Netgear WNDA3100 Dual Band Wireless N Wireless Adapter Review

The Netgear WNDA3100 is a dual band wireless N wireless adapter with all of the regular features of a wireless adapter. In our review we tested all the features we could; including the speed, range, and reliability of the WNDA3100. 

In The Box

In the box of the Netgear WNDA3100 you get the wireless adapter itself, an extension USB cable, a cradle that can be attached to the wall, a software CD, and an installation guide. As an added bonus you also get a certificate for 35 free song downloads and one free audiobook download.

Setup and installation

Setup of the Netgear WNDA3100 wireless adapter is fairly easy, as with most wireless USB adapters. All you have to do is plug the WNDA3100 into your computer. The WNDA3100 will install perfectly on a Windows PC, even without the included CD. Just plug the device in and windows update will find the driver within seconds. If you want to use the CD, you are more than welcome to do so. The CD includes a driver and the Netgear Smart Wizard networking software, which doesn’t really have any features that the default Windows software doesn’t. The Smart Wizard software is used to connect to wireless networks, create profiles and automatically connect to wireless networks, and to see the network statistics (how much data is being transmitted). All of this can be achieved in the regular Windows connection manager, so there is really no use for the Netgear Smart Wizard software and it doesn’t give you any information that you can’t get without it. The process of connecting to a network with the Netgear WNDA3100 is fairly simple, just plug it into your computer, select the network that you want to connect to in either the Windows connection manager or the Netgear Smart Wizard, and click connect. Of course, if the network is secured, you will have to type in the password. Once that is done you can choose to connect to the network automatically when it is in range, which works fairly well. Another way to connect to wireless networks is using the Push ‘N’ Connect feature on the Netgear WNDA3100, which allows you to connect to a wireless network with the push of a button. To use the Push ‘N’ Connect feature you must have a compatible wireless router.

Netgear Smart Wizard

Design

The Netgear WNDA3100 is pretty well designed. It fits in the palm of your hand, as any wireless adapter should, and is very aesthetically pleasing. On one side you will find the Netgear logo, the Push ‘N’ Connect button, and a status light. The status light will blink any time data is being transferred and flashes different colors depending on whether you are connected to a 2.4 or 5 GHz wireless network (blue and orange). The other side of the Netgear WNDA3100 simply says Wireless-N Dual Band. There isn’t really much that you can say about the design of a wireless adapter, but the Netgear WNDA3100 is fairly small and looks pretty good.

Features

There aren’t many features that a wireless adapter can have but you’ll find that the Netgear WNDA3100 has all of them. Some of the Netgear WNDA3100’s biggest features are that it supports 802.11n connectivity for maximum theoretical speed of up to 300 Mbps and its dual band support. The Netgear WNDA3100 supports both the 2.4 GHz frequency and the 5 GHz frequency. In case you don’t exactly know what this means; the 2.4 GHz band is the most popular band for a lot of devices including most wireless adapters, most cordless phones, microwaves, and some Bluetooth devices. This makes it very populated and congested, which sometimes causes interference. This in turn could affect range or speed. Unlike the 2.4 GHz band, the 5 GHz band is used by very few devices, this means that there is less interference and performance will usually be better, especially in areas with a lot of 2.4 GHz networks like office or apartment buildings. To use the 5 GHz band you will have to have a router which supports it. Other than the 802.11n and dual band support the Netgear WNDA3100 also supports all of the security protocols available.

