Amped Wireless introduced on Tuesday its new AP20000G dual-band Wireless-N access point, capable of delivering up to 7,500 square feet of local network coverage. It's packed with a 620 MHz processor to handle multiple loads of traffic, premium high power Wi-Fi 600mW 2.4 GHz amplifiers, high power 5.0 GHz Wi-Fi amplifiers and two dual band high gain antennas.
Built for coverage in large homes and businesses, the AP20000G provides five Gigabit Ethernet ports (one uplink, four LAN), a USB 2.0 port for sharing USB storage devices locally, and an intelligent plug-and-play setup. Premium software features include guest networks, adjustable Wi-Fi coverage controls, and support for the latest Wi-Fi security.
"Advanced software allows the AP20000G to automatically configure itself to a network's settings without the user's input or configuration," the company said on Tuesday. "The AP20000G simply connects to the router's network port, automatically configures itself and creates a new wireless and wired network for connecting wired or wireless computers, printers and other network devices."
According to Amped Wireless, your typical access point has a wireless output power of 50mW, and does not utilize wireless amplifiers and are equipped with antennas that have zero antenna gain. However the company's solution has dual 2.4 GHz amplifiers with 600mW of output power – dual 5 GHz amplifiers are also present. The boosted performance is optimally tuned with dual high gain 5dBi detachable dual band antennas for maximum range and performance.
As the company states, this gadget is not a router – it's a high power dual band access point that physically connects to your existing router by way of a Gigabit Ethernet connection. That said, the wireless aspect of your router essentially isn't needed, as the AP20000G could handle all the wireless connectivity thanks to its range. However, the 5 GHz coverage isn't quite as widespread as the 2.4 GHz band, so your router may get some use after all if it's dual-band.
To some degree, that's unfortunate: consumers really need a highly amplified 5 GHz band with 600mW of output power to cover 7,500 square feet. That's because it's less used than the 2.4 GHz wireless highway which typically is congested with traffic from most household wireless gadgets. The 5 GHz band is also less capable of penetrating through walls, thus users are required to keep close proximity to a dual-band router to get good data throughput.
Still, this gadget promises to penetrate walls and eliminate Wi-Fi dead spots, but it's unclear as to how far its 5 GHz band will reach. The AP20000G has a retail price of $169.99 and is available now for pre-order from the Amped Wireless web store. It will be available nationwide late September.
Update: Amped Wireless offered a little more info about the access point's 5 GHz range. "The 5 GHz band is slightly lower in power than the 2.4 GHz (roughly 500mW)," a rep told Tom's. "5 GHz technology has less range in general however we rate our 5 GHz range at 5000 sq ft after our amplification and high gain antenna additions."
