Chapter 8 Wireless Access Points

D-Link DIR-655    Price  $65 - $100

This is the router a used at home for 3 years.  Its capable of broadcasting in 802.11g, 802.11n, or a mix of both, 802.11g/n.  I always preferred using one or the other, I noticed a bit of connectivity issues when using the mixed broadcast.  This access point also as a built in switch that has 1 10/100/1000 WAN port, and 4 10/100/1000 LAN ports.  In other words, Gigabit ports.  These come in handy when transferring/streaming larger files such as movies, HD movies, or online gaming across your home network.  One downside to this wireless access point is that it only uses the 2.4 GHz frequency to broadcast.  The same one is used for a multitude of other wireless and electronic devices which can cause a bit of interference.  This access point also provides numerous security features such as WPA and WPA2, an inbound firewall, MAC filtering, etc.  The data transfer rates can reach up to 180Mbs wirelessly!

Engenius ECB3500 Business Class G Access Point        Price  $100

This router boasts multiple roles as an access point, bridge, repeater and so on.  It can also broadcast multiple SSID's at once.  It does not support the new 802.11n standard, but supports the SuperG standard, just a fancy way of saying 108Mbps on the 802.11g standard.  You can select the broadcast power for better communication and also supports encryption of wireless transmissions in WPA2/WPA/WEP.  It also features MAC filtering.  Operates in the 2.4GHz range.

NetGear N750 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit          Price  $150

The first thing that you should know about this router is that it has the capability to broadcast in
2.4 GHz or 5Ghz.  The latter of the two will give you less interference, but degragation of signal through objects such as walls is more prominent than with 2.4GHz.  It also provides the Gigabit port access much like the DIR-655, but also includes a USB connection that can be used to share a USB storage device, like an external hard drive.  As for the standards supported, it supports all a/b/g/n standards, but that depends on the frequency used to broadcast.  802.11b/g/n are supported on 2.4GHz, and 802.11a/n are supported on the 5GHz frequency.  I didnt read about an MAC filtering, big downside, but does include a dual firewall, NAT and SPI.