More on the Portal WiFi (video)
Attached video is of an old eee pc laptop connected to the Portal WiFi router I reviewed. I decided that for purposes of showing I was not completely full of cow exaggerations I would film a laptop running Lan Speed Test against a server we have in the building.
The Portal WiFi is sitting behind a printer, blocked in the main area by a very large copy machine (not shown,) and basically not positioned very well if I wanted this thing to cover the entire building.
The eee 1005 HAB laptop‘s connection speed topped out at 65mbit so I’m assuming that’s WiFi N at best (looks like it based on the spec sheet.) As a note, that spec sheet is for a slightly better build than the one I was using. This means anything you have purchased in the past five years is probably going to perform significantly better. (65mbit vs 1900 now?)
According to the Google maps (which I’m not going to claim is 100% accurate,) the maximum distance I got in this video was 92.83 feet away when I sat down at the conference table. The test data stream essentially died on WIFi N when I had two floors and the Monolith (video edit storage system,) in between me and the router however I was still able to ping (with high response times.)
It did not die on my phone, which is still is connected and happy in my office.
One bit of weirdness is Windows XP there is claiming that the connection has been up for 29 days. It hasn’t. I connected to that AP roughly six minutes before this video was shot. The other bit of weirdness is the fairly low speed, however that appears to be the laptop even plugged into ethernet. Slow computer we picked up refurbed in 2008 I think.
To give you an idea of the congestion in the building here is what WIFi Analyzer found after running for a minute or so on the side of the building that doesn’t have an apartment complex blasting every SSID on the planet. There are plenty of SSIDs that do not appear to be showing.
If it can go 93 feet in any direction and keep signal… um, unless I’m mathing wrong 93 is the radius and that puts it at a coverage of a lot more than the 3000 sq feet they claim. I get 27,171 sq feet which seems implausible again. Really haven’t had coffee so if anyone wants to correct my math or point out the error I’d appreciate it.
Even simply making a square 93*2=186 feet (total distance any direction from the router you should be able to walk) so say 186 wide, 186 deep is in the 30,000 sq foot range. Nearly 9000 if somehow I’ve got it turned the only direction it broadcasts. You can make your own Over 9000 joke here.
So yeah, I’m still convinced I’m doing something incorrect in my math here as usually companies overclaim rather than under. If anyone has any tests they want done on this let me know. I forgot to bring in the Yoga laptop today (cat exploded.) so I don’t have something reasonably modern to test with other than my phone, which I already mentioned in the previous review.
Also, Portal WiFi Routers are now in stock at Amazon for about $180. They were out when I posted my review.
And yeah, I still don’t believe the results I’m getting.
