Tom's Hardware > All Reviews > Special > Miscellaneous > ZyXEL B-4000 Wireless Service Gateway reviewed

Wireless Performance

05:57 - Thursday 11 September 2003 by THG Reporting Team

NOTES:
• "Signal Quality" readings taken with the ZyXEL client utility
• Testing was done with a ZyXEL B-100 client card in a WinXP Home Dell Inspiron 4100 laptop unless otherwise noted

Even though ZyXEL's ZyAIR B-100 802.11b card (based on Intersil's PRISM chipset) can't take advantage of the B-4000's 802.11b+ 22Mbps raw data rate, the pair turned in one of the best 802.11b performances that I've ever seen!

Figure 11: Four location throughput
(click on the image for a full-sized view)

Figure 11 shows that the results from my four location test were so consistent, that I had to double check to make sure that I didn't accidently forget to run some of the tests! I also checked performance with 128 bit WEP enabled and saw no throughput change.

I should note that the test results are taken through the router, since the B-4000's V-LAN feature prevents all communication between LAN-side clients. But since routing throughput is more than 3X the speed of the wireless connection, I can safely say these results truly reflect the actual wireless speed.

802.11b Wireless Performance Test Results

Test Conditions - WEP encryption: DISABLED - Tx Rate: Automatic - Power Save: Disabled - Test Partner:			Firmware/Driver Versions AP f/w: 1.00.06 Wireless client driver: WinXP 1.7.37.1098 Wireless client f/w: 1.04.02.00
Test Description	Signal Strength (%)	Transfer Rate (Mbps)	Response Time (msec)	UDP stream
Test Description	Signal Strength (%)	Transfer Rate (Mbps)	Response Time (msec)	Throughput (kbps)	Lost data (%)
Client to AP - Condition 1	100	5 [No WEP] 5 [w/ WEP]	0 (avg) 0 (max)	0	0
Client to AP - Condition 2	80	5.1	0 (avg) 0 (max)	0	0
Client to AP - Condition 3	73	5.1	0 (avg) 0 (max)	0	0
Client to AP - Condition 4	60	5.1	0 (avg) 0 (max)	0	0