This is a mini review of DX original portable wifi repeater/router. http://dx.com/p/dx-original-portabl...white-ac-110-230v-eu-plug-294711#.UxlTGrCPL3h
Recently I was looking to extend a wireless coverage at home to make sure I get a strong signal throughout a house. As most of you can relate, smartphone bandwidth cost money unless you have unlimited plan, so we all trying to use wifi connection as much as we can. To be honest, I wasn't too familiar with a concept of wireless repeater so this devices turned out to be not exactly what I was looking for, but it's still a great accessory at a very low price of $20, and a number of you might find it very useful. That is why I decided to write a mini review.
Typically routers are bulky and take some space. This particular model, sold as an original design on dx.com, is very compact and simply plugs into your wall outlet. As you can see, the one I got actually had EU plug, but I believe soon dx will offer a version with US plug, or you can use a simple converter like the one I used in my review. There are two ways to use it. Either hook it out to your internet provider box (like a cable or FioS modem) with Ethernet cable and use it as standalone wireless router, or connect it wireless as a repeater to your existing wireless router. The only catch is when used as a repeater you gotta specify a different SSID. That's what I didn't realized before thinking I can set it up with a same ssid to hand-over connection as I'm walking away from original wireless router. Instead, if you are in a remote part of your house, or maybe in the backyard or in the garage where you get hardly any bars on your connection - you can use this repeater to extend your wireless range but you will have to login to it separately. It's just a matter of selecting this router from a list of available wireless devices and clicking to connect.
The product page on dx.com has a link to PDF manual which is very detailed and easy to follow. You can always check it out before deciding if this gadget is for you. Also it's control software, I'm including screen shots, is easy to follow and to setup as a repeater or a router. So if you are struggling with a wireless coverage inside or outside of your house, this is a great alternative to fix that.
Here are the pictures.
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Related
When these bad-rides are back in stock, I'll be getting one to compliment my KF. Maybe the BT for Custom Roms will be ironed out by then.
http://www.spar.com/zephyr-550.html
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Features
Enjoy room-filling studio quality sound
2x custom drivers, stereo audio
1.5w x 2 speaker output
Charge your mobile device by plugging into the ZEPHYR
Plug your mobile phone into the USB port
Play longer via our best-in-class battery
Approx. 28 hours of continuous play
3000mA lithium polymer rechargeable battery (3.7V)
Sync wirelessly or plug in
Bluetooth enabled
BT Class II 2.1V platform
33 ft operating distance
A2DP support
Hands Free Profile (HFP)
USB port
Micro USB port
3.5mm line-in
Make hands-free calls through built in speakerphone
Compatible with blue-tooth enabled phones, Facetime, iChat, Skype and other applications
Kindle fire??
Can you listen to and charge the kindle fire??
No price..
I supposed if one has to ask how much, then one can't afford it.
Were $99 and up; now unavailable.
dadeo1111 said:
No price..
I supposed if one has to ask how much, then one can't afford it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just checked their web site at the URL given above and saw this where I would expect to see a price:
Due to overwhelming demand, all ZEPHYRs are now completely SOLD OUT. We will be releasing new models in Spring 2012—check back soon!
But according to a review from last November, the prices for the various models ranged from $99 to $160.
ZEPHYR's COMING BACK!!
Great news! Zephyr is coming back better than ever. SPAR is changing it's name to BRAVEN and the Zephyr line has been expanded, with better sound, better battery, better look and better betterness.
The new line launches April 16. Wanted to give our loyal fans of XDA Developers the first news that this is happening. Thanks for hanging in there and driving so much amazing traffic to our site.
Check it out at BRAVEN.com (new user so it won't let me hyperlink).
To get a sneak peak at the new line you can go to our facebook page: facebook.com/bravenproducts
Thanks again. You guys rock.
Let me know if there are any questions...
