Dan Griffin's Blog
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A sweet piece of hardware
August 12, 2008
I rarely blog about purchases or computer equipment unless something is either really good or really bad. Just wanted to drop a note that the NetGear HD/Gaming 5 Ghz Wireless-N Kit fits the former category. I literally took the two APs out of the box, plugged them in, and they just worked. Not only that, but they arrived three days earlier than expected from Amazon!
I bought them to support working from a room that currently lacks CAT-5 support. I had previously been using an old 802.11b router from LinkSys. But copying even small network files was a challenge, and streaming music while I work was impossible in that configuration. Making matters worse was the fact that I was using the in-box WiFi driver on my Vista laptop, along with the built-in (laptop) antenna. Not a recipe for success or reliability, even though the distance is only about 25 feet.
To bring up the new NetGear, I plugged the first unit directly into a CAT-5 wall socket that runs upstream. Then I plugged the other one into a four-port switch which it now shares with the laptop. I prefer that because the presence of the switch makes it easier to temporarily connect other computers at this desk if I need to.
One of the best features? As part of the auto-configure process implemented by the NetGear APs, the upstream one immediately detected the presence of an existing DHCP server. As a result, it’s now easier to ensure that my Vista laptop always has the same IP, regardless of whether there’s a wireless link between it and the internet.
Now high-fidelity audio streams flawlessly from elsewhere on the LAN, and has no noticeable effect on the connectivity of other apps. Copying really big files, such as ISO downloads from the internet, is still painful. But the state of the art is such that, if you need to copy big files, then you need to invest in Gb ethernet, and I’ve come to terms with that …
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