December 29, 2003
Good-Bye D-Link, Hello Netgear
For over 2 years now, I've relied on D-Link's Wi-Fi (802.11b) products for my home wireless networking. All that time, the performance of my setup was never all that satisfying. I had always chalked it up to the inherent limitations of wireless in an older home. Well, my outlook has changed...for the better.
For Christmas, I received a Netgear WGR614 54g (802.11g) wireless router (pictured). I unplugged my D-Link components (yes, that's plural...more on that later), plugged in the Netgear, whipped through the browser-based setup in about 5 minutes, and was happily back in the game. I was very pleased at the ease of setup, but the real question in my mind was range -- was it better or worse than before?
Before I give the results, I should describe my old setup. As you might recall, I started out with a D-Link DI-614+ 802.11b router. The router alone didn't even cover my family room (down one floor and on the other side of the house), so I added a D-Link DWL-800AP+ range extender. That gave me another 30' of range towards the rear of the house so that the back deck was covered (just barely...signal strength was pretty low).
So, how did the Netgear fare? Amazingly well. The WGR614 provided a usable signal 40 feet beyond the range of BOTH D-Link products COMBINED. Now I have a usable signal clear out in our detached garage! Yes, where I had relied on two D-Link products to provide mediocre 11 Mbps coverage of my house, the Netgear WGR614 provides me with good-to-great 54 Mbps coverage across our entire property.
I'm really stunned. I didn't expect the Netgear to be this powerful. Or, alternately, I didn't expect the D-Link to be so wimpy. Either way, I'm a happy camper. And since the Netgear can be had for well under $90, it seems like a really good bargain. Now to just start upgrading the PCs in our house to 802.11g so I can make use of the increased bandwidth...
Posted by Craig | PermalinkI have several Netgear products (Router, Print Server), and all worked great. I've been thinking about upgrading our wireless to 802.11g, but you beat us to it.
Posted by Ken at December 29, 2003 02:31 PMWell i can solve that lack of coverage in your family room. At the wifi planet expo in boston i talked to a few vendors and they mentioned that omnidirectional antenna's work well 360 degree around the AP. However, go above or below that AP and you'll see a huge drop off in performance. I'd check the 2 AP's spec I bet the netgear has a higher transmit power than the dlink.
Posted by Toby Udstuen at April 17, 2004 02:13 PMToby, yeah, I realize the off-plane directionality issue, but I had tilted the external antenna so that the downstairs room should have been directly on-plane. Still didn't help. I think you're right about the higher transmit power, but I haven't verified that. For something that plugs into the wall, trading off coverage in order to save a few Watts doesn't sound like a real great strategy unless you only want to sell your product to folks living in tiny apartments.
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