Buffalo AirStation 54Mbps Router AP and CardBus card bundle

Even with its security issues, performance letdowns and a confusing list of standards, people desperately want wireless networking. This demand has spurned Buffalo into releasing a 'pre-standard' 802.11g wireless networking range, with its broadband routing access point and PC Card bundle the first to arrive.

Although the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers) hasn't completed the new 54Mb/sec specification, Buffalo has been assured by Broadcom (which produces the 802.11g hardware) that any changes are expected to be minor and can be implemented through firmware or software updates. Buffalo has also said it would front all costs for early adopters of its 802.11g range, including hardware swap-outs, should the need arise. And you may find it worth adopting 802.11g for a number of reasons.

Both 802.11a and 802.11g boast specified bandwidths of up to 54Mb/sec, but while version 'a' exists in the 5GHz waveband, 'g' operates at 2.4GHz to retain compatibility with the existing 802.11b standard. The success of 802.11a relied mostly upon its availability ahead of 802.11g. However, UK product releases were subject to licensing arrangements imposed by the UK Radiocommunications Agency (RA) over restricted use of the 5.15-5.35GHz range, known as band A.

Whereas the US has access to all eight frequencies in band A, the UK (and much of Europe) is restricted to only four, as 5.25-5.35GHz is reserved for military and medical use. Essentially, all band A products released in the UK would need to be adapted to the 802.11h standard using Transmit Power Control (TPS), limiting transmission power to a minimum, and Dynamic Frequency Selection (DFS) to shift frequencies should, for instance, a radar signal be detected. As our reviews of the Intel PRO/Wireless 5000 and Proxim Skyline 802.11a kits showed (see Reviews, issue 96, p126), these modifications add significantly to the price. In contrast, 802.11g promises the same performance as 802.11a plus greater range at half the cost.

The new 54Mbps Wireless Broadband Router AP has an integrated aerial assembly supplemented by a port for attaching an external aerial. The front features a bank of LEDs showing network activity and status, with a second set of LEDs down the right-hand side for status of the four rear 10/100BaseTX Ethernet ports. There's also a port for Ethernet broadband connectivity, with the router incorporating an Intrusion Detector firewall with AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) encryption and VPN (Virtual Private Network) support. It can also be upgraded to include other improved security features.

The accompanying PC Card fits snugly into a free slot and allows for another PC card to fit in underneath it. Installation of both the PC Card driver and the access point proved swift and painless under Windows XP Professional. The AirNavigator Web utility is on hand to configure the access point, with handily placed help buttons. 128-bit WEP (Wireless Equivalent Privacy) encryption is supported, as is MAC address filtering. Broadband connectivity is simply a matter of selecting DSL or cable and entering your ISP settings, with the router offering up to 40Mb/sec throughput.

For real-world tests, we installed the PC Card into a notebook running Windows XP and connected the access point to a LAN via a dual-speed switch. With the AP and notebook positioned for maximum signal strength, we copied a 643MB mixture of files and folders from the LAN to the notebook, taking an average of six minutes, four seconds, equating to a transfer rate of 14.13Mb/sec. The same mixture of files transferred between the two identical 54Mb/sec PC Cards in peer-to-peer mode took four minutes, 53 seconds, equating to an average transfer rate of 17.56Mb/sec. These early tests are a little disappointing considering the maximum 54Mb/sec bandwidth, although compared with similarly priced 802.11b equipment it's still five times the throughput.