I bought one of these access points for work because of the two aerial functionality. These aerials work in one of two ways, either diversity where they both send and recieve and can tell which aerial has the best signal to you and uses that, and simplex where one aerial sends and one receives and one sends and you have to have a good signal on both for the system to work.
the diversity system makes it more flexible and we have a larger aerial on an extension on one of the RP TNC aerial connectors, this covers our manufacturing area, and one standard aerial which covers our office space. this works well and extends the range and thus the value for money of this unit.
the advantage however using the aerials simplex is that in situations like an office with a good signal to both aerials one sending and one receiving cuts down the traffic queue and the system is a bit faster.
the box is very well made and has survived being slammed behind a door and dropped on the floor.
the set up out of the box is easy, you can either connect to it directly by plugging it into an ethernet port on your computer and typing in it's default IP address (192.168.1.245) or by plugging it into your network and then running the install CD, which seems to find it whatever your IP settings are.
I've found that radio wise the box is somewhat sensitive to interference, and we've had to change some of our cordless digital phones because they broke the signal up completely.
there is also a healthy developer community out there making 3rd party firmware for this box as it runs a tiny distribution of linux called Busy Box, so you can get the box to do almost anything you like! The Linksys website is also excellent, with lots of helpful information, and a regular supply of official firmware updates.
actually configuring it can be as simple or as complicated as you want to make it, but I would suggest taking the time to learn about wireless security and to implement some using the wap54, I would also urge anyone out there to make the SSID of the signal customised to you (this makes it less hackable) and also to change the default password on the box to something custom - again for security
except for the debacle with the cordless phones, this unit has been faultless and i am going to get another one to use at home!
expect to pay £35-£45 from most online retailers, and up to £55 on the high st.
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Thanks for a great review, Im not very up with wireless networks & hadnt even thought about the phones, so cheers for that, youve given me food for thought. Sal
owenhurrell234 07.07.2005 13:38
Thanks for that, I totally forgot to add the guide price! I've edited the review to include that now.
as for where to get them, a google search will bring up good options.
lazza123 07.07.2005 11:20
Linksys are pretty good, I'm looking to go wireless. Maybe - if you don't me saying, you could add some detail about the cost, and the best place to get them!! Larry
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Jul 6th, 2005
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