Product Reviews

Most existing wireless equipment uses the 802.11g standard, which transfers data at a theoretical maximum speed of 54Mbit/s. In practice, 802.11g equipment works at only around a quarter of this speed and its range can be limited, particularly in older homes with thick, stone walls. As a result, many people won't be able to do things such as stream high-definition video over a 'g' network.

The successor to the g standard, 802.11n, offers a theoretical maximum speed of 270Mbit/s or more - but wrangling over specifications has delayed its implementation. The 'draft-n' specification was agreed in January this year, but failed

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to be ratified by the IEEE in May. Undeterred, Buffalo has released its 'draft-n' nFiniti router. It doesn't have an integrated ADSL modem, but it can be used with any external broadband modem.

To ensure security, initial setup is over a wired connection, using one of the four Ethernet ports. Security is pretty standard - 64/128-bit WEP, as well as the newer and more secure WPA. Helpfully, Buffalo has provided a list of useful information, including default login details, beneath one of it's removable side panels.

The nFiniti connects automatically to a matching Buffalo network adapter at the press of a button. It's fast, although nowhere near Buffalo's claimed maximum of 300Mbit/s. At a distance of around 10ft in the same room with encryption enabled, our 100MB test file set transferred in just over 21 seconds - a rate of 38.4Mbit/s. Moving further away, at a distance of around 10m, and through a couple of walls, the rate dropped to 31.2Mbit/s. This is enough to stream HD Video and shows a much smaller drop-off than we normally see with 802.11g devices - so the Buffalo would be a good choice if you need sustained high-speed transfers, although the lack of a built-in modem makes it an expensive option.