Review of Newer Technology Router & Receiver

user23user23
Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Hey! I've got an older Macbook Pro (2006)...and wanted to go the cheap route to upgrade to 802.11N reception....as well as increase my wireless reception out in the world. As any MBP owner (without 802.11N) knows, wireless reception s.u.c.k.s.



In doing a little research, I decided to purchase:



http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer...gy/MXP802NU2C/



&



http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer...gy/MXP802NRTR/



Configuring the router was a snap! No problems there. The only notable exception to teh easiness of configuring was...be prepared to _wait_ upon saving any changes you may make to the settings. I had to wait about 2-4 minutes (or longer! thumb twiddling time) after each & every painful save. A couple of times, I thought there was a problem...So, just hang in there. The router is quite powerful - at least 12-15% more powerful than the Linksys WRT54G it replaced using 802.11G.



The USB receiver is plug & play as advertised...provided the included driver is installed & the simple directions are followed. It took a bit (a lot, I admit) of finagling to actually make the receiver work with my comcast account, but it works with other wireless networks w/o hassle.



Result: My MBP now has a 3-4x boost in reception strength! Through many walls in my home, the utility informs me I'm getting 270Mbps link speed...which equals 20,000+kbps down & 1500+ kbps up - the full speed when using ethernet



great product, great price. HTH someone.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 5
    splinemodelsplinemodel Posts: 7,311member
    Cool: let us know how it holds up. I suspect that most of the products from major vendors (Linksys, Netgear, D-link) are either inherently flawed or designed to go bad after six months, because, as of a few years ago, they always manage to die right after the warranty ends.
  • Reply 2 of 5
    user23user23 Posts: 199member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Splinemodel View Post


    Cool: let us know how it holds up. I suspect that most of the products from major vendors (Linksys, Netgear, D-link) are either inherently flawed or designed to go bad after six months, because, as of a few years ago, they always manage to die right after the warranty ends.



    It's almost guaranteed



    "this router will self-destruct 30 days out of warranty"



    This is why one should, if one has the credit rating (or whatever), purchase with a credit card that affords a warranty above & beyond the manufacturer's original.



    My hope for this product (in terms of length of life) lay in that it is manu'd in Korea - home of the world's speediest broadband (debatable, yes I know). I thought/hoped that surely the Koreans would know what they are doing...



    edit: Holy Crap! Is my data old.



    http://www.websiteoptimization.com/bw/0711/



    Japan has smoking speeds! My conversions are wretched...but, doesn't that equal something like 10 megabytes/second?
  • Reply 3 of 5
    splinemodelsplinemodel Posts: 7,311member
    The location of the contract manufacturer may or may not have any impact on the quality, but Chinese CMs are known, generally, for cutting costs by using components that are shoddy or out of spec. I expect this is a major reason for the quality problems. Korean CMs could easily do this, too, but I expect they are not as prone to find unscrupulous ways to cut $0.75 (for example) from a product. To the Chinese, every penny saved becomes a measure of pride, and this tends to take precedence over any manufacturing specs and regulations.



    If this device works with G, I might think about buying one and selling my current NetGear product on eBay before it dies.
  • Reply 4 of 5
    benroethigbenroethig Posts: 2,782member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by user23 View Post


    It's almost guaranteed



    "this router will self-destruct 30 days out of warranty"



    Something like that. But fortunately they always seem to break when I'm about ready to upgrade away. Unfortunately for my -N aspirations, the current netgear seems to be pretty reliable.
  • Reply 5 of 5
    user23user23 Posts: 199member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by BenRoethig View Post


    Something like that. But fortunately they always seem to break when I'm about ready to upgrade away. Unfortunately for my -N aspirations, the current netgear seems to be pretty reliable.





    \



    allright...time has passed since I got this router..not much..but enough to pass on some info.



    a) my neighbor's "older" laptop (wireless b/g only) can't work with this router. His laptop is in the 2-ish year old range...don't know make/model off-hand...Dell something or other. His windows laptop sees the SSID, can connect...can surf/etc...then, signal gets dropped...frequently. Doesn't matter which mode (B/G/N Mixed) the router is in.



    a2) curiously, under boot camp, I could only connect at 1MB to the router! So, I couldn't really use the maximum bandwidth my ISP allocates me.



    b) I can now no longer connect to the net (os x or boot camp) as of 2 days ago with this router for no apparent reason. Network Diagnostics gives me all-green up until "ISP." Resetting, powering down, etc. is all to no avail. Tested with another router to see if it was possibly the cable modem. ..nope.



    hope you have better luck than me if you get one.
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