Model Number: WAB501 ($180.00)
Someday there will be one definitive standard for wireless networking. Or maybe
someday, Bill Gates will give you a billion dollars.
Until then, you not only have to keep your day job, but you also have to decide
between competing wireless technologies and standards to keep your computers
up to date. Many consider wireless networking one of the more muddled and confusing
technologies, even as it gets easier to set a network up. The confusion stems
from the opaque jargon and numerical ciphers (802.11b, Wi-Fi, WEP, etc.) that
the inventors generously heap upon unwitting consumers. It doesn’t help that
new products based on different, incompatible technologies seem to come out
just as you’re grasping the concept of the current one.
So, do you wirelessly gear your laptop with popular 2.4GHz 802.11b products?
Or do you opt for the faster, but more expensive and less widespread 5GHz 802.11a?
Netgear seems to think you shouldn’t have to decide. Its Dual
Band Wireless Adapter PC card allows you to connect automatically to any
802.11b or 11a access point. This way, you don’t have to sacrifice widespread
access for faster throughput when it’s available.
Pros
- Connects to 802.11b and 11a networks
- Three-year warranty
- Relatively inexpensive
Cons
- 802.11a connection drops
BASIC FEATURES
At the first glance, Netgear’s Dual Band Wireless Adapter looks very similar
to many other wireless PC cards on the market. The part of the card that contains
the antenna is almost three times as thick as the PC card slot. It sticks out
of the slot and houses a green light that blinks when there is network activity.
It also has a small groove on the part nearest to the slot to make it easy to
insert part of your thumb and pull out the card. Should your thumb prove too
strong and the card breaks, or should there be any other problems beyond your
control, Netgear provides a reassuringly generous three-year warranty. It’s
a better than the paltry one-year warranties other companies offer.
SETUP/INSTALLATION
Setup was glitch-free. During installation, Windows XP users will see the warning
window that says the drivers for the adapter are unsigned and therefore may
not work, but Netgear assures us that they’ve been tested on the new OS. I installed
it on a Windows XP laptop and experienced no extraordinary problems.
Netgear also recommends that, in order to take advantage of all its features,
you should use its wireless networking software instead of Win XP’s built-in
wireless networking configuration. You’ll have to disable this operating system
feature manually. For other Windows versions, Netgear’s is the default configuration
software.
PERFORMANCE
In concert with a new D-Link multimode router, Netgear’s adapter produced impressive
speeds in my tests. At close range with a standard 802.11b connection, the card
revealed its prowess by giving out an average speed of almost 4.9 Mbps — faster
than a lot of cards. When I moved to a floor above, throughput was a powerful
4.13 Mbps. The card screeched down to almost 3 Mbps and to less than 2 Mbps
when I started roaming away. It was still fast enough to perform large file
transfers without feeling like you’re watching paint dry.
With 128-bit WEP encryption, there was nary a drop in speed in the same four
locations in which I previously tested. In fact, when I moved away from the
router and began roaming, I got even faster throughput: almost 4 Mbps at about
50 feet and 3.8 Mbps at about 60 feet with walls in between.
The 802.11a tests were even more impressive. With and without encryption, the
resulting speeds were almost identical: around 21 Mbps average at close range;
about 20 Mbps on the upper floor; and over 13 Mbps from across the room. I did
experience a larger difference when I went behind walls over 50 feet away: without
WEP, average throughput was just a little over 11 Mbps, while encrypting my
network slowed it down to 8.3 Mbps. The card supports up to 152-bit encryption.
One thing of note is that I encountered minor problems with the adapter dropping
the signal when it came to 802.11a connections. Even at very close range, I
received infrequent but annoying "page not found" errors when I surfed
the web. It took several browser refreshes before I could visit pages again.
If you switch to an 802.11b mode, the adapter picks up the signal within seconds.
Moving to 802.11a, however, sometimes required a restart, but sometimes it did
not. This inconsistency caused some concern, though not enough to subtract too
many points from its overall performance.
SUMMARY
Netgear’s Dual Band Wireless Adapter connects you to a newer wireless world
without leaving the old one behind. I was initially concerned with how much
speed it could attain; fortunately, the card allayed my fears and surprised
me with some of the fastest, most consistent throughput under WEP encryption.
The list price indicates it’s comparable to single-mode 802.11a adapters and
may even be a little cheaper when it becomes widely available. If you’re still
deciding on what 802.11a adapter to get, this is a no-brainer.