Digital Trends

Gigabyte B49GU Router

September 2nd, 2004 | by Jeff Fila

Wireless Performance

Confusing setup menu aside, wireless access should be relatively easy to set up for anyone that has done it before. Our Macintosh and Windows laptops had no problem seeing the Gigabyte wireless network and connecting to it. However, we did experience an unusual amount of signal dropouts. At distances where other wireless routers reached with no problem, it seemed like the Gigabyte router just couldn't get a consistent signal. This became troublesome as we often lost the signal at distances where we rarely lost it with other routers. We made sure to remove any possible sources of interference, but in the end, it just wasn't a dependable connection.

When it stayed connected, the B49GU performed about on par with other 802.11g solutions, boasting a top speed of about 15.1 Mbps in normal 802.11g mode and only a slight improvement of about 23.4Mbps in Extreme-G mode, which is theoretically supposed to reach 108Mbps. This is quite a difference, and not even close to the top transfer speed recorded on the D-Link DI-624, which was able to reach over 45Mbps. Average transfer rates were about 13.2Mbps in 802.11g mode and 16.8Mbps in Extreme-G mode. Look for an article next week at Designtechnica that compares the transfer speeds of several of the latest routers, including the Gigabyte B49GU. The wireless connection icon in Windows XP Service Pack 2 would consistently show excellent signal strength at 54Mbps and even 108Mbps in Extreme-G mode, but those speeds were certainly never attained.

Another issue we had with the Gigabyte router was the time it took our notebook clients to find the network after they came out of standby. This was most evident in Windows XP clients, and the Service Pack 2 enhancements did nothing to improve it. This undoubtedly was an issue with the Gigabyte router and not the OS or laptop because the B49GU was the only router that took this long to reconnect. It often took more than two minutes to find the network with our internal Broadcom 802.11g card, when it took only a few seconds with the Compex router at the same distance.

Conclusion

With a host of advanced features, Gigabyte's B49GU is a SOHO router with a lot of promise for business users. Unfortunately, its lack of quality documentation and its issue with wireless dropouts and a general lack of wireless speed make it a less than stellar performer.

Based on the Atheros 802.11g chipset that supports Extreme-G speeds of up to 108Mbps, the B49GU was just as disappointing and erratic as the very similar D-Link DI-624. As a wired router, the Gigabyte B49GU is a solid performer with a lot of useful enhancements. But when you dig deeper into its feature set and take the wireless performance, or lack thereof, into account, the B49GU looks like a good idea that was poorly implemented and rushed to market.

We had hoped for more from Gigabyte because they really do make some high quality components. However, one poorly performing product shouldn't doom a company. Hopefully Gigabyte (or Atheros) will straighten out the issues with this chipset in the near future and come back with a stronger product.