802.11n routers - will Rangemax play nicely with vanilla draft-n gear?

Forums › LAN (ethernet/Wifi/routers/Bluetooth) › 802.11n routers - will Rangemax play nicely with vanilla draft-n gear?

tonyhughes

Hawkes Bay
8476 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 6

Retired Mod

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#27364 23-Oct-2008 13:47

I have a Macbook and two HPs (all recent models) all with 802.11n built in.

At our ~~beach house so we can 'work' there over summer~~ other office we are getting a connection that ultimately is just an ethernet cable available to us.

I need to put a WiFi router out there, and long range, if available, would be really good. At the end of the day, we can settle with any reasonable WiFi range though.

1. Will our HPs and Mac talk draft-N with a Netgear Rangemax router?
2. Can you recommend a RELIABLE router that will play nicely with our N devices. (Tomizone capable would be an advantage)

cyril7

9075 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 2499

ID Verified

Trusted

Subscriber

#173655 26-Oct-2008 08:42

Hi Tony cannot comment about the compatibility in draft-N mode, but at the least they should all play ball back a 802.11g, your internet uplink will be a limiting factor to speed.

I presume you are being offered a wired port from a Tomizone router, as such you cannot use your router as a NAT router unless you can somehow get its WAN port to fill the splash login page. As such you are better off using your router as an AP, ie connect the Tomizone feed to one of the LAN ports of your router, ensure your routers DHCP server is off as the Tomizone will want to provide that.

I dont know what arrangement you have with the Tomizone operator, but each of your PCs will need their own voucher or account, alternatively (I think) you can have multple pcs logged in on the owners account that also acrue no bill. Alternately you could get a non Tomizone port from the Tomizone router that bypasses billing and come to some seperate payment arrangement with the owner, PM me if this seems a bit vague.

I find the Engenius routers to be very good both in value and performance. Most domestic routers are only +15-18dBm so only 25-50mW, these start at 100mW and actually provide that. I know they are only 802.11b/g but as stated your uplink does not justify anything more unless you intend to stream and spool files locally. 802.11g is also a safe place to work at when you are not sure of draft-N compatibility. I do not that GoWifi now have a draft-N engenius listed. With any routers adding a 5-8dBi omni will increase range yet again.

Cyril

tonyhughes

Hawkes Bay
8476 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 6

Retired Mod

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#173666 26-Oct-2008 09:52

The connection will actually be provided by Airnet, and is a 4MB/1MB wireless connection, into a Linksys router - not sure of model.

The router is locked down - customers do not have any admin access to it, though we can get them to set up various rules and services on request.

Tomizone would be nice, as we are right in the middle of a very busy beach township that has precious little internet access, and we could probably recoup lots of our costs of having the connection out there.

CYaBro

4708 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1182

ID Verified

Trusted

#173668 26-Oct-2008 09:56

If you are wanting a bigger range to try to cover as much area as possible then I would look at the Engenius ECB-3220.
It's on the page that Cyril linked to.
They are 400mw and can also take a bigger antenna.
You would still need a Tomizone router to connect it to.

Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer.

cyril7

9075 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 2499

ID Verified

Trusted

Subscriber

#173669 26-Oct-2008 10:07

Hi gotya, if you go the Tomizone route then the only routers of any use are the WRT45GL or the Dlink DIR-300, surprisingly the latter works very well if you use the lattest firmware and has the nice feature of offering two SSIDs, one Tomizone and one private, so you as owner dont need to go through the Tomizone on the Wireless leg. A DIR-300 with a decent omni antenna to increase range would probably be the go. But if you are really after decent RF performance then the Engenius units provide a different level of operation to any domestic grade stuff.

The DIR-300 can be had for under $80, if you locate it for optimum coverage and up the antenna gain it will probably do what you want. Dont forget a Tomizone router offers two levels of NAT routing, firstly it operates as a normal NAT router and you can set howmany wired ports are on the normal router (ie not Tomizone) and in the DIR-300 the private SSID uses this route. Then there is a Tomizone side that once again you can nominate which wired ports are attached to and obviously the Tomizone SSID routes to, this means you as owner can use the router as any other with no Tomizone interfernce, and in a seperate address space and SSID the Tomizone operates.

You can still put a further AP on either the Tomizone or Private space if you want even greater coverage.

Cheers
Cyril

tonyhughes

Hawkes Bay
8476 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 6

Retired Mod

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#173750 26-Oct-2008 20:37

Great info! Thanks!