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SMC 2652W Wireless Access Point

If you need to integrate wireless networking with a traditional wired LAN, you need an access point. The SMC2652W allows you to mix a 10mbit/sec LAN with an 802.11b or 802.3 based wireless devices.

The SMC2652W access point is designed to be plugged in to an existing wired LAN usually via a hub. The access point communicates with any wireless devices you have such as a PCMCIA equipped laptop or a PC with a wireless LAN card. We looked at a suitable card, also from SMC recently and found it to work very well indeed.

Hardware

The SMC2652W feels rather flimsy and plasticky which doesn’t help with initial impressions. At the back is a single RJ45 connector for connecting to the wired LAN along with a serial port. The serial port seems to have no documented function that I could find. Whilst on the subject of documentation, if everything worked fine first time and the user knew what they were doing, the supplied documentation would have been adequate. However, having hit a few problems myself when setting up, I soon found them to be lacking and a trip to SMC’s web site didn’t help much either. Luckily, the web is awash with useful information on setting up and configuring such devices which solved my teething troubles.

The 2652W has a small rubber coated aerial which can be adjusted to get the best signal if needed. Finally, the top contains a series of informational LEDs to let you see what is happening both in the wired and wireless domain.

In Use

Installation is straightforward inasmuch as you simply plug it in, run the setup software and configure a few parameters in the software. This was where I had some problems. The software uses a simple web based interface to configure the 2652W. On the client PCs you need to set the ID of the access point. In some places it is referred to in an xx.xx.xx.xx.xx format, in others as xx:xx:xx:xx:xx. I couldn’t get either to work and had to resort to setting it to ‘ANY’ which worked OK but does raise the possibility of connecting to someone else’s access point if they are in range.

In my previous tests of the SMC wireless PCI cards, I found the speed and range to be very good although the tests were generally carried out either on the same horizontal plane or one floor part. This time I had the main LAN and SMC2652W in a converted loft office and another PC on the ground floor being two floors and about 30 feet away. This time the results were rather poorer. PCs in the same room worked beautifully with the full 11mbit speed being realised. The PC two floors away was a different story. The connection was intermittent and rarely managed anything more than 2mbits/second. If used to web browse via IP, it worked OK and when downloading files from the web managed to be at the maximum the cable modem in the loft could provide. On the other hand, copying files from one PC to another generally failed after copying part way. I can only assume this is because IP is more tolerant of poor connectivity than NetBEUI.

Before we conclude the SMC2652W is poor, it should be noted that the building it was tested in is a 1930’s era house with wall construction to match. One or more walls have wire mesh used to hold the plaster and this acts very effectively as a faraday cage blocking out wireless signals. This raises an important issue. The underlying technology of both this and other manufacturers wireless offerings is only able to produce the claimed range and speeds under ideal conditions and some buildings and situations might not be suitable for longer ranges.

To test the hypothesis, I took a laptop and wandered to the end of the garden some 130 feet from the access point with only a single wall and window between us. The results were much more favourable with 5mbit/sec being the average speed.

Some people have managed to increase the range by replacing the supplied aerial with a longer one although these are quite expensive in their own right. The £70 or so it adds will buy you an extra few db which could make all the difference.

Another wrinkle to be aware of is that the 2.4Ghz band used for wireless LANs is shared with things like TV senders. I use such a device to send signals from my cable TV box in the lounge to another TV elsewhere in the house. The picture from this is normally excellent but as soon as the 2652W was powered up I could see regular pulsed interference on the TV.

Conclusion

When first released, the SMC 2652W was £450. Now it sells for £269 which is far more reasonable although as usual, the price in the US is quite a bit cheaper. Shop around though as I have found it as low as £180 in the UK. At the lower price it is worth considering especially when partnered with SMC’s excellent wireless PCI cards. Before buying do consider though what kind and number of walls will be between the access point and wireless PCs as this could be a show stopper. 

Iain Laskey