Digital Trends

D-Link DI-624 XtremeG

May 28th, 2004 | by Jeff Fila

Introduction

If a 54Mbps wireless transfer speed just isn't enough for you, several companies are now offering a new technology with 802.11g networks that offer up to 108Mbps throughput. D-Link is one such company, with their DI-624 AirPlus XtremeG 802.11g router based on the Atheros Super-G chipset that touts speeds of up to 108Mbps.

In a nutshell, Super-G works by acting as two 802.11g connections at once. Atheros' Super-G solution forces the wireless LAN to operate on channel 6, and bleeds into channel 1 and 11 to offer higher throughput. The technology also adds some hardware-based compression technologies that D-Link says provides a significant performance boost in the 2.5GHz frequency range.

But if you know anything about wireless networking — and the marketing of wireless products — you should know that the number on the box is not what you'll really experience when you take it home and set it up. While the 108Mbps tag looks great from a marketing perspective and it has been proven to help sell the products, that number is the theoretical maximum speed and you should expect to see a significantly lower speed.

The DI-624 features a single antenna and four wired Ethernet ports.