Buffalo AirStation G54 WLI-CB-G54HP > Reviews > Good, but could get expensive!

Author's product rating:   

Speed	Very fast
Ease of Installation	Good - quick to install
Ease of use	Satisfactory
Reliability	Good
Value For Money	Excellent

Advantages:	Amplified signal
Disadvantages:	Will most likely need an external antenna

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

This card is now a fair amount cheaper than it used to be, so I decided to splash out and see if it worked for me. I bought it for only slightly more dosh than a normal card, and it was delivered the very next day, courtesy of NickKnows.com

The reason for wanting to get this card was that I was trying to get a reliable connection to a weak signal at work, where the only alternative was a dial up connection. I had been using a Belkin USB adapter, stuck to the office window with brown tape and several USB extension cables between it and my laptop. Even then my connection seemed to depend a huge amount on the weather between me and the access point I was connecting to.

The card was easy to set up. Pop in the CD, install the drivers, then slide in the card when told to. The Buffalo software is quite good in that it lets you install just the drivers if you wish, rather than lumbering you with the client application as well, whether you want it or not.

I have two identical laptops, and using NetStumbler on both, the signal from my Access Point at home was indeed significantly stronger with the Buffalo card, than with the other laptop's MinPCI wireless card. However, as my AP at home is about 15ft above where I was testing the laptop, it didn't really prove that it would work where I neded it to most.

At work, the AP signal is very weak, to the point where with my USB card, the signal seems to spend more time dropped than connected. There is no doubt that the signal through the buffalo card is stronger, but the amplifier amplifies everything that it receives, including noise, so the signal / noise ratio didn't really improve, but there was more of both!!! Things could probably be improved with using an optional External antenna connected to the card's MC interface, but you're looking at another £30 for one of those.

If you wanted a long range wireless network, one of these cards with a high power Buffalo Access Point should give you a reliable connection a couple of hundred metres after the competition has disappeared into the ether, and the extended transmission ranges of the AP and the card should serve you well, but if only either one of these is a Buffalo product, then you'll probably not be terribly satisfied.

The bundled software seems more robust and just as useful as the client end software I've come across in my brief flirtations with DLink and Belkin kit, and I think that next time I replace my Access Point, I may well be tempted to see what Buffalo is offering then.