Common Questions about the WNR854T RangeMax Next Router

How fast is it?

It's NETGEAR's fastest wireless router, with LAN speed — within your network — of up to 300 Mbps. (Outside your network, the connection to the Internet is limited by your ISP.) This is the first router anywhere which can later be upgraded to upcoming IEEE 802.11n standard. Note that the rating of 300 Mbps is the IEEE standard in perfect conditions, without interference, overhead of security, etc. To get the best performance, use RangeMax Next adapters with the router, such as the WN511T.

The router is backward compatible with 802.11b and 802.11g, although at much slower speeds.

What are the Antennas?

There are three high-efficiency internal dipole antennas. They are designed to work optimally in most positions, and do not need adjustment. They behave similarly to three external antennas with 2dBi maximum gain. When transmitting, one or two antennas are used. When receiving, one, two or all three antennas are used.

What are the bandwidth options?

The fastest performance is with 300 Mbps, however this uses the 40 MHz frequency and may interfere with other wireless devices in the 2.4 GHz band such as other 802.11 equipment. To avoid this, you can set the router to work in the same 20 MHz bandwidth as 801.11b/g equipment, which reduces its maximum performance to 145 Mbps.

For both speeds, there is an "Only" setting, which stops the router from communicating with any of the slower non-802.11n products. When the "Auto" setting is used, the router automatically drops its speed to the slowest adapter.

What does the top Power light mean?

• It's solid green when the router is powered on, and ready to use.
• It's solid amber when booting and doing self test.
• It's amber and blinking during a firmware upgrade.

Maximum wireless signal rate derived from IEEE Standard 802.11 specifications. Actual data throughput will vary. Network conditions and environmental factors, including volume of network traffic, building materials and construction, and network overhead, lower actual data throughput rate.

N101611.asp Apr. 6, 2006