NETGEAR ProSafe Dual Band Wireless VPN Firewall reviewed



Wireless Monitoring & Other Features

Wireless client monitoring is supported, but you have to work to find it. The Maintenance > Attached Devices link shows the FWAG's DHCP client list, but offers no distinction between wired and wireless clients and shows only the Name, IP and MAC addresses of leases. If you're using static IP addressing for your wireless clients, they won't show up in this list.

The Maintenance > Router Status link shows the SSID, BSSIC (MAC address), Channel, and WEP status of each radio and includes a Show Statistics button that pops up a window showing aggregate transmit and receive stats for WAN, LAN and both radios. Better than nothin', but not up to what I'd like to see.

Finally, you should know that Wireless Bridging features are not included in the FWAG. If you need this capability, you should check out Buffalo Tech's WBRG54, which is the only 11g router so far to support this capability.

Wireless Performance 11a, g - Throughput vs. Range

NOTE!NOTES:
Testing was done with a NETGEAR WAG511 Cardbus client card in a WinXP Home Dell Inspiron 4100 laptop unless otherwise noted

Since the FWAG is the first Atheros-based 11g product I've tested, I gave it my full battery of tests. There's a lot to go through, so let's get started.