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The category breaker: Belkin's Pre-N wireless LAN family
Selected by Ira Brodsky, president of Datacomm Research, "Totally Unplugged" columnist
The Belkin Pre-N wireless LAN family offers unprecedented transmission range. The distance covered by a WLAN can be crucial in settings such as small offices and retail stores. Extra reach avoids the hassle and expense associated with installing repeaters or multiple access points attached to a cable backbone. These products are not only compatible with the 802.11b and 802.11g standards; they boost the range achievable with those standards by about 20%.
Range is an often-overlooked limitation of WLANs. Range isn't crucial in most large offices, because the network consists of multiple WLAN access points interconnected via an Ethernet backbone; the access points are spaced as needed. But what about small offices, retail stores and other settings where deploying more access points would negate the ease of installation and low cost that made wireless so attractive?
Good range is essential in many applications. For example, WLAN technology is used in small and remote offices to avoid installing cable. In a retail store or warehouse, WLAN technology enables mobile use of wireless bar code scanners and PDAs. However, the advantage of going wireless is diminished if the signals can't reach all of the desired locations.
Corporate IT managers should recognize that the Belkin Pre-N family was designed for homes and small offices and may not be appropriate for large offices. For example, the wireless routers don't support Power over Ethernet, access point mode or SMTP. However, they do support VPNs and QoS.
The Belkin Pre-N products offer other nice features. When talking to standard 802.11g and 802.11b devices, the Pre-N devices use their multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) circuitry to provide a smart antenna function, modestly increasing the transmission range. Also, in mixed environments - such as networks with 802.11g and/or 802.11b as well as Pre-N client devices - the network does not drop to the lowest common speed.
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Copyright 2008 Network World Inc.
MIMO products boost 802.11g nets
03/21/05
Wireless vendors try defining MIMO
08/16/04
Belkin announces USB 2.0 portable hub
09/11/02
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Belkin N1 router issues By Anonymous on June 20, 2007, 12:02 am Reply | Read entire comment Based on this review, it is apparent that Mr. Brodsky did not use the Belkin N1 router for more than 24 hours. If he had, he would have experienced the need to cycle...
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