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How we tested wireless LAN products
Nov. 17, 2008
All products were obtained from company Web sites, downloaded, and installed on our test PCs – either a Dell 710m notebook running XP SP2, or a 2.8 GHz. 24-inch iMAC equipped with a Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 Wi-Fi adapter ...
Making the Wi-Fi connection
Nov. 17, 2008
Wi-Fi discovery and connection tools have existed since the early days of 802.11. But while many of these tools have their roots in hacker tools like AirCrack, WEPCrack, AirSnort, CoWPatty, and AirSnarf, which were all ...
Tools that find Wi-Fi hotspots
Nov. 17, 2008
While any Wi-Fi discovery tool can find a hotspot, some network operators also provide connection managers for their Wi-Fi services mainly for the purpose of easily integrating account information.
Big players missing in action
Oct. 27, 2008
Almost as notable as the remarkable results in this test are some of the big names that didn't show up: Major WLAN vendors Aruba, Cisco and Trapeze all declined to participate in this project.
Siemens: Wins green competition
Oct. 27, 2008
Efficient power usage is the biggest differentiator between the Siemens HiPath and other enterprise 802.11n systems.
Throwing lots of traffic types into the WiMiX shows 11n gear adept at handling voice and ...
Oct. 27, 2008
While our single frame size throughput and latency tests are useful in describing system limits, they are not representative of what's actually seen on enterprise networks in everyday use.
Vendors take different approaches to WLAN design
Oct. 27, 2008
Architecturally, we saw multiple approaches to wireless LAN design.
802.11n gear 10 times faster than current Wi-Fi offerings
Oct. 27, 2008
Instead, Network World set up the largest public 802.11n test ever conducted. We invited all enterprise Wi-Fi vendors to supply not one but eight 802.11n access points, along with controllers if needed.
How we tested the WLAN gear
Oct. 27, 2008
We assessed enterprise-grade 802.11n systems in terms of pure 802.11n throughput and latency; mixed-mode (802.11n plus both 802.11g and 802.11a clients) throughput and latency; "WiMix" traffic handling, which comprises ...
Aerohive: Fast, but a little rough around the edges
Oct. 27, 2008
Like many relatively new products, Aerohive's HiveAP 340 showed both extreme promise and a few rough edges.
Bluesocket: Best overall product
Oct. 27, 2008
Bluesocket's BlueSecure system is a good choice for enterprises looking to keep a lid on latency and jitter – both concerns with real-time voice and video.
Motorola: Novel architecture opens the door to WiMAX
Oct. 27, 2008
Motorola probably wishes we'd tested its AP-7131 just a few weeks later. We hit a few performance issues with the software image Motorola supplied, including one that prevented us from measuring throughput of short ...
Palo Alto's performance holds steady as security measures increase
Oct. 06, 2008
In August, we tested Palo Alto Networks' PA-4020, the first fully application-aware firewall to be commercially marketed. When we attempted to test performance on the PA-4020 we ran into a hitch: Palo Alto's application ...
The issue of virtual compatibility
Sep. 29, 2008
Both hypervisors have requirements for the hardware they can run on and the VMs they can support.
The virtual winner: VMware's ESX KOs a roughly built Hyper-V package
Sep. 29, 2008
When the dust settled in the lab after two long months of testing Microsoft's Hyper-V and VMware's ESX in the areas of performance, compatibility, management, and security, it all boiled down to two issues: experience ...
How we tested the virtualization products
Sep. 29, 2008
We used the same host platform, an HP DL580 G5 (4-socket, 16-core Intel Xeon CPUs) server – for the qualitative portion of this test as we did in the quantitative portion of our test published earlier this month.
Navigating the WLAN management maze
Sep. 22, 2008
With enterprise-class wireless LANs well on the way to becoming the preferred -- if not default -- access for organizations across all industries, it's imperative that the software available to manage WLAN gear is up to ...
