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Buffalo Air Station Turbo G Wireless Cable/DSL Router  

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PCQ Bureau
New Update

This is an HSM 125 Mbps router, meant for SOHO users and

small networks. It offers a four port 10/100 Ethernet switch, as well as one

10/100 WAN port. As is the standard for Buffalo wireless products, this Air

Station also supports AOSS (Air Station One-touch Secure System) for security.

The unit can be set up to work both as an access point and as a router. In AP

mode, it can be used both in ad-hoc as well as infrastructure modes. It can also

act as a bridge or repeater between two APs.

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Price:



Rs 5,800-Router; Rs 3,800-Adapter

Meant

For:
SOHO and SMB
Key

Specs:
WPA TKIP AES Encryption, 802.11b/g, NAT/SPI firewall, HSM mode, 26 types of logs
Pros: High throughput, good monitoring and reporting features
Cons: None
Contact: Nexgen Networks,

Delhi Tel: 30888825



E-mail: buffalo@nexgennetworks.co.in
 



RQS# E17 or SMS 131702 to 9811800601

For configuration and management, the router has a

Web-based configuration interface. The router automatically configures itself

when you select the 'Easy install' mode while bringing up the Air Station

for the first time. It can be switched from the router mode to AP mode and

vice-versa. All configuration of this router is done through a Web interface. It

has a built-in DHCP server to provide IP addresses on systems connected to its

switch. It supports 11 channels with automatic selection. For a higher

performance, you can turn on its HSM mode from the 'Frame Bursting' menu on

its Web-based configuration screen, and the available connection speed is

boosted from 54 to 125 Mbps. It also lets you control the output power of its

antenna. If the output power is assigned below 100%, it reduces the range of the

Air Station. It supports WDS bridging to let you create a network of APs without

letting clients along the way connect to it. Another feature is the DTIM

(Delivery Traffic Indication Message) period, which indicates how often the

clients will be served by the AP. For security, the Air Station has a firewall

with IDS. Whenever an intrusion is detected, it notifies you via e-mail or a

pop-up to a configured IP address. It supports WEP, TKIP and AES encryption

schemes. Other security features include an optional 802.11g protection. You can

also use its MAC filtering feature to register a list of known MAC addresses and

then only those clients will be allowed to connect. With its Privacy Separator,

two clients connected wirelessly through this AP will not be able to communicate

directly with each other. The Air Station features 26 different types of logs

from access to traffic statistics. It can also send the logs to a syslog server.

This Air Station uses DSS (Direct Sequence Spread) and OFDM

protocol for communication and frequency range of 2.412-2.462 MHz. By default,

this device receives RIP information only from LAN but it can be configured for

RIP transmission and reception over WAN. Manual routes can also be entered. Air

Station also supports DMZ. Just enter DMZ's IP address and incoming packets

with no recognizable destination port information will be redirected to the

DMZ's IP address. It has pre-configured IP filters, but new rules can be

added. You can monitor clients connected to the AP and packet traffic

information through its Web interface.

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Test results



For our tests, we used an IBM Think Pad with Win XP SP2 and ran NetIQ Qcheck.
For HSM testing, we used Buffalo's Air Station Turbo G CardBus adapter. On the

54 Mbps mode, we got a throughput of 23.810 Mbps. When we turned on the HSM

mode, this went up to 34.783 Mbps, which is slightly higher than its rated 34.1

Mbps with the CardBus adapter's box. Latency was 1 ms. In the file transfer

test, a 50 MB file took 29 seconds in default and 25 seconds in HSM modes.

However, when we used it in the 802.11b mode, the throughput obtained was 5.063

Mbps with a latency of 2 ms.

Bottom Line: The

product is competitively priced and comes with a 2-year warranty. A good buy for

the SOHOnetwork.

Swapnil Arora

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