SMC2532W-B 802.11b High Power Wireless PC Card reviewed

12:02 PM - August 24, 2003 - by Tom's Guide Team

4. Closing thoughts

802.11b Wireless Performance Test Results

Test Conditions - WEP encryption: DISABLED - Tx Rate: Automatic - Power Save: Disabled - Test Partner: SMC 2655W Access Point			Firmware/Driver Versions AP f/w: 1.4f.4 Wireless client driver: 2.0.9.107 (WinXP) Wireless client f/w: No Info
Test Description	Signal Quality (%)	Transfer Rate (Mbps)	Response Time (msec)	UDP stream
Test Description	Signal Quality (%)	Transfer Rate (Mbps)	Response Time (msec)	Throughput (kbps)	Lost data (%)
Client to AP - Condition 1	100	4.7 [No WEP] 4.5 [w/ WEP]	3 (avg) 4 (max)	495	0
Client to AP - Condition 2	100	4.6	3 (avg) 4 (max)	497	0
Client to AP - Condition 3	100	4.6	3 (avg) 4 (max)	499	0
Client to AP - Condition 4	100	4.7	3 (avg) 6 (max)	499	0

See details of how we test.

There are a lot of factors that come into play to get a good wireless connection and power is only one of them. The SMC2532W-B could give you the edge you need to fix your particular WLAN nightmare, but don't overlook the other methods outlined in my Wireless LAN Performance Improvement NTK.