AirWave provides multi-vendor WLAN monitoring
Sep. 22, 2008
While it's usually desirable to have a completely homogeneous WLAN deployment, it is also perhaps unrealistic to assume this state of affairs can be maintained for an extended period of time.
User lauds AirWave multivendor WLAN management wares
Sep. 22, 2008
Neal Shelton, Network Engineering Supervisor for the Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) in Virginia, looks to the Airwave Management Platform to help him deal with the daily ups and downs of managing the district's ...
1026 WLAN Test On line
Oct. 29, 2008
Network World Clear Choice Test: 802.11n for the Enterprise Features questionnaire DISCLAIMER: These responses were supplied by vendors. Network World has not verified all responses. Company name Aerohive Networks, Inc. ...
How we tested Avaya's unifed communications gear
Sep. 08, 2008
Testing was conducted on the above listed Unified Communications components configured to provide UC for a network topology consisting of a main office and three branch office locations. The four-site deployment was ...
Avaya offers wide array of unified communications wares
Sep. 08, 2008
There is a lot to like about Avaya's one-X Unified Communications platform.
VMware edges out Microsoft in virtualization performance test
Sep. 01, 2008
With the recent release of Microsoft's Hyper-V shaking up the hypervisor market, we decided to conduct a two-part evaluation pitting virtualization vendors against each other on performance as well as on features such ...
Cisco Nexus 7000 aims for data center dominance
Sep. 01, 2008
Building a big data center and looking for a switch to match? How do 256 10G Ethernet ports and nearly 1.7 terabits of capacity sound?
How we tested virtualization products
Sep. 01, 2008
We tested VMWare's ESX 3.51 Virtual Infrastructure Edition and Microsoft's Hyper-V 1.0. For the latter we also used the Microsoft RTM release of the Linux Interconnection Kit where noted.
Applications
Collaboration, E-mail, Instant messaging, Multimedia.
Operating Systems
Linux, NetWare, Windows
Security
Firewalls, Intrusion prevention/detection, Patch mgmt., VoIP, VPNs
Network World Lab Alliance members have years of experience reviewing networking products and work to construct real-world test beds for the products they test. Look for the Lab Alliance logo on reviews, or get more information on our Lab Alliance reviewers.
All Network World reviews are based on hands-on testing conducted by independent testers who belong to the Network World Lab Alliance. All tests are commissioned and paid for solely by Network World. No reviewer may accept any form of compensation from a vendor in the course of reviewing one of the vendor's products.
As standard operating procedure, Network World issues an invitation letter to all vendors whose products we're requesting for a given review. In it, we request the materials we need them to supply, answer their questions about our policies, and inform them of our deadlines.
Typically we ask vendors for products, and they provide them for review. However, we reserve the right to review products we acquire through other channels, including purchase. If we test a product a vendor has not tendered us, we notify the vendor of that fact. Once a vendor has sent a product we will review it and publish an article on that testing, unless we find technical problems that make it impossible for us to complete the process.
We try to review currently available production code for all products, because it represents what's available to our readers. However, we will look at beta code in the early stages of the review process in order to speed our final evaluation of the gold or released code.
For high-end hardware and software, we offer vendors the opportunity to visit the testing site to help us configure their products. If we invite one vendor, we issue the invitation to all vendors participating, though not all will choose to avail themselves of the opportunity.
If a reviewer uncovers performance results that deviate from our expectations, we advise that tester to contact the vendor and share his or her findings with the vendor in question. This gives the vendor the opportunity to verify our findings independently. We want to make sure that any unusual results we uncover can be attributed to the product and not to errors in our testing procedures. Where appropriate, we can include the vendor's feedback in a review to explain unexpected results. However, vendors' requests to read the text of a review article before it appears in print are not granted, and no vendor may influence the test results.
We respond immediately to vendors or readers who question our results or methodology. Accuracy is the primary criterion for every review, and any time we fail to meet that criterion, we make the appropriate corrections on our Web site and in print.
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