-- Performance and Conclusions
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To test out the connection, the first easiest test
is to find out how far a distance this wireless kit can reach.
I asked my landlord on the exact specifications of the house I was
living in. Wanted to know if there were any types of material
that may alter my simple tests. I really just wanted to know
if the house was built using steel, brick or wood.
Lucky for us, not too much metal is within the walls
of my apartment. So I started with an easy test and decided to
walk around the house to see it the connection would go through
walls. Went to the living room which is separated by exactly
three (3) walls and about 25-30ft away. The connection was
alive and kicking. Surfed to GideonTech.com
just fine, posted some items on our Forums
and all was well. So it did pass through walls alright, but
then again my walls are very thin and hollow. Not too much
metal or heavy wood inside them.
The next simple test was transferring a 650mb rip of
a music CD I did earlier. I started the transfer within the
same room as the host computer. I already had a FTP server
running on that host machine, which is my server machine at
home. The transfer rate came through at about 700k/s. It
fluctuated a few times dipping as low as 200k/s, but on average it
came to about 650-700k/s. While it was transferring, I started
walking towards the living room again. The signal started
dipping again this time hovering around 450k/s or so.
Definitely a hit in performance when there are obstacles in the
way. To do a comparison, my internal network is set up to use
100Mbps. So the transfer rate on the same exact file between a
wired PC is about 7-9mb/s, give or take a few megs.
With the limitation on wireless in regards to the
exact location of where you need to be, this may be more geared to
the office user. Office meeting rooms are the ideal location
due to the smaller sized room without any walls. Add in a
wireless base and you have a wireless kit ready to go anywhere you
need to go.
This kit may have been developed with some office
users in mind along with home users to get the best of both
worlds. At home, I usually don't do major network transfer on
the laptop. So the slower speed is not much of a
problem. I can still check my mail and surf the web just fine
out on the patio. On the other hand, I do like the benefit of
the higher bandwidth allocated to me through my router/switch at
100Mbps when using my desktop rig.
Overall, this kit is very simple to use. I
personally had a harder time getting it to work because of my
internal network, but most home networks shouldn't experience any
problems. I definitely recommend this Compex Wireless Kit, you
probably won't find a better kit for this price. Plus the fact
that you can get online pretty anywhere in the vicinity of your home
is not a bad deal at all.
Thanks to Jimmy over Compex
for providing us with this kit. Also would like to thank him
for helping me out with the small networking issue I had going
here. Give this kit a try, you may be surprised at what it can
do.
Pros:
- Easy to set up
- All equipment is provided
- Software very simple to configure
- Wireless access with the much needed security
- Affordable
Cons:
- May prove difficult for more complicated home networks
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