Compex WPE54G 2a Review
By Jeff Fila
November 23rd, 2004
Summary
If you're looking for a multi-purpose wireless device, the Compex WPE54G has a feature list that is unmatched by its competitors. However, at over $100, it is quite pricy compared to the other 802.11b/g solutions on the market today. If you are just looking to add wireless clients to an existing network, create a wireless gateway, or add another access point to an existing wireless network, there are less expensive alternatives, albeit few, if any, that offer such a small footprint.
Considering that you have no option of adding wired clients to the WPE54G, those that may be interested in it as a gateway may be a highly specialized group. Business or advanced users might get more out of the advanced features offered by the WPE54G, such as the ability to bridge networks or act as a wireless Ethernet adapter.
Because of the excessively long boot time and several inconsistencies between the manual and real-world performance, we only suggest the WPE54G for those that have experience with 802.11x already. Once you get it set up properly, the Compex WPE54G works fairly well, but it may take you a while to get to that point.
Full Review
Introduction
With so many manufacturers coming out with similar wireless products based on the same designs, there isn't much out there to differentiate one brand from another. Compex has already impressed us with their NP26G-USB wireless router, which incorporates two USB ports that allow for print and webcam serving. The company's latest wireless product, the NetPassage WPE54G, breaks yet another mold by offering a collection of wireless services you're not likely to see from many competitors.
The WPE54G is called a wireless access point by Compex, but the product is more than just a simple access point; it offers five different modes and a host of business-class features. Available online and at retailers for around $110, the WPE54G may be attractive both to advanced home users and corporate setups.
Features and Design
Based on Intersil's Prism Nitro 802.11x chipset, the NetPassage WPE54G is a small, sleek-looking, wireless-only device that can operate in several different modes:
- Access Point mode: This is the default mode of the WPE54G. It allows you to add wireless devices to a wired network, bridging the wireless clients with the wired infrastructure.
- Access Point Client mode: This allows you to use the WPE54G as a wireless bridge between two wired networks.
- Internet Gateway mode: This allows you to hook the WPE54G to your broadband internet provider to allow for wireless broadband sharing.
- Wireless Routing Client mode: This mode allows you to use the WPE54G to connect to the internet wirelessly, and to route traffic to a wired network.
- Wireless Ethernet Adapter mode: In this mode, the WPE54G can wirelessly connect a notebook or workstation to a wireless network.
Like most of today's wireless access points and routers, the WPE54G offers static IP, dynamic IP, PPP and PPTP connections to Internet service providers. It also features the usual DHCP server, NAT (Network Address Translation), and port forwarding found in similar products.
Small enough to fit in a notebook bag or hide away in your office, the included power brick takes up almost as much room as the WPE54G itself. Besides the router and power adapter, included in the retail package are a quick install guide poster, a bright yellow Ethernet cable, product manuals, a plastic stand for upright positioning, and a CD containing the manual and Compex' uConfig device management application.
For wireless security, the WPE54G supports both WEP and WPA encryption. In our review of the NP54G-USB we noted that it did not support WPA so we were glad to see that Compex has implemented it in the WPE54G. Other security features include MAC address authentication and the ability to work with RADIUS servers.
The WPE54G can also be used in a WDS (Wireless Distribution System) environment and it supports two features we've seen on other Compex devices: their “Wireless Pseudo VLAN” and parallel broadband configuration. Wireless Pseudo VLAN allows you to segregate a single wireless LAN into multiple virtual LANs, only allowing communication between the virtual LANs. Parallel Broadband allows you to use multiple WPE54G's as load balancing and fail-over redundant routers when you have more than one connection to the internet.
Setup and Usage
Even though the WPE54G works in Access Point mode out of the box, it is a good idea to use the web-based management tool to set it up at first, at least to turn on security features. To administer the device at first, you'll need to connect it to a computer with an Ethernet cable. The uConfig utility simply searches the network for any Compex devices and allows you to connect to them with your web browser.
Through the web-based utility, you can select any of the supported modes, enable and configure wireless security, and access all of the WPE54G's features. The passworded utility also allows you to save your settings to a storage drive, upgrade the product's firmware, reboot the system, and reset it to factory settings. An IP Filtering feature allows you to set predefined rules for allowing or blocking outgoing packets.
In its default configuration as a wireless access point, the WPE54G worked flawlessly. Our wireless clients (Mac, Windows, and Linux) were all able to connect to the internet through the Compex router without a problem. But once we started testing the different modes, we ran into several issues that would certainly cause the average user some headaches. In fact we know there have been issues with other users because a tech support representative told us that there have been a number of users returning the product. In our discussion with tech support we found that the device takes about two minutes to boot and be ready, which is an extremely long time for this type of product — almost four times as long as competing products. This, he postulated, was one of the major reasons for customer returns — because users thought their device was broken since it took so long to be ready.
Nowhere in the manual does it mention this boot time, and nowhere does it mention that when booting, your computer will show that your Ethernet adapter is plugged and unplugged several times. This issue was a contributing factor to our issues with the WPE54G, since during this long boot process, our Windows XP computers would report that the cable was unplugged. When presented this error, we'd check the cable and eventually reboot the device, creating an endless loop of unplugging and rebooting the router. Adding to this issue was that the “hard reset” button did not work as described. The manual tells you to push the reset button in for 10 seconds while turning the device on for a hard reset. We tried this many times but could never get the device to reset to factory settings.
We also had issues using the WPE54G in certain modes with Windows computers. For instance, we had no problem whatsoever getting a Mac OS X or a Linux laptop to connect to the internet through the WPE54G in wireless Ethernet adapter mode. But we weren't able at all to get a Windows 2000 or Windows XP computer or laptop to connect this way. After several calls and emails to Compex support, we were unable to figure out why this was happening. It was suggested that our unit might have been defective, but we found it odd that it worked fine with other non-Windows clients.
Windows machines easily connected to the WPE54G wirelessly, but when we tried to access the management console through an Ethernet cable, we were usually unable to. It did work a few times, but we could never tell why we sometimes couldn't.
Conclusion
If you're looking for a multi-purpose wireless device, the Compex WPE54G has a feature list that is unmatched by its competitors. However, at over $100, it is quite pricy compared to the other 802.11b/g solutions on the market today. If you are just looking to add wireless clients to an existing network, create a wireless gateway, or add another access point to an existing wireless network, there are less expensive alternatives, albeit few, if any, that offer such a small footprint.
Considering that you have no option of adding wired clients to the WPE54G, those that may be interested in it as a gateway may be a highly specialized group. Business or advanced users might get more out of the advanced features offered by the WPE54G, such as the ability to bridge networks or act as a wireless Ethernet adapter.
Because of the excessively long boot time and several inconsistencies between the manual and real-world performance, we only suggest the WPE54G for those that have experience with 802.11x already. Once you get it set up properly, the Compex WPE54G works fairly well, but it may take you a while to get to that point.
Specs
Key Features
Standard
Ethernet (802.3), IEEE 802.11g/b
802.11b Data Rates
11 Mbps, 5.5 Mbps, 2 Mbps, 1 Mbps
802.11g Data Rates
54 Mbps, 48 Mbps, 36 Mbps, 24 Mbps, 28 Mbps, 12 Mbps, 9 Mbps, 6 Mbps, 5.5 Mbps, 2 Mbps, 1 Mbps
Other Features
802.11b/g Operating Chan...
11
802.11b/g Operating Chan...
13
802.11b/g Operating Chan...
14
Remote Management Protocol
SNMP, Web based / HTTP, Telnet
Dimensions
Width
0.94 in.
Depth
3.46 in.
Height
3.46 in.