/g/n)

NO ENCRYPTION

TCP THROUGHPUT, ENVIRONMENT 1 (Mb/s) 34.3 37.1 38.3 52.1 57.4

TCP THROUGHPUT, ENVIRONMENT 2 (Mb/s) N/C N/C 14.7 15.2 26.7

TCP THROUGHPUT, ENVIRONMENT 3 (Mb/s) N/C N/C 11.2 6.6 5.5

BENCHMARKS AND SPECIFICATIONS

Thousands of words distilled into a handful of charts—the numbers reveal the winners and losers;

the categories and specs help explain the whys and hows

MIXED MODE (802.11b/g/n)

WPA2 ENCRYPTION

802.11n-ONLY MODE, WITH

WPA2 ENCRYPTION

TCP THROUGHPUT, ENVIRONMENT 1 (Mb/s) N/A 46.5 31.6 46.9 N/A

TCP THROUGHPUT, ENVIRONMENT 2 (Mb/s) N/A N/C 20.7 9.0 N/A

TCP THROUGHPUT, ENVIRONMENT 3 (Mb/s) N/A N/C 13.9 6.0 N/A

TCP THROUGHPUT, ENVIRONMENT 1 (Mb/s) 34.3 34.9 52.8 54.8 66.9

TCP THROUGHPUT, ENVIRONMENT 2 (Mb/s) N/C N/C 36.7 9.1 20.0

TCP THROUGHPUT, ENVIRONMENT 3 (Mb/s) N/C N/C 11.8 13.4 5.1

MIXED MODE (802.11b/g/n)

WEP ENCRYPTION

TCP THROUGHPUT, ENVIRONMENT 1 (Mb/s) 27.5 38.3 19.3 27.6 43.6

TCP THROUGHPUT, ENVIRONMENT 2 (Mb/s) N/C 2.8 15.1 7.6 26.9

TCP THROUGHPUT, ENVIRONMENT 3 (Mb/s) N/C N/C 14.0 5.8 5.6

Best score in each test environment is bolded. See How We Test (page 58) for details. N/C denotes no connection.

OUR TESTING

ENVIRONMENTS

15 ft.

120 ft. plus eight walls

40 ft. plus two walls

BELKIN N1 BUFFALO D-LINK LINKSYS NETGEAR

F5D8231-4 WZR2-G300N DIR-655 WRT350N WNR854T

BELKIN N1 BUFFALO D-LINK LINKSYS NETGEAR

F5D8231-4 WZR2-G300N DIR-655 WRT350N WNR854T

BELKIN N1 BUFFALO D-LINK LINKSYS NETGEAR

F5D8231-4 WZR2-G300N DIR-655 WRT350N WNR854T

ENVIRONMENT #1 ENVIRONMENT #2

ENVIRONMENT #3

BELKIN N1

F5D8231-4

BUFFALO NFINITI

WZR2-G300N D-LINK DIR-655 LINKSYS WRT350N NETGEAR WNR854T

802.11N CHIPSET Atheros Xspan Ralink MIMObility Atheros Xspan Broadcom Intensi-fi Marvell TopDog

ETHERNET SWITCH Fast Ethernet Fast Ethernet Gigabit Gigabit Gigabit

NETWORK SECURITY WEP, WPA/WPA2 Personal WEP, WPA/WPA2 Personal WEP, WPA/WPA2 Personal, WPA/WPA2 Enterprise, RADIUS WEP, WPA/WPA2 Personal, WPA/WPA2 Enterprise, RADIUS WEP, WPA/WPA2 Personal

NAS FUNCTIONALITY No No No Yes No

CONVERTIBLE TO SIMPLE

ACCESS POINT? Yes Yes No No No

CHANNEL-WIDTH

SETTINGS 20MHz, 20/40MHz 20MHz, 20/40MHz 20MHz, Auto, 20/40MHz Auto, 20MHz, 40MHz

User cannot confi gure

manually

WIRELESS MODES 802.11b/g/n 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n, 802.11b/g, 802.11b/g/n 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n, 802.11b/g, 802.11n/g, 802.11b/g/n 802.11b 802.11g 802.11n 802.11b/g 802.11b/g/n

Up to 54Mb/sec Up

to 145Mb/sec Up to

300Mb/sec

STREET PRICE $110 $85 $135 $195 $130

SPECS