Netgear offers 802.11a/g speeds, weak interoperability.
If gaming and multimedia applications have home users balking at bandwidth congestion on their 802.11g networks, the fast lane glow of 802.11a beckons.
Netgear’s WGU624 (Double 108Mbps Wireless Firewall Router) is a dual-band 802.11a/g wireless router that’s a major step up from single-frequency gear. By taking advantage of the 802.11a network, you can opt to connect devices over the less-congested frequency. The “double 108” pitch involves using two separate devices and networks to connect to the same access point. But don’t think you’ll get 216M bit/sec of speed – you’ll only get “108” performance on two distinct networks.
The 108M bit/sec speed router uses proprietary technology to improve performance. The data rate appears to be the result of data compression, packet bursting and large frame support, rather than an actual speed increase. By utilizing larger packet sizes, more data is stuffed into each packet; compressing these larger packets provides a higher throughput rate on the network.
| Double 108 Mbps Wireless Firewall Router |
Price: $157 retail or $105 through Amazon.com Installation time: 1 to 5 hours depending on requirements of security and speed Ongoing maintenance: Low Bottom line: Good speed boost if you’re a Netgear home user. |
We were frustrated with several configuration settings, and interoperability with non-Netgear devices was so poor we can’t recommend this for non-Netgear households. In order to utilize security settings, all connecting devices must be Netgear devices, and are controlled through the Netgear Smart Wizard.
802.11a is admirable
Netgear recommends reserving the 802.11a network for high-bandwidth applications such as gaming and multimedia. The “HOV lane” is used when the otherwise crowded 2.4-GHz range limits bandwidth resources. The concept is admirable, but without the ability to pool the bandwidth from both frequencies, you must configure specific devices for each network individually and use them independently. If you have only a few devices on the network, we recommend configuring everything on 802.11a. But if you have a more complex environment, reserve 802.11a for those higher-bandwidth applications.
By isolating the devices that require more bandwidth on a separate network, you allow them maximum throughput. Additional devices on the same frequency also can add noise or signal interruption, which will affect wireless performance in speed and range of the wireless signal.
Wireless telephones operating at 2.4 GHz and microwave ovens affect the 802.11b/g wireless frequency, giving 802.11a an initial edge in providing a clearer signal over 802.11b/g networks.
A limitation of the 108M bit/sec speed on the 802.11b/g network is that it must use Channel 6, the default (and thus most crowded) channel for most 2.4-GHz gear. However, you can choose which channel you use on the 802.11a network, further ensuring less data congestion.
Specific speed support (such as the 108M bit/sec rate) must be configured on client devices and the router. If the router or client doesn’t force the connection you’re attempting, it will fail or connect at a lower speed. For example, 108M bit/sec support must be configured on all network devices to achieve that rate. Although Netgear includes the ability to auto-detect compatibility for the 108M bit/sec speed, in our testing it didn’t work as documented.
In addition, only Netgear adapters worked with any of the security settings enabled. When we added non-Netgear ones, we couldn’t obtain an IP address on what appeared to be an excellent connection to the access point (even with a static IP address).
We were impressed with Netgear’s Extended Range technology, which extended the range of both the 802.11a and b/g connections by roughly 40 feet in our tests.
The technology aims to maintain wireless connections even with a weak signal, which reduces the number of dropped connections when working at the outermost edges of the network.
Our standard bandwidth monitors couldn’t pick up the 108M bit/sec datastream, but with a few advanced system tools and some rudimentary monitoring, we could see a speed improvement with the 108M bit/sec network compared with the 54M bit/sec settings. On average, we saw data rates of 9M to 18M bit/sec, with bursts up to 31M bit/sec on the 802.11b/g/a networks when using the WG111U (USB) or WG511U (PC Card) adapters. When connected at 108M bit/sec, we saw an average transfer rate between 12M and 24M bit/sec, with bursts up to 32M bit/sec. Most of the packet frames utilized the 54M bit/sec packet size, but the actual data rate was lower.
The basic features of the WGU624 are very strong. Site blocking is exceptional, blocking by time of day, specific domains, keywords, IP restrictions and exceptions, plus e-mail notification when rules are broken. The router also lets you map ports to IP addresses to better track network usage. The documentation and Web-based configuration tools were also outstanding.
Hebenstreit can be reached at peter_hebenstreit@nww.com.
