[MLB-WIRELESS] Wireless @ 1500KB/sec? It's here (almost) - New DLink Kit Eval

[Craig Mead]

Was fortunate enough to get my hands on some DLink Evaluation gear to play
with and give some feedback on over the weekend.

The kit.

11b +

DWL-900AP+ (Access Point)
DWL-520+ (PCI)
DWL-650+ (PCMCIA)

11a

DWL-5000AP (Access Point)
DWL-A520 (PCI)
DWL-A650 (PCMCIA)

The verdict?

Good!!

For those of you that have the thought in the back of your mind..."but I was
told not to touch DLink for wireless" which I have heard some people say
before, their second line of wireless products into the marketplace blows
their old line out of the water, and even most of the existing gear.

The basis of the improvements for the 11b+ range is the use of a new chipset
TI (or Texas Instruments). As this is not a Prism based chipset, there is no
current support (that I know of) for host AP mode, and as it is not a Lucent
chipset like the Enterasys/Agere/Lucent/Cabeltron etc cards, it is
unfortunately not supported in Netstubmler (yet, it may be coming).

Set up of the AP was as easy as plug it into the switch, plug in the power,
it grabbed an IP off the DHCP server, fired up the laptop, on with the
drivers, quick reset and it had bridged me to my wired LAN. Easy. The driver
support on the new range is also excellent. Easy to use and good looking.
Has a "site survey" function which will show you any active AP's within
range. Select the one you want, hit connect, and off you go.

I was running the DLink 900AP+ on channel 6 at the same time as my Senao AP
running on channel 6 and there was no problems. It'd stick to the AP chosen.

Now, what most people probably care about.

Thruput.

Fire up the FTP, 550KB/sec over a 700MB DivX file.
This compared to the Senao AP which gets ~ 300KB/sec maximum.
Pings on an unutilised network.
21 tx, 21 rx
Min = 1ms
Max = 3ms
Avg = 1ms

Same results with the DWL-520+ card which was running in an XP machine
downstairs (AP was upstairs all the time). Under XP driver installation took
a tad longer cause the drivers supplied on CD weren't signed so I don't
think they went on the first time (running the setup.exe file). Reset, tell
it which driver to use, when it asks about XP driver signing say install
anwyay and off you go. Same speeds of ~ 550kb/sec were obtained even tho the
signal was travelling down a story. On a file upload from the 520+ to the
FTP it clocked in at 620KB/sec.

The PCMCIA cards unfortauntely do not have an external antenna connector on
them, but the range is very impressive. Going for a drive to a hill ~ 800m
away from here with almost-LOS (couple of new houses in the way now used to
be perfect LOS). Cabletron card showed marginal to low signal strength while
the DLink was going hard on ~ 60% strength (this was the to Senao AP and
12dBi roof mounted Omni).

The PCI cards however have a reverse(?) SMA connector on the back plate. The
supplied Omni antenna would suit nearly any close range/home use as the
range is good, but for a Community Network solution, simply unscrew the mini
Omni and on with a SMA -> NType fly lead for a larger antenna. AP is also
the same deal.

Now, 802.11a.

The 5000AP  is as easy to config. as the 900AP+.

As for the PCMCIA card, I was trying it on a Windows `98 Laptop and
unfortunately the installer requires Microsoft's WMI (Windows Management
Instrumentation) after doing a quick search on the M$ site and only finding
one version which required Windows 2000 I waited for Jamie's Windows 2000
Laptop to turn up before going any further. Put the card in the Windows 2K
Lappy, on with the drivers (signing issue again but smooth otherwise) and
off it went.

Up with the FTP, down with the files, smile on the dials. Averaged
1400KB/sec thruput. Enabled turbo mode and it didn't seem to make much
difference in the thruput but we believe this was due to the Laptop being
the bottleneck as opposed to the wireless link.

Drawbacks on both the 11a AP and the PCI card are non-removable antennas by
default. But last I knew 5Ghz wasn't allowed for outside use anyway, so
doesn't really matter.

I don't think you'll be able to find any of the 11b+ or 11a stuff in a shop
near you just yet, but I believe the shipments are on their way....so keep
an eye out. When I know more, you'll know more.


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