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US Robotics MAXg wireless router
Price: Router: £84.99 inc VAT - PC card: £44.99 inc VAT

Features
Performance
Ease of use
Value for money
Overall

Reviewed By: Andy Shaw

This review updated: 01/08/2005
Featured in magazine:
Issue 113
Manufacturer Contacts:
Supplier: US Robotics
Tel: 01628 640140
Web Address: www.usr-emea.com


We'll have to wait until at least the end of 2006 for the next generation 802.11n Wi-Fi standard to be ratified. When it comes though, it looks like it's going to offer at least four to five times the speed of the current 54Mbps 802.11g Wi-Fi standard and a vastly improved range. If you can't wait, US Robotics has boosted its 802.11g standard products with its own speed improving technology – MAXg. This improves the range by around 50 per cent and bumps the maximum speed up to 125Mbps. With a full range due this summer, including an ADSL Gateway and both USB and PC adapters, we got a sneak peak at the first products to get you started – a standard router and a PC card to fit into a laptop.

Features
These new devices are fully compliant with previous official standards, so you can integrate them into your 802.11g or b network without any problems. This compatibility means that you might even gain some benefit from your old equipment because of MAXg's increased range, but it's by getting hold of two MAXg devices that you're going to see the most benefit. The router offered here doesn't contain its own broadband modem but can be connected to one with an Ethernet connection. It also includes a USB print server so you can attach a printer to the device and there's no requirement to have your main computer switched on to share it between other PCs.

Performance
We tested the devices in a typical home setting. We did a number of speed tests between two PCs on different stories of a terraced house using an existing 802.11g network, before replacing them with this new kit and repeating the test. The speed of our network was boosted by almost double, partly because of the basic improved speed over our standard unaccelerated 802.11g products and partly because the improved range meant that a stronger signal could get further through the house.

Ease of use
US Robotics continues to use its own software instead of utilising Windows XP's built-in ability to connect wireless devices. On the downside, it means that setting up a US Robotics device in an existing network of other devices is handled a bit differently. On the positive side, the latest incarnation of the software found here does lots of things that Windows doesn't, including setting up security by default and offering a range of extra options, plus it's presented in a manner very similar to the Windows standard. Install all US Robotics devices, however, and you're laughing – things couldn't be simpler.

Value for money
Both products are competitively priced considering their network boosting capabilities, if you think your network could do with a bit more oomph. We're still far enough away from 802.11n to make an intermediate step like this worthwhile, especially if you consider that it's fully compatible with your existing Wi-Fi bits and pieces.

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