Your Guide To Wireless

Belkin Wireless Routers with Apps

THERE are lots of routers out there but I would think the new Belkin routers are the easiest to set up and get going. Out of the box, there are tags attached to the ethernet cable and power cable indicating where they should be plugged into. The router is also pre-configured with WPA lock and a card which shows the router name and password. This spares the first-time user the bother and pain of setting up a new router. Of course, the strength of the new Belkin routers is not that they...

What to look for in a Wi-Fi router

WI-FI ALLIANCE CERTIFICATION Any router with an “n” in its name is capable of delivering raw data rates of 300 to 450Mb/s, right? Wrong! The Wi-Fi Alliance awards 802.11n interoperability certification only to routers that support two or more spatial streams (each stream is capable of a raw data-transfer rate of 150Mb/s). Single-stream client adapters can be certified as 802.11n, but the Wi-Fi Alliance awards only 802.11a, 802.11b/g, or 802.11a/b/g certification to single-stream routers. An...

Cisco new Linksys E-Series Wireless Router

Cisco ended a nearly three-year-long dry spell by announcing an entirely new line of Linksys routers. The company also unveiled a new line of routers aimed at less tech-savvy consumers. Marketed under the Valet brand name, users can set up their entire Wi-Fi network using nothing more than the provided USB key. Three of the new Linksys E-Series routers are housed in the familiar flying saucer form factor and use internal antennas. A fourth model, the Linksys E2100L uses the Linux operatin...

ASUS RT-N13U

Asus has developed a terrific graphical user interface for the RT-N13U’s firmware Asus isn’t a huge player in the router market, but the company has come up with a few noteworthy models in the past few years. We’d happily count the RT-N13U as one of them if it delivered reasonable throughput or decent range. This was the only router tested that was capable of sharing a USB printer, and while Asus claims it can support multifunction devices, it guarantees compatibility only with the ones ...

Aztech HomePlug AV Wireless 802.11n Router/Extender

Powerline technology that using the electrical grid within the home to extend Internet coverage has been around for a while. It is relatively cheap and does away with the need for additional wiring. But while WLAN might well extend reach, it often cannot penetrate thick walls, whereas the electrical grid covers an entire house. Now powerline has also gone wireless. Aztech's HL109RN HomePlug 4-port Wireless N router has a built-in 200Mbps powerline chip. This means while it can connect to o...

NetGear Open-Source Router

NetGear has released what’s being called the world‘s first native open source consumer router. Officially,the router is known as the Open Source Wireless-G WGR614L, and NetGear writes that the router is aimed at Linux developers and open-source experts and includes a comprehensive open-source guide available for developers. To that end, NetGear accompanied the release of the WGR614L with the launch of a My Open Router Web site that provides its community members with scads of config...

Trendnet Easy-N-Upgrader TEW-637AP

If you can't afford to upgrade your network to 802.11n Draft N 2.0, you might consider purchasing Trendnet's Easy-N-Upgrader TEW-637AP. Instead of throwing your existing router in the trash, plug it into the Easy-N-Upgrader access point to gain many of the benefits of a Draft N router for about half the price. True dual-band routers operate one radio on the 2.4GHz band and the other on the 5GHz band, the ones we've tested have built-in gigabit switches. Trendnet's device, however, ...