Netgear RangeMax WN511B adapter review: Netgear RangeMax WN511B adapter

The Netgear RangeMax WN511B notebook adapter marks Netgear's entry into the Draft N adapter market. Based on the first official iteration of the long-awaited 802.11n specification, the $129 device costs a few bucks more than competitors, such as the $119 Linksys WPC300N, but it offers equally good maximum throughput and better performance at long range. That said, its scores still don't measure up to the blazing performance promised by Draft N, and the adapter's mixed-mode score is slow by any standard. We say hold your horses on the Netgear WN511B until we complete our tests of other recently announced Draft N adapters (though in general, it may be too soon to buy devices based on 802.11n at all).

For users who want a new adapter pronto, the Netgear WPNT511 provides especially fast maximum and mixed-mode throughput, while the Belkin Pre-N PC Card includes a more well-balanced mix of short- and long-range speed. (Keep in mind, though, that MIMO-based adapters that were released prior to this Draft N spec use proprietary technology and may not show such good performance when mixed with networking products from other vendors. You should be able to use the WN511B with any of the Draft N routers that were recently announced.)

From a design perspective, the RangeMax WN511B adapter is a somewhat snazzier version of Netgear's extra-plain WPNT511. The company constructed the PCMCIA card's end piece out of a smoky gray, slightly translucent plastic. This piece contains the wireless antenna and a blue status light that glows in different patterns to show when the card is connected to your laptop and to a wireless network.

Netgear offers the same easy setup process and configuration utility for the WN511B as it has with previous adapters. The hard-copy installation guide kick-starts the process, instructing you to load the included CD into your laptop's disc drive and install both the driver software and the configuration utility. The installation program will also assist you with making your initial connection to a Wi-Fi network, the details of which you can permanently store in your profiles. With these steps complete, you can rely on the comprehensive configuration utility to create more profiles and manage other aspects of your card usage. For example, the utility displays the SSID, MAC address, security capabilities, and signal strength of all the networks in your area; it also gives a graphical interpretation of your transmit/receive performance.

In addition to fantastic performance at both short and long range, the MIMO-based 802.11n specification has been hyped for its ability to maintain top speed in the presence of prior-generation 802.11b/g clients. CNET Labs' mixed-mode tests, however, proved to be the biggest challenge for the WN511B: the adapter clocked a mere 26.2Mbps, a much slower score than the Linksys WPC300N (46.0Mbps) and most of the older pre-N adapters we've tested, such as the Netgear WPNT511 (83.8Mbps) and Belkin Pre-N PC Card (42.1Mbps). The WN511B did a better job with our Labs' maximum throughput (72.7Mbps) and long-range (32.0Mbps) tests, though none of its times were the stellar ones we'd hoped for from the new 802.11n draft. (Bear in mind that to achieve their top speeds, the Belkin Pre-N and Netgear WPNT511 adapters mentioned here must be paired with their corresponding pre-N routers.)

The WN511B's one-year warranty pales in comparison to the lifetime and three-year warranties offered by Belkin and Linksys, respectively. At least Netgear provides toll-free 24/7 telephone support. We wish the Netgear support Web site supplied a helpful user forum and the ability to chat in real time with a tech rep along with the usual troubleshooting and FAQ info that it does provide.

Overall, the Netgear WN511B adapter outperformed Linksys's WPC300N Draft N adapter, but it is by no means a killer product. We're still not sold on the performances of the Draft N networking products we've tested so far, and we have a few more to check out. Our recommendation is to be patient and wait to see future iterations of Draft N products.