Gigafast wireless AP @ TD for $100 AR

[wfay]

hi guys,

just ran across this wireless access point while browsing Tiger Direct. "GigaFast's Wireless Engine 711-AP is an IEEE802.11b compliant 11Mbps Wireless Access Point." Gigafast AP at Tiger Direct

Price $124.99
Rebate -$25.00 (Mail in rebate expires: 1/31/2002)
Final Cost $99.99

the price is pretty good for an 802.11b AP, and while I have big reservations about Tiger Direct (they screwed me 3-4 years ago and i haven't been back since), this product is rather enticing. even more enticing is the $100 Rio Receiver but thats in another post... (i may have to break my anti-TD stance just to get that Rio Receiver)

anyways, i have been trying to find some info on this company Gigafast to see who really makes their wireless products but haven't found anything. here's the Gigafast AP site. anyone know anything about this company and the quality of their products?? Practically Networked has nothing on them either...

here's the same AP at Computers4Sure for comparison @ $190.

try to keep the "TD sucks stay away!!" comments to a minimum, we all know that we are taking a risk any time we deal with TD, just wanted to post what i consider to be a nice deal (Linksys etc products are all $25-50 more) and to see what others know about Gigafast.

wayne

 

[johto]

certainly interesting... i just got a friend to buy a linksys setup and it turned out the range was less than 50ft, which sucks! i wish i knew more about electronics... it says the output is less than 100 Mw, and by that I assume they really mean mW I know the Cisco 'high powered' systems output 100 mW and I would bet that's the most allowed by the FCC.

As you can tell I'm very much into the range and power of products now. Linksys doesn't list their specs...

It is damn ugly, though, no?

Thanks for the post. I'll ponder.

 

[Nightfall]

I have to agree.

I tried a linksys and a SMC wireless access point and the range really sucked. Less than 50 feet is right.

I then went with a Cisco Aironet 340 access point and that did the trick. Now I get at least a 5 mbps connection outside and 10 inside the house. The access point is in the basement. You can't argue with that bandwidth!

Yea, it is expensive, but my personal opinion is if you want quality, you have to pay for it. Wireless is something that you will want to have range if you have a big house or a lot of property.

 

[kof]

Listed as unknown company by one review on their site. And of the 4 reviews on their site the all talked about their min-router which seemed to com in different colors.
This is a good price, however if you also need a PC card I think CompUSA was selling a belkin router and PC card for $150+sht.
And I just got a linksys router for $140 +sht from Gateway (20rb)
Remember, 802.11a is just being introduced, so expect 802.11b prices to drop.

 

[johto]

<<

Yea, it is expensive, but my personal opinion is if you want quality, you have to pay for it. Wireless is something that you will want to have range if you have a big house or a lot of property. >>



ditto... I have 3com stuff and have no problems at all. Cisco/3com/Orinoco/Proxim high end stuff just isn't in some people's budgets, though.

 

[Alesmith]

Johto,

There's a SW hack that ups the Linksys output power to 100mW. Do a Google search and a bunch of references will show up. The Linksys is also easy to add external antennae to, if you're a do-it-yourself'er.

I was planning to do that, but the Belkin deal this weekend was just too cheap to pass up.

-Dave

 

[Athena]

«I tried a linksys and a SMC wireless access point and the range really sucked. Less than 50 feet is right.»

The Linksys implementation of 802.11b is known to be poor. The access point is usually okay but the Linksys cards are just terrible.

OTOH, i'm using an SMC A/P and I get excellent range with it -- I took my laptop to my neighbor's house two doors up and had no problem accessing the router. I That experience was what made me trade in the SMC card for an Orinoco to get better WEP128 performance (I had an SMC card before and it was much slower with WEP enabled).

One thing that I've found, is that many people mistakenly equate the link quality with actual range. The systray icons can be deceptive in that respect: it is quite common to get 11mbs over poor quality link. The link indicator was yellow (poor) the entire time I was working up the street but I would not have known that there was anything degraded had I not had the icon activated.

 

[kof]

Well I've the Linksys router, and an SMC PC card - and at about 50 feet, 2 floors, and some metal ductwork I get good speeds.
Right now at about 40 feet, 3 walls and no duct work I'm getting (according to the SMC config utility) a fair signal strength, and a poor link quality.
This is without WEP enabled.
Since I'm planning on moving the router to the center of the house, this will do for me, my cable rarely goes over 500kbps.

 

[GetReal]

<< Listed as unknown company by one review on their site. And of the 4 reviews on their site the all talked about their min-router which seemed to com in different colors.
This is a good price, however if you also need a PC card I think CompUSA was selling a belkin router and PC card for $150+sht.
And I just got a linksys router for $140 +sht from Gateway (20rb)
Remember, 802.11a is just being introduced, so expect 802.11b prices to drop. >>




We just did an eval of some 3COM 80211a products and were very impressed with the results (both range and link quality) over our current 802.11b implementation. If you can wait and have the funds, I would wait a dew months or so for the 802.11a products. We also evaled seveal 802.11b product when we implemented them last year. The Linksys and SMC products faired poorly in our environment compared to the Lucent and Aironet solutions. However, the Linksys and SMC products have the competitive price going form them and are more than satisfactory for most residential applications . One thing that we learned in the eval is that as a general rule, your enviroment and implementaion has more to do with with your range and link quality than the manufacturer of equipment. I would recommend that anyone serious about setting up their wireless environment go to your local rental supersotre and rent a signal strength meter. They rent for around $12.00/day, but will aid in your placement and positioning of your fixed wireless equipment. We increased our range by about 4x by using this meter to determine area of our building that yielded the most coverage.

 

[Booh]

Do I need an acces point or can I network my desktop and laptop with just 2 cards. If I can what will the range be?

 

[GetReal]

<< Do I need an acces point or can I network my desktop and laptop with just 2 cards. If I can what will the range be? >>



You do not need an acces point. You can set them up to run in ad-hoc mode. Range will depend on your environment

 

[Booh]

Ok, thanks, I just may do that. I dont need a whole lot of range maybe a couple hundred feet max.

 

[wfay]

<< Ok, thanks, I just may do that. I dont need a whole lot of range maybe a couple hundred feet max. >>


you may not be able to get that kind of distance, from what i've read on the web in user reviews and even just having read what was posted in this thread!! looks like people are maxing out at less than 100 feet. perhaps the higher quality cards will give you better distances.



<< just got a friend to buy a linksys setup and it turned out the range was less than 50ft, which sucks! >>




<< tried a linksys and a SMC wireless access point and the range really sucked. Less than 50 feet is right. >>




<< Well I've the Linksys router, and an SMC PC card - and at about 50 feet, 2 floors, and some metal ductwork I get good speeds. >>


and there's always the Pringles can antenna which costs almost nothing to try. i have also heard that the USB Wireless products work better than PCI/PCMCIA cards...

wayne =)