Fast Wireless for Home

Wi-Fi (802.11b) wireless networks are proliferating, but their high-speed Wi-Fi5 (802.11a) cousins have made few inroads into homes and small offices. One reason is price; the other is that, until now, you needed both a Wi-Fi5 access point and an ethernet router to connect your network to the Internet.

Netgear's HR314 802.11a Cable/DSL High-Speed Wireless Router addresses one of these problems: It's the first router we've seen with a Wi-Fi5 access point. But at a $450 street price--four times that of its 802.11b counterparts--it's not for everyone.

I installed a shipping unit and saw an immediate performance benefit in doing large file transfers: Transferring a 128MB file between PCs 30 feet apart took 3 minutes using the HR314, versus more than 8 minutes using standard Wi-Fi gear.

Don't expect Internet activity to speed up with a Wi-Fi5 network, because broadband connections typically top out at about 1 megabit per second, far slower than Wi-Fi's 11-mbps and Wi-Fi5's 54-mbps.

Also, if you plan to add a desktop to your wireless network, be prepared to install a PCI-based Wi-Fi5 adapter. Though USB 1.1-based adapters are readily available for Wi-Fi, a Wi-Fi5 version makes no sense because the 11-mbps top speed of USB 1.1 would quash any performance improvement. (Wi-Fi5 adapters that are based on the faster USB 2.0 have yet to appear.)

Wi-Fi5 suffers from the same highly publicized security vulnerabilities as Wi-Fi, so plan on adopting other security measures for sensitive data. Plus, since Wi-Fi5 is incompatible with the older standard, you'll have to replace all your current Wi-Fi adapters.

The HR314 performs as advertised, but for what it costs, you'd better really need the extra bandwidth. If not, hang on until competition pushes prices downward.

SUMMARY

Netgear HR314 Netgear. Wi-Fi5 router simplifies faster wireless home networks, but most buyers should wait for sky-high prices to come down first. Street: $450