Nfiniti Wireless-N Router & Access Point review

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Verdict:

Review Date: 22 Sep 2006

Price when reviewed: inc VAT

Reviewed By: Alan Lu

Our Rating 4 stars out of 5

Review
Specs

At just £82, Buffalo's Nfiniti router is the cheapest of the four draft 802.11n routers in the group.

It's still easy to set up, however. Wizards guide you through the whole process and its web-based configuration system can be accessed easily via UPnP. The default username, password and IP address are cleverly concealed under a removable side panel.

The optional AirStation One-Touch Secure System (AOSS) attempts to make configuring security settings easy. When using the Nfiniti CardBus adaptor, you can start the process by pushing a button on the router and choosing the AOSS option in the adaptor's client software. Unfortunately, it didn't always work, so you're better off managing the router's security settings manually.

When paired with the Nfiniti CardBus adaptor, the Nfiniti router was capable of impressive speeds in our 1m and 15m tests, but transfer rates in our 25m test were pedestrian. Speeds when connected to a Centrino notebook were respectable, but no better than other 802.11n routers nor some of the 802.11g products.

The Nfiniti is the only router here that doesn't support Dynamic DNS or port forwarding. This could cause problems if you want to run a web server at home, play online games or use download applications such as Bittorrent. You can add the ability to forward ports manually or via UPnP, but to do so you need to install firmware from Buffalo's website.

The Nfiniti provides great transfer speeds over short and medium distances using the Buffalo wireless adaptor. It performed less well in our Centrino tests, though, so it isn't ideal unless you want to add Buffalo adaptors to every PC in your network. If you're buying a CardBus adaptor and router, the D-Link RangeBooster is faster and no more expensive.

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