EnGenius ESR-7750 for $50

[gerrygadget]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002JUECW6/?tag=snbforums-20

Amazon via TigerDirect. Appears to have just gone on sale.

Anyone know anything about this one? The only thing I've dug up is that the transmit power is only 50mW. My current WRT54G running Tomato has a default of 42mW which I bumped to the max supported 84mW, but for some reason I've been having more dropped sessions (connections?) lately, mostly on my wireless PC, and decided to cut back transmit to 72mW in case I'm overheating or something.

Anyway, I was thinking about the 7750 for the dual-band simultaneous since I have a growing list of wireless clients (PC, laptop, netbook, wii, nintendo-ds, Roku (original)) in addition to my wired PC, so I could move the PC and netbook to 5GHz and have less competition between them as well as the other wireless activity in my neighborhood.

My other options are the ESR-98500 ($52 Amazon, also via TigerDirect) and the Buffalo WZR-HP-G300NH ($90 Amazon, was $80 the other day - grrr!).

My main need is to support mixed G/N clients, and have the clients all have reasonable performance when the Roku is going. Anything better than what I've got right now, though I'd like to get the Roku HD eventually.

Thoughts anyone? Is the 7750 a steal for what I need?

 

[saturation]

On the thread on the ESR 9850, SNB states it will review the ESR-7750 soon.

There are 2 detailed reviews on the 7750 listed here:

http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showpost.php?p=18007&postcount=9

I use it and get the results posted on the Epinion and Amazon site.

Product literature state the 802.11n power output is 32mW [15 dBm]. Its 50 mW [17 dBm] rated for the 11b.

http://www.invictusnetworks.com/datasheets/ESR-7750.pdf


I've only been able to test it to 20' from the router, albeit through 3 layers of dry wall, and still get maximum throughput.

Note, the 5 GHz does penetrate less, but the signal strength seems less an issue than the transmission quality, 2 measurements that are made by the AP software, Ralink's actually, enclosed with the unit.

Here is a photo of its throughput performance:

http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showpost.php?p=17631&postcount=6

You'll note the transfer is relatively solid.

If you live in an apartment, I would not hesitate to recommend it highly, as your performance could be like mine. But if you live in a multistory home, the other floors I can't be sure of the trasmission quality, and we need the SNB report of its location throughput.

 

[gerrygadget]

Thanks for the pointers

Wow, I must have been looking at a different product's spec, 32mW sounds pretty low. I do live in a multi-story home, so I might just go with the Buffalo to ensure good performance from clients in all locations, even if I can't get top-notch 11n 5GHz performance.

I'm also kind of interested in the Buffalo's USB storage psuedo-NAS capability since i have several external FAT HDs in USB enclosures, one of which holds a synched copy of all our photos that is getting harder to synch because we now have 4 PCs that my "users" at home add photos to, despite my request that they only go on one.

Thanks again! Hopefully somebody will see the price on the 7750 and it will meet their feature needs and pocketbook needs!

 

[saturation]

Wow, I must have been looking at a different product's spec, 32mW sounds pretty low. I do live in a multi-story home, so I might just go with the Buffalo to ensure good performance from clients in all locations, even if I can't get top-notch 11n 5GHz performance.

I'm also kind of interested in the Buffalo's USB storage psuedo-NAS capability since i have several external FAT HDs in USB enclosures, one of which holds a synched copy of all our photos that is getting harder to synch because we now have 4 PCs that my "users" at home add photos to, despite my request that they only go on one.

Thanks again! Hopefully somebody will see the price on the 7750 and it will meet their feature needs and pocketbook needs!

You're welcome, hope it helps. Just closing thoughts, if you buy an AP with more output power, it may run hot, and those tend to have shorter lives.

The trick is to buy close to the power you need, so it 'saves energy', lasts longer and still work for you.

The EnGenius brick supply only draws 5 Watts when in full power, FYI and I run it 24/7.

If you simply get a high power transmitter to 'brute force' penetrate throughout your home, the farthest points tend to get the short end of the stick. It may be better to get 2 cheaper ones with the second working as a repeater or WDS. This could even out the speed to the most distant spot you need reception, say point F, just know with WDS it halves your maximum throughput from say 60 to 30 Mbps, but you'll extend that all the way to point F [see diagram] were there is no reception.

That NAS storage puts your need is a whole new category! But make sure the AP-router section works well since storage won't matter if you can't get to it.