Performance

We put the Netgear WNDA3100 through a variety of tests including a maximum throughput speed test, an average throughput test, an obstructed range test (a test of the range when there are obstructions), and an unobstructed range test, comparing it with several other wireless cards on both the 2.4 GHz and the 5 GHz band. The tests were performed with absolutely no obstructions and at a fairly close distance of about 5 feet. The router used for the tests was the Netgear WNDR3700 Dual Band wireless router. In our tests of 2.4 GHz performance the WNDA3100 was able to get a max throughput speed of 8.939 MBps (mega bytes per second). This is compared to the 10.583 MBps of the D-Link DWA-140 and the 8.246 MBps of the Linksys WUSB300N, both of which are 2.4 GHz wireless N wireless adapters. This puts the Netgear WNDA3100 in second place for maximum throughput speed. In our test for the average throughput speed over one minute and 30 seconds the Netgear WNDA 3100 got an average speed of 7.133 MBps, the D-Link DWA-140 got an average of 8.848 MBps, and the Linksys WUSB300N got an average of 7.136 MBps. This, once again, puts the Netgear WNDA3100 in second place, although it got pretty good speeds. In our 5 GHz test we used the exact same conditions but different comparison wireless cards. In our 5 GHz test the Netgear WNDA3100 got a maximum throughput speed of 8.453 MBps. This is compared to 9.242 MBps with a D-Link DWA-160 and 7.967 MBps with a Linksys WUSB600N, both of which are dual band wireless N wireless adapters. For the average speed of the WNDA 3100 we got 6.194 MBps. This is compared to the 6.532 MBps of the D-Link DWA-160 and the 5.783 MBps of the Linksys WUSB600N. The 5 GHz tests put the Netgear WNDA3100, once again, in second place. Of course, these are still pretty good speeds but the results show that if you are planning on using the WNDA3100N in a fairly unpopulated area without very much 2.4 GHz frequency interference that you should use the 2.4 GHz band, as it will get you greater speeds. As for range; we tested the Netgear WNDA3100 both with and without obstructions and using the 2.4 GHz band and the 5 GHz band. For our 2.4 GHz test with obstructions we simply tested the WNDA3100 in a building and were able to get a range of about 230 feet, after which all of the wireless cards that we tested including the D-Link DWA-140 and the Linksys WUSB300N lost the signal. Without obstructions we were able to get a range of up to about 640 feet with the WNDA3100, compared to about 650 feet with a D-Link DWA-140 and about 620 feet with a Linksys WUSB300N. For our 5 GHz test we repeated the same tests. With obstructions we found that the WNDA3100 got a range of about 200 feet, along with all of our other test devices; the D-Link DWA-160 and the Linksys WUSB600N. In our unobstructed test we found that the WNDA3100 got a range of up to 620 feet, the D-Link DWA-160 got a range of up to 630 feet, and the Linksys WUSB600N got a range of up to 600 feet. Once again we have proven that it is better to use the 2.4 GHz band if you are in an area without that much interference. In our range tests the WNDA3100 scored fairly well, again getting second place in both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz tests. Aside from all of the technical and detailed tests that we did we also used the WNDA3100 for a while and found that it stayed connected to a wireless network perfectly for an entire day until we turned the computer which it was connected to off, even when we moved the computer around. Rounding up our performance analysis it seems like the WNDA3100 got second place out of the devices that we tested it with, and it also got pretty good scores in all of the categories.

Conclusion

Overall, the Netgear WNDA3100 Dual Band wireless adapter seems like a pretty good choice for a wireless adapter. It gets fairly good speeds, has great range, supports dual bands, and most importantly; supports 802.11n connectivity. Although the 5 GHz band might not be all that useful now it will probably become a necessity as we start to get more gadgets using the 2.4 GHz frequency. In conclusion, if you are looking for a USB wireless adapter that will give you good performance but won’t break the bank, the Netgear WNDA3100 is a great choice, and it is available now for $90 from Netgear’s store, though you could probably find it for less elsewhere. 

hField Technologies Wi-Fire review, long range WiFi at a small price

We have finally gotten our hands on the new Wi-Fire from hField Technologies. This new version of the Wi-Fire is smaller and lighter than the old Wi-Fire. The adapter is still fairly large for a wireless adapter.


When you open the box you will find a standard USB 2.0 cable, the Wi-Fire, an installation guide, and an installation CD.


The software that comes with the Wi-Fire is pretty useful since it shows the exact percentages of signal strength, unlike the windows utility where you can only see how many bars of signal you have. The Wi-Fire software also allows you to connect to networks an make profiles, which can automatically connect you to networks. The software can also graph the signal strength of a number of networks so that you can point the Wi-Fire in the best direction for the network that you want to connect to. The Wi-Fire is directional, which means that you have to point it towards the network that you want to connect to to get the best signal strength. This can also be a good thing because it gives you a better signal strength for that network. The Wi-Fire can be attached to your computer screen but it is hard at first to figure out how to attach it. It can also be placed and rotated to get the best signal strength. I would suggest leaving it on your desk.