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Not too long ago I was able to get a hold of an Amped Wireless Bluetooth Stereo Adapter (BTSA1) and thought it a good time to put down a review of my experience so far. Amped Wireless, more commonly known for their amped (pun obviously intended) Wi-Fi offerings, not too long ago started offering this streaming audio adapter. There's not much that sets it apart from some of the other bluetooth streaming adapters out there, except for one big feature: you can connect this directly to any speaker/audio output device. It packs an enhanced bluetooth receiver which allows me to stream to it from my computer, tablet and phone from almost anywhere in the house - much farther than the standard 30ft distance (and let's face it - at 10ft the signal starts to fade pretty quickly at that). I could stream to it from about 30 feet away in my back room, but any more than that and the signal starts to fade. Definitely better than a standard bluetooth connection though.
It comes with RCA (R and L) and 3.5mm (standard headset port) connections, along with the requisite cable, so that you can connect either RCA to headphone jack, or headphone jack to RCA depending on your specific audio setup.
Once you connect via bluetooth, it operates just like a normal bluetooth speaker or headset does (minus the voice features). However one thing I noticed, to my relative excitement, is that Google Music treats this device as something you can "cast" to. So you select the cast icon and you're presented with the option to cast to it. That's a great feature, which while it's not technically streaming in the same way that you would "cast" to a Chromecast, it is definitely a feature the company could do well to promote. Something like "Google Music compatible" or something.
All in all, with a price tag of $69.99 it's probably a bit steep for a normal audio device, but with the connections to make any speaker or audio system a streaming center, it's not half bad. You can find more information at their website.
Thanks for the info.
How about the sound quality? Did you notice any significant quality degradation when playing music, compared to a wired setup?
I did not - it was crisp and clear. Of course as I moved furthest away it would be a bit choppy, but otherwise it was solid.
I'm wondering if someone can explain to me why the Speedtest results are so much different on my S3 compared to my desktop. Below are the results, taken one right after the other. Same WiFi network, and I used Clean Master on my phone to stop all unnecessary tasks too. I've done the speedtest multiple times on the phone over the past few weeks, trying everything to get a different result. It doesn't change, no matter if I do the test right after I power on the phone, if other apps are running, etc. Is there some kind of limit on WiFi speed that I just don't know about?
Here is the test from my desktop:
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Here is the test from my S3:
Do you have a dual band router? What OS on the desktop? I have noticed with my new dual band router that my S3 can pick up and connect to my 5ghz, but my Win7 laptop can't see it nor connect. Also noticed when I'm streaming from the devices that can see the 5ghz, the signal indicator goes crazy. That's essentially what the speed test is, its streaming so that could be the reason. Maybe its opposite for you with those speeds. Or also could be the priority of the desktop versus the phone.
My router is a dual band Belkin n750. My S3 actually sees both separate bands in the WiFi list, but the speedtest results don't change from one band to the other.
My desktop OS is Ubuntu 12.04. There has never been an issue with the desktop speedtests, and my PC is pretty good actually. I've even made sure nothing else is interfering with the speedtests by (temporarily for the test) changing the router's wireless PW, which kicked all my other devices off the network, so no chance they're hogging bandwith. But still got pretty much the same results.
eldavar said:
My router is a dual band Belkin n750. My S3 actually sees both separate bands in the WiFi list, but the speedtest results don't change from one band to the other.
My desktop OS is Ubuntu 12.04. There has never been an issue with the desktop speedtests, and my PC is pretty good actually. I've even made sure nothing else is interfering with the speedtests by (temporarily for the test) changing the router's wireless PW, which kicked all my other devices off the network, so no chance they're hogging bandwith. But still got pretty much the same results.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Beyond my knowledge then. Sorry.
Well the s3 probably just can't transfer that fast and so it lags behind
Probably boils down to power. The S3 is rinning on a fairly small battery, while your desktop computer is plugged into the wall. Also, as batteries age, their output does decrease, so that could be an additional factor.
This might not be a good place to go as I feel this might be a general android question, but here it goes..
My internet speed was recently increased from 50 to 105mbps, I have a wireless n wireless gateway, my wifi is broadcasting at 65mbps which is the real-world maximum speed of wireless n.. both my ZenFone 2 and my wife's htc one m9 should have wireless n.. yet from what I can tell, both of our phones seem to have a theoretical max of 45mbps with a real max of 47mbps. On my windows tablet I get a real max of 67 mbps. Is android incapable of truly handling wireless n? Is there some sort of hidden configurations I can mess with? or are we stuck with 20mbps less on our phones versus our other devices?
