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April 3, 2000

Wireless LANs: More Than Toys

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Related links:

Vendors Tout Fast Wireless Connections Between LANs (1/10/00)

And from our sister publications:

Computer Reseller News Lucent renames WaveLAN line (2/28/00)

InternetWeek What's Tethering Wireless LANs? (2/21/00)

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Cabletron definitely comes up the winner on the dollar front in this roundup, with a price of $799 per access point and only $199 per PC Card interface (with basic Wireless Equivalent Privacy encryption).

You get a lot of functionality for your money with this series, including excellent management support, competitive performance, and great security. You even get a nice set of printed manuals.

As with all these devices, most of you will sweat while setting up the RoamAbout access points. Like Lucent's access points, these come with a large metal mounting bracket for wall mounts, as well as little rubber feet for desktop mounts.

Once this wiring step has been arranged, you'll run into the second-biggest difference between the Cabletron-Lucent camp and the others in this roundup: Their access points require the use of one of your wireless PC Cards in order to function. This is not a big problem, considering the price tag.

While we're sure that 3Com will give Cabletron a run for its money in the management software department once its products leave beta, during this review, Cabletron's remote management and configuration utilities were polished and deep, and the procedures for use were accurately detailed in the accompanying manuals.

Cabletron has paid special attention to security with this release. One caveat, however, is that we didn't test its Extended Service Set Identification browsing capabilities; buyers should check out this feature before purchasing. Other than that, Cabletron supports everything you'd want from a secure wireless LAN, including both 40-bit and 128-bit Wireless Equivalent Privacy. It even supports key management so managers can change encryption keys.

The RoamAbout's throughput performance was excellent as well, with Chariot results running at 5 Mbps or higher and extending the range easily to 400 feet and beyond from the nearest access point. Cabletron's RoamAbout products provide an excellent and well-polished wireless LAN solution. And considering the price tag, it's easily the most-attractive product line.

Compaq WL Series
To be fair, Compaq was caught off-guard with this review. It showed up with beta hardware that was not nearly as finished as that submitted by 3Com. The company tried to get us updated hardware, but wasn't able to make it in time for testing. While this certainly caused us some problems, we need to stress at the outset that many of these problems are due solely to the WL's beta nature and won't be there when the product ships. We've noted where we think this won't be the case.

Installing an access point should have been as simple as plugging it in and then running the configuration software on a machine wired into the same subnet. The workstation should have found the access point automatically and begun installation. In our tests, however, this was not the case.

No matter what we tried, Compaq's management software could not locate the WL access point. Additionally--and much like the 3Com device--the Compaq WL immediately crashed the DHCP service running on our smaller test LAN, which ran Ositis Software's WinProxy 3.0 in order to provide a quick sharing gateway to our cable modem-enabled Web access.

Though we were unable to test much of Compaq's security feature set because of our inability to configure the access point beyond its defaults, we nevertheless managed to achieve connectivity to a range of around 350 feet.

On the downside, Compaq's wireless LAN NIC utilities are overly complex. Wireless Equivalent Privacy key generation should be automatic instead of forcing users to click a "Generate" button. The Compaq WL access point has one thing in its favor: It uses reverse Systems Management Architecture connectors on a pair of external antennas. This allows the radio to deal with bounced signals better by comparing signals and taking the better of the two. It provides a significant advantage in offices with lots of metal in the walls or lined with walls of filing cabinets.

Considering its competitive price and the elegance that Compaq intends for its eventual release, we'd recommend revisiting Compaq's wireless product line if your wireless LAN plans can wait until their final release.

Lucent WaveLAN
Like Cabletron's RoamAbout series, Lucent's WaveLAN products are also the base platform for Apple's AirPort product line.

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