InformationWeek

We had to use a serial connection to set up the bridge. Once an IP address is assigned to each bridge via the serial link, a telnet session or Web browser can be used to access the additional features. But navigation through both the telnet and Web interfaces wasn't easy, and it took us some time to learn our way around the different screens.

The AIR-BR340 has one of the most thorough sets of configuration options we saw. Affording the ability to configure nearly every aspect of your radio connection, Cisco crams a lot into its setup programs. Compared with the RadioLAN BridgeLink's Web interface or Lucent's software for its Orinoco WavePoint II, however, Cisco falls behind in usability. We question how much of what Cisco lets you modify is really necessary.

With a raw data rate of 11 Mbps, the AIR-BR340 demonstrated reasonably strong results during throughput testing, operating at significantly faster speeds when transferring large amounts of data (averaging 5.5 Mbps) as opposed to smaller burst segments (averaging 4.8 Mbps). The AIR-BR340 supports point-to-multipoint applications, providing a maximum of three simultaneous channels.

The AIR-BR340 also did well when it came to range: It was in the upper third of the tested products, beating the entrants from Lucent Technologies, Pinnacle, and Wave Wireless handily. Cisco claims the product can cover eight miles using the right antenna configuration, and that assertion proved credible in our tests. The AIR-BR340 was the only device we tested that uses an RP-TNC interface for antenna connections. Cisco also provides a wide variety of antenna options, from directional Yagi and dish antennas to omnidirectional point-to-multipoint solutions that connect to the TNC interface.

Enterasys' High-Rate RoamAbout 11-Mbps outdoor solution-comprising the High-Rate RoamAbout Access Point and PC Card-is well-built. With strong performance and decent range, this Enterasys offering is a viable option for those seeking a solid, 2.4-GHz spread-spectrum bridging solution.

Enterasys' RoamAbout Access Point Manager is used to configure the device, and a single copy of the software can set up every bridge in your network. Although the software wasn't the easiest to use among our tested products, it did find all the bridges in our test bed with no difficulty. Overall, we had few problems getting it up and running. The software was able to display signal meters and other information, and you can use it to set alarms. The device can also be monitored and configured using SNMP.

The RoamAbout was at the top of the group of PC Card-based products in performance: It was able to hold an 11-Mbps connection at high levels of attenuation. It was also the least expensive bridge we saw, though the price doesn't include the IEEE 802.11-compliant PC Card radio. However, Enterasys also offers a complete package, containing a bridge, a PC Card, an antenna and all the required cables, for $1,799. That's a great price, when you consider that C-Spec Corp.'s and Lucent's bridges alone are about $1,700.

Enterasys' product doesn't offer the ability to do point-to-multipoint bridging, nor does it have any routing capabilities, but it's still an inexpensive and well-built wireless solution.

C-Spec's OverLAN RF-11 Plus is among the top-of-the-line wireless bridges made by C-Spec, which also sells several wireless bridges with data throughput under 11 Mbps that offer plenty of outdoor-antenna options. It has the same look and feel as the PinnacleLink 11/E1, with slight software modifications. Yet C-Spec's product was able to outperform the other PC Card-based bridges that comply with the IEEE 802.11 standard. We achieved throughput averaging 3.7 Mbps to 4 Mbps, placing the OverLAN RF-11 Plus close to BreezeCom's BreezeNet, which was at the lower end of the internal-radio class of products. C-Spec's product also had the best range of the PC Card-based, IEEE 802.11-compliant products.

While initial setup was similar to that of the PinnacleLink, the bridge IP addresses that C-Spec had given us were incorrect. This made configuration difficult until we changed the IP addresses of the machine and bridge units. Several times during the initialization process, the bridges stopped responding after we tried to save our configuration data. The engineers at C-Spec were surprised by this anomaly, and so were we. After reporting the instability, we upgraded the firmware; the bridges then began to behave properly.