1^st Impressions

Only a few components are needed to start up a wireless LAN (home or office).

1.                  An access point (Not always essential, discussed later read ‘ad-hoc’)

2.                  One or more wireless adapter cards

3.                  A local Ethernet connection to configure the access point. (see point 1.)

4.                  Two or more PC’s (obvious)

The bits and pieces that we shall be seeing in review are as follows:

• UNEX NexAir HR011 Access Point
• UNEX NexAir UR011i USB adapter card
• UNEX NexAir MR011 PCMCIA adapter card
• Generic PCMCIA to PCI adapter

Access Point - As with the other UNEX components available www.guru3d.com/review/unex/nexgamer they are following similar designs. The metallic silver finished plastic looks snazzy and is obviously aimed at homes or for more radical office network wizards. A professional simple however exuberant box, a refreshing change.

This silver circuit needs to be hooked up to a power supply and to a physical network connection. This is for the configuration that needs to be done before the wireless network can function properly.

Fig 2. The hub of all wireless activity, the access point.

For the best transmission and reception range, the access point should be kept away from muffling furniture and bad electrical noise. I.e. not under a desk near your PC.

It states several things on the box. On of which is the specs. (Will list these later). Main thing to notice is the 300m/984ft range at 1Mbps or 80m/262ft in an office environment. At 11Mbps look to roughly halve those values (150m/492ft & 30m/98ft) this really does prove the point about electrical dampeners and interference reducing range.

USB Adapter - Without reading the box you may be forgiven in mixing the access point and the USB adapter card up. The overall design and location of connectors are all the same. There are only two LED’s located in the middle and top aligned on the main facia. Apart from that the only other noticeable difference is the slightly smaller dimensions compared to the access point. The USB box is about the size of the average PC mouse, if a little squarer.

Fig 3. Spot the difference between the access point and the USB adapter

Again the main specs are exactly the same as the access point. 300m/984ft @ 1Mbps, 150m/492ft @ 11Mbps etc. Makes sense as all of this wireless equipment is in the same family, so to run the same specs across the range is good practise.