Wifi Max Review

Written by Brakken
2006 Introduction

The Wifi Max is a product designed to let you use either your PSP or Nintendo DS systems online without the need for an expensive wireless router. The Wifi Max is designed with the gamer in mind and comes with custom software to allow your PSP and Windows based PC to interact with each other. It also features the ability to let you and four other people use it at the same time for some serious online gaming. It includes all of this plus custom software for easily setting up the device and managing your digital media files on your PSP.

Features

Wireless Access Point
Five Local Connections
PC <-> PSP Managing Software
802.11g Wifi Protocol (Fast)
USB Plug N' Play Interface

Contents

Wifi Max Hardware
User Manual & Drivers
Verticle Stand
USB Cable

Installation & Configuration

Just like any other ordinary device that works using the USB standard you will grab the installation CD and run the setup application. I wanted to see what would happen if I didn't run the CD first and just plugged the Wifi Max into an USB v2.0 port. Windows XP SP2 recognized the device and already had drivers present for it, but Windows 2000 did not.

After I was done with this I grabbed the installation CD and ran the setup program. It asked me if I wanted to setup the device for the PSP or Nintendo DS and I picked PSP. During the installation it asked me if I wanted to install a stripped down version of Apache which is a HTTP (WEB) server. The PC software actually creates a webpage that you can access using your PSP for its media functionality. Yes - this means if you're planning on using the integrated media features you'll have to have a v2.00 firmware or higher installed on your PSP.

Once the PSP software was done installing I noticed 3 new system tray icons present. One was for a Wireless Access point, one was a control panel for the Wifi Max and another was the stripped down version of the Apache server.

I was a bit curious and went into the Wifi Max's application which is essentially the software for the ZD1211 IEEE 802.11b+g USB Wifi Card / Access Point. Yes, that's correct. The device is essentially just a normal USB Wifi Card which can be turned into an access point using its software. In all reality if you are in the market for picking up a 802.11g network adapter you could buy one of these and save yourself around fifty bucks as installing and using the PSP and Nintendo DS is purely optional.

In the ZD1211 IEEE 802.11b+g Card's configuration software you've got your normal round the mill options for running an access point including the ability to set your encryption type, channel, SSID, mode and broadcast power level. Don’t worry – you don’t need to manually set any of these as the Wifi Max software takes care of it all automatically, but for the reviews sake I wanted to see what the device was capable of.

It only features WEP encryption, but you can set it to 64, 128 or 256 bit. I would make sure to setup the encryption if you’re going to be leaving the Wifi Max plugged in all of the time as anyone close enough to steal your connection.

You can also change the channel the device operates on. This might be required if you’re using another wireless access point. I was also using a LinkSys wireless router so I had to change the channel to 2 to get the device working properly.

The SSID is simply the name of the device your other wireless devices will see when scanning your wireless network. I left it at its default name. The mode can be set to B, G or B+G. It would be best to keep it at B+G unless you know exactly what protocol your devices will be using.

The last noteworthy option (yes there are more of them, but not so important) is the broadcast power. Set this puppy all of the way up to ensure maximum gaming distance!

Usage

Now remember you can use any 802.11 “b” or “g” devices with the Wifi Max. You’re not limited to just the PSP and Nintendo DS. It also will let you connect up to 5 devices at once. For the reviews sake I’ll ignore the hundreds of other devices you can use and stick to the PSP.

There are two ways to use the Wifi Max’s software – wired or wireless. Wired mode works when your PSP is connected to your computer using its USB cable and Wireless works when it’s simply connected using a wireless connection.

Usage - Wired

Before you run the software you’ll need to plug in the PSP into a spare USB port and set it to USB mode. Once this is done run the Wifi Max software. The interface is slick and has a good skin put onto it. The basic interface is based on four selections; Video, Music, Images and Saves. All of the options except the save game manager will work in either Wired or Wireless mode.

The video menu when connected in wired mode will let you select any videos you may have on your computer and transfer them to your PSP. As we all know the PSP only reads MP4 videos so the software will convert any video you have a codec installed for on your computer to the MP4 format. Before converting you can select the video quality and screen size. There are also a few miscellanies options for tweaking your video before conversion. The nice part about the video conversion software is that it will let you know if you don’t have enough space on your Duo card before conversion. Once the video is converted you can watch it like you would normally watch a video file from your Duo card.

The music menu will simply let you copy and delete music from the \music\ folder on your Duo Card. It also will let you create the one level of folders that the PSP allows you to create. It’s a pretty basic menu, but using it cuts down on some time from manually locating and copying over the MP3 files.

When it comes to the images menu you’re looking at a clone of the music menu, except it will display thumbnails of your images. Using this menu is still easier then doing the copying and pasting manually.

The last one is your save game backup and restore menu. I dig it because it reads the internal icon from the save game and displays it onscreen for you. Using this menu you can copy and restore any save game data you may have on your card. This is very useful as it’s almost better to have a backup of your data.

Usage - Wireless

Like above, there are the four menu options; Video, Music, Images and Saves, but like I mentioned you can only use the first three in wireless mode. From the menu you can add and remove your Video, Music and Image files to the Wifi Max software which in turn feeds it to the Apache server.

Once you have the multimedia files you wish to “serve” you simply turn your PSP on, make sure all of the network settings are correct and type in the URL the program gives to you. The URL is based on your computer’s IP address and is actually the Apache server. Once you’re on the URL you can access your Video, Music and Pictures by clicking on them. I was really hoping for a bit more when it came to streaming the media as there is no streaming at all. What you do is access either your Video or Music file and download it to your PSP. Once it’s downloaded then you can watch and/or listen to it. That really leaves much to be desired.

Fortunately, you can view the images remotely as all you do is click on their filename and then Apache does the rest of the work. I guess this could be good if you wanted to read some of those eBooks that have been converted to JPEG format and didn’t want to put them on your PSP.

Usage - Gaming

Okay, now that we have all of the other settings out of the way it’s time to put the WifiMax to the test. So I hooked up five devices to the Wifi Max’s connection and maxxed the device out on bandwidth. Every device worked fine as it handled the routing perfectly. I could notice no slowdown in any of the devices as they all kept a steady pace. No lag is a good thing!

What about distance? Well, I didn’t get to test the device outdoors to find out its maximum distance, but I did however test it throughout my house (who would use it outdoors?) and it worked pretty well. Of course, it didn’t broadcast its signal as good as a normal wireless router would, but it came darn close. I got around 100 ft away from the device with 3 to 5 hollow walls in the way and still managed to pull a 10% power level. Basically, if all of your friends are in the same room or at least next to the room you’re in you’ll be able to use the Wifi connection at its full capacity.

Lastly, I close the PSP Wifi Max program and started the Nintendo DS one. It automatically configured the Access Point for the Nintendo DS. I added the connection and jumped online and got my butt kicked in Mario Kart. I’m just happy to report that the WifiMax works with every wireless device I tested including the PSP and Nintendo DS.

Conclusion

It’s a rock solid product. It does what it advertises to do and is glitch free. Although, the wireless functionality leaves a bit to be desired this is nothing compared to the price and the fact you can have up to five devices running at the same time. You get all of this for half the price of normal Wifi USB cards so even if you don’t own a PSP or Nintendo DS I would pick one of these up instead of spending way too much on something similar.

Positives Cost Plug N' Play Installation Fast 802.11G Protocol Media Management Software Wireless Card and/or Access Point

Negatives Limited Broadcast Range WEP Disabled by Default Apache Server uses System Resources

Links

Datel - WifiMax Producer


-=[ Wifi Max Review Discussion Thread ]=-

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