U.S. Robotics maximizes WLAN security, range and speed

The company has announced MAXg™, a new wireless product family that protects networks with a complete set of in-built security measures and provides up to 50 percent greater range. MAXg is scheduled to be commercially available in Europe, Middle East and Africa during the second quarter of 2005.

"The MAXg product family will be armed with the simple configuration tools and the technology required to deliver maximum security, range and speed throughout the business environment and home," said Peter Blampied, Director EMEA, Sales and Operations, U.S. Robotics.

Key security capabilities delivered by MAXg include Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA), WPA2/802.11i, 802.1x Authentication and 64/128-bit WEP encryption. Additionally, the Wireless MAXg Router includes a Stateful Packet Inspection firewall and support for VPN pass through (PPTP, IPSec and L2TP), as well as MAC Address Authentication.

Broadcom's new BroadRange™ technology provides the greatest receive sensitivity of any 802.11g-compliant product, allowing Wi-Fi users to maintain high-speed connections at greater distances from a wireless access point.

The 125 High Speed Mode™ boosts 802.11g performance, allowing customers to use their Wi-Fi networks for bandwidth-intensive applications, such as sharing digital photos and transferring audio and video files between devices throughout the home.

U.S. Robotics SureStart installation wizard seamlessly installs wireless MAXg adapters, routers or access points and critically configures security.

The BroadRange technology incorporated in the new product uses advanced digital signal processing techniques to improve a device's ability to receive wireless transmissions, enabling Wi-Fi users to maintain high-speed connections up to 50 percent further from an access point. This allows products to stay connected longer at top speeds before stepping back to lower data rates, and experience greater coverage at lower data rates. Plus, because BroadRange technology is standards-compliant, users can benefit from additional range in any wireless network - even if other devices do not use the technology.

125 High Speed Mode increases 802.11g performance by improving the efficiency of wireless data transmissions. Derived from standards-based techniques, it delivers greater throughput on a single wireless channel, eliminating the interference inherent in solutions that use multiple channels to achieve better performance. Although wireless networks will achieve optimal speeds in a network of all MAXg products, the technology is compatible with all 802.11b/g devices and actually enhances the aggregate performance for all Wi-Fi devices on the network.