Overall, installing the Wi-Fire is fairly easy. Once installed you can either use the hField Technologies utility or any other WiFi Utility. Now for the fun part; testing it. For our tests we used a Atheros AR5007EG wireless g wireless adapter, a D-Link DWA-140 RangeBooster N wireless n wireless adapter, and of course, the Wi-Fire. We tested to see how many networks the Wi-Fire can detect and how far away it really can detect a network and if the Wi-Fire really could connect to a network from 1,000 feet away.

Test 1:

In our first test we tested if you really could find more networks using the Wi-Fire than a regular wireless adapter. With the Atheros AR5007EG Wireless g wireless adapter we found 5 wireless networks, all of which were secured. With the D-Link DWA-140 RangeBooster N wireless n wireless adapter we found 6 wireless networks, one of which was unsecured but we were not able to connect to, and with the Wi-Fire we found 10 networks, 2 were unsecure, and we were able to connect to 1 of the unsecure networks. We have now established that the Wi-fire really can detect more networks than wireless g or wireless n.

Test 2:


In our second test we are going to see if the Wi-Fire can detect a test network from 300, 700, and 1,000 feet away. This test was done with absolutely no obstructions and the Wi-Fire was pointing directly at the wireless router. We tested this with the same wireless cards as the first test and a Belkin wireless g router. Here are the results; at 300 feet wireless g detected our test network at 40%, wireless n detected it at 55%, and the Wi-Fire detected it at 80%. At 700 feet wireless g and wireless n did not detect our network, and the Wi-Fire detected it at 60%. At 1,000 feet, which hField Technologies claim the Wi-Fire can reach, wireless g and wireless n did not detect it, an the Wi-fire detected the test network with 10% signal strength.


Conclusion:

It turns out that the Wi-Fire really does have better range than wireless g and even wireless n. Some of the bad features of the Wi-Fire are that it is directional, which means that you have to point it to the network that you want to connect to. It is also pretty big for a wireless adapter. Other than that thw Wi-Fire from Hfield Technologies is a great gadget for getting free wireless internet.

Wi-Fire product page

D-Link DIR-685 Xtreme N Storage Router Review

The D-Link DIR-685 Xtreme N Storage Router is a stylish and very feature rich way to upgrade to draft-n WiFi. Its internal antennas and 3.2 inch LCD display make it hard to recognize as a router. The DIR-685 has an immense amount of features. It measures 4.4 x 5.8 x 1.2 inches and has 4 Gigabit ethernet ports, 1 WAN port for connecting to your modem, and 2 USB ports for connecting external hard drives or printers. The wireless specifications on the DIR-685 are as follows, WIFI b/g/n and support for WEP/WPA/WPA2 wireless security, and a NAT firewall. Inside the DIR-685 there is a 2.5 inch hard drive bay which lets you use the DIR-685 as a NAS(Network Attached Storage) by inserting any SATA HDD up to 1TB. IF you decide to add an HDD the DIR-685 also has a simple file sharing system which supports UPnP and iTunes media streaming to computers or other compatible devices. The built-in Bittorent manager lets you download files directly to the HDD without having to have your computer on, unfortunately, there is no way to queue downloads. Another way you can use the DIR-685 is a a digital photo frame. The 3.2 inch LCD display allows you to display pictures from the HDD or an online photo sharing site. You can also view weather reports for your zip code and RSS feeds. It also shows you Facebook and Twitter updates but there is no way to respond to them. This makes the DIR-685 like a toned down version of a web browser. Since the DIR-685 is a wireless router the display can be used to monitor usage and the speed it is transmitting at. The D-Link DIR-685 Xtreme N Storage Router is an amazing router with tons of features. Its perfect for any home or small business. The DIR-685 could be used to stream media, download files, play games, or just as a simple home network. The fact that it can be used as NAS (Network Attached Storage) is great. The cost is a bit high at $299 but with all of the features you'll get I'd say it's definitely worth it.

Gallery

Video Review of the D-Link DIR-685 Xtreme N Storage Router

D-Link DIR-685 Xtreme N Storage Router