Page
2
Buffalo
WHR3-G54 AirStation 125 Review,
The Great 802.11G+ Hardware Shoot-out,
cont'd
Click most images to enlarge -
The WLI-CB-G54S PC Card has an MC Card
antenna port
Feature Creature –
One of the strongest features of the Buffalo AirStation series is their
patented A.O.S.S. technology, which allows the most seamless and smooth
encrypted networks setups we’ve tested yet. Setting up WEP or
WPA (TKIP and AES) closed networks scares not only the neophyte wireless
network owners, but also the experienced.
The Buffalo PC Card setup software is
very strong feature
Like most other brands of wireless AP’s
and Routers, the basic configuration of base stations and client cards
is pretty routine with either CD based “wizards” or manually.
With the Buffalo WHR3-G54 and sister PC or PCI Cards and other Buffalo
devices with AOSS, all you need to do is push the AOSS button on the
AirStation Router and the firmware does the rest. In as little as 10
minutes you have a secured WPA wireless network, along with Buffalo’s
Privacy Separator.
However, this only works with Buffalo devices with AOSS technology and if you have different brands of 802.11g/b devices entering your home or business network, you will be challenged with the daunting tasks of configuring those manually. Not fun at all for inexperienced networkers.
Our IT techs at Tech Lab and our peer-group Review Panel
loved the extremely sophisticated array of setup features and possibilities
in the embedded HTML configuration utility. Buffalo has trumped every
other Wireless Router we’ve tested so far.
Setting
up AOSS "Profiles" takes just minutes to do
Features:
• AOSS™ support - with AOSS button
• 125* High Speed Mode™ Technology
• Optimized LAN/WAN routing speed
• WPA (TKIP, AES) security
• Built-in SPI firewall
• Privacy Separator
• WDS support (Bridge/Repeater Mode)
• External 2.4GHz antenna support
• Wireless Output Power Setting
• Dynamic Packet Filtering
• Built-in DHCP server
• Built-in 10/100 4-port switch
• NAT support
Performance
–
As a follow up to the 802.11g “turbo” shoot-out article, we
tested the Buffalo AirStation and the PC Card with all the other devices,
using other .11g chipsets for cross-compatibility, as well as within the
Buffalo family.
If you are setting up a home wireless network from scratch, only with the new Buffalo “125” hardware and no other brands of 802.11g or b hardware will ever need to access your network, then testing performance between Buffalo hardware is important to you. But, if you have a small business, office, school or home network with other brands of wireless hardware, test compatibility is darn important to you.
While the Buffalo
AirStation "125" has some very nice features, one feature it
DOESN'T HAVE is a stable Tx (Transmission Rate). When tested with various
other chipset equipped PC Cards or Notebooks with internal 802.11g "radios"
Tx rates wagged wildly from minute to minute in ranges of 18Mbps up to
the advertised 54Mbps! Even with the companion Buffalo PC Card, Tx rates
were not stable.
Bandwidth rates bounced all over the place,
24 to 54Mbps
Some competitive 802.11g and .11b chipset based PC Cards would not
even negotiate a connection with the Buffalo AirStation at all! We want
to point out that this is not Buffalo’s fault.
Reason? The flakey new Broadcom 54g "Speed Boost" chipset! It's REALLY to bad, With such a well thought-out product, Buffalo should had dumped Broadcom for Atheros, Prism, TI or anyone else but Broadcom.
about us
| current articles | archive
| home | advertise!
all right reserved copyright ©1999-2003. E-mail us.
