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Buffalo
WHR3-G54 AirStation 125 Review,
The Great 802.11G+ Hardware Shoot-out,
cont'd
-
Click most images to enlarge -
Test
of various .11g clients with Buffalo Airstation 125, some competataive
cards would not connect at all.
Even between the Buffalo Airstation and the Buffalo WLI-CB-G54S 802.11g
125 PC Card, we saw some erratic behavior with TX (rated transmission
speed). This seemed especially odd to us, but we saw the same result
from the PC Card installed in two other P4 based notebooks running Windows
XP Pro.
Buffalo
AirStation Tests –
While TX rates were all over the place, often negatively effecting connectivity
distances dramatically, we were surprised to find that actual data transmission
speed (not to be confused with Mbps bandwidth) between the AirStation
and the WLI-CB-G54S 125 PC Card were the best we had tested between
like branded .11g hardware!
Just remember that the “claimed” 802.11g Mbps rating by all the companies are pure Blue Sky and “Real World” speeds of moving actual data (Mbytes/ps) between two points across your Wi-Fi network is often something else.
When
we ran our “Real World” data file transfer test, we were
astounded to find that the Buffalo AirStation to the companion PC Card
ripped the fastest transmission rate yet tested. Remember that the test
file is a 43 MB Zipped file moved from a Ethernet attached NAS on the
AirStation to a PC Card equipped P4 Windows notebook. Here are the results
–
WHR3-G54 AirStation Broadband Router to a WLI-CB-G54S PC
Card: move a 43MB file in 18 sec = 2,446.2 KBps (that's Bytes not bits).
Keep in mind that in
the REAL World, you’re always dealing with files that are Kilobytes,
Megabytes if not Gigabytes in size, not Kilobits or 1/1024th of a Byte!
Note that these results
are only between Buffalo “125” products, you won’t get
these results with other brands of hardware and the AirStation 125
Signal
"radiation pattern" uniformity is average.
The “Signal Radiation Pattern or SRP, a measurement in RF Energy in “db”, the WHR3-G54 AirStation is strongest (60) toward the front and the right 45 degree angle, weakening to the sides at 45 db. There is an oddly slightly stronger signal “bulge” to the right front of the AirStation, probably do to the internal antenna placement and something attenuating (absorbing) the signal somewhat. An easy remedy is to use an external omni directional antenna with some boost characteristics, about 6db.
Buffalo AirStation products are backed by 24/7 toll-free tech support and a 2-year warranty.
Conclusion
-
Pros: Highest
speed data transfer,
AOSS.
Very big Cons: Erratic Tx
Rate, limited range & the worst cross brand 802.11g & b compatibility
of any we tested.
If you're are going to have a "one brand" Wireless LAN with
little chance of visitors with non Buffalo branded hardware, the AOSS
Technology could still make the Buffalo AirStation 125 series one to consider.
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