Netgear RangeMax 240 Wireless Router and Adapter

Netgear has launched the RangeMax 240 series of wireless routers and notebook

adapters. As the name suggests, the router provides much wider wireless coverage

and speed than traditional routers. It claims to provide up to 1000% more

wireless coverage, and up to 240 Mbps connectivity. It uses Smart MIMO (Multiple

Input Multiple Output) technology developed to deliver upon these specs. MIMO

technology sends multiple data streams with the help of multiple antennae over

the same wireless channel. Sending multiple streams of data also ensures that

you get better signal reception and wider area coverage. Typical wireless

routers and adapters listen only to the strongest signal and are vulnerable to

interference from other electronic devices, whereas MIMO technology enabled

routers and adapters listen to multiple signals simultaneously to eliminate dead

spots and signal interference.

Price and Warranty: WPNT834 Router: Rs 11,500 (2yrs); WPNT511 Adapter: Rs 8,900 (1 yr)

Meant For: IT managers

Key Specs: 802.11b/g specification, 240Mbps, MIMO technology based

Pros: Wide area coverage, Fast wireless speed

Cons: None

Contact: Netgear Technologies, DelhiTel: 9811795900Email id: pinaki.chatterjee@netgear.com

These multiple transmitted signals are filtered at the receiver end using

MIMO algorithms to output the required signal. The router uses Adaptive Channel

Expansion to provide non-overlapping channels at 2.4MHz. As they belong to the

same MIMO family, they provide good performance. A combination of dissimilar

family adapters and routers will not provide the desired performance because of

different technology architecture.

RangeMax 240 wireless router is based on 802.11b/g specification. It has five

10/100 Mbps ports out of which one is for Internet connectivity and the other

four for LAN. The router supports all the key wireless security standards, which

include a firewall, DoS attack prevention, intrusion detection, WEP (64 and

128-bit), and also second generation Wi-Fi Protected Access Pre-Shared Key

(WPA2-PSK). Router management happens through a Web browser. The same console

can also be used to block or schedule access to sites and services. It logs

sites that were visited through any node on the network. These logs can be

periodically sent to a predefined e-mail address for assessment.

Performance



We plugged the wireless router to our isolated 100 Mbps test network. To verify
the actual throughput between the router and adapter, we used NetIQ. We

connected two nodes to the router-one was a notebook connected wirelessly

using a RangeMax 240 adapter and second being a workstation connected to a LAN

port using a cable. The NetIQ benchmark gave us a maximum throughput of 90 Mbps,

which is very impressive. It could have been even higher, since the router

actually supports upto 240 Mbps had we had another machine with a Netgear

RangeMax 240 adapter. Here, the limitation was that of the 100 Mbps LAN. These

performance results have surpassed the highest throughput we've achieved with

any wireless product we've reviewed till date. For instance, the Buffalo Air

Station G (reviewed in PCQuest Feb 2006) had achieved up to 35 Mbps. We also did

a throughput test using a regular 54 Mbps card, and got a throughput of up to

24.86 Mbps. With such brilliant data transfer rates you don't have to hook

onto the wired network for accessing media rich Internet content. You can stay

wireless and still collaborate with



others on the network.

Bottom Line: These Netgear products show their prowess when used in

combination. It looks as if the age of high-speed wireless LANs has finally

arrived.

Anubhav Verma