Seems fine to me
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Sent from my ASUS_Z00AD using Tapatalk
That is all fine and dandy.. but what are you pulling down via speedtest? Also I noticed my phone is connecting at 2.4ghz, not 5, so I'll have to check my router
Ugh.. as far as I can tell my cheap gateway only supports wireless n at 2.4ghz.. stupid comcast..
i connect at 72mps on my wireless n router and 400 somthing on friends wireless ac i did have to change channels to get it to see 5ghz a bug in some android phones i found channel 36 works and so does some of the 50s.
It sounds like it's mainly due to the crappy gateway from your ISP. If you are testing this between 2-3 meters from the gateway, the link connection rate should be higher than 67Mbps. You may or may not be able to change the channels that it broadcasts out. You could install a WiFi Scanner from the play store or for Windows on your Windows tablet and see which channels are clear in your immediate vicinity, and then adjust your gateway's broadcast accordingly. This would be particularity useful if you have many neighbors. You could also consider a shady move to force 40MHz band size if your gateway has that option.
To determine the link speed of your network excluding the internet, you could use a tool like LANSpeedTest. You would need a computer connected with Ethernet to the gateway. This computer is where you install the server for the test. You could then install the client (on your Windows tablet) that runs the test from your tablet to the computer. This speed is usually your bottleneck for Internet speeds, unless you have ridiculously fast internet. I've never used it on Android, but it looks like there are similar apps available. The particular speed on your phone may also be limited by the phone's chipset performance.
Best Solution? Get a decent router! And turn your gateway in whatever mode it needs to be in so that it does nothing else other than pass information back and forth.
The gateway was a crap single band wireless n.. switched it out for a dual band router today but haven't had a chance to plug it in as I'm still running errands
With the new 5ghz gateway I just pulled 98mbps in my ZenFone 2, which makes me happy.. now I just have to figure out why my wife's m9 performs worse on 5ghz than 2.4ghz. That phone is also supposed to support 5ghz wireless n
I recently bough a Redmi Note 12 4G from a carrier here in Colombia. The phone works pretty well but in this two last days has come to my attention a possible bug with the 2.4Ghz band. I use a pair of Vivo wireless earpods. but whenever i have the bluetooth activated, the WiFi signal seems to be obstructed or completely deactivated. When enter the WiFi list there is no a single network to choose, and what I have to do? deactivate Bluetooth and activate airplane mode, then deactivate the airplane mode and reactivate the wifi. Then the networks appears and i can connect to Wifi.
Im running MIUI 14.0.7 Global
I have the 4GB ram model with 3GB extra using the internal storage. I checked for 2.4ghz band interference but it happens anywhere i go, on my office or my house. Also try rebooting the phone multiple times but this problem is present. It not happens always btw, in this momento the phone is working well with both activated, but in the day it happens may be 4 o 5 times.
I have not touched the firmware of the phone, neither installed a rom or flash anything, its brand new and from factory.
I'm thinking of returning it if this problem continues.
Maybe you guys have an idea of what can cause this.
I guess it's the problem of the Bluetooth™ Standard because they share similar frequencies.
The closest thing you can probably do is to get an 5GHz router, turn off Wi-Fi all together or change your AP's channel to a less-crowded one
(TP-Link advises channel 1, 6 or 11 in case of interference, it might work ..temporarily)
I've had multiple Xiaomi phones and they all had this problem, let me know if you found better solution!
Something similar happens to me, when I try to use bluetooth with a keyboard and a mouse, both types of wifi (2.4Ghz and 5Ghz) download speeds drop a lot and it becomes unusable in my case since I need a good signal to be able to use a streaming service in the cloud.
Also thinking about apply the warranty (I bought it from a local seller with a 1-month warranty) and looking for another better device and clearly not Redmi or Xiaomi.
I will leave two images demonstrating what I have mentioned:
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