Asus WL-500g Deluxe - Manual (Page 90)

4. Performance
90 ASUS Wireless Router
Chapter 4 - Wireless Performance
Range
Every environment is unique with different obstacles, barriers, materials,
etc. and, therefore, it is difficult to determine the exact range that will be
achieved without testing. However, has developed some guidelines to
estimate the range that users will see when the product is installed in their
facility, but there are no hard and fast specifications.
Radio signals may reflect off of some obstacles or be absorbed by others
depending on their construction. For example, with two 802.11b radios,
you may achieve up to 1000' in open space outdoors where two devices
have a line of sight, meaning they see each other with no obstacles. However,
the same two units may only achieve up to 300' of range when used indoors.
The IEEE 802.11b specification supports four data rates: 11 Mbps, 5.5 Mbps,
2 Mbps, and 1 Mbps. Operation at 1 Mbps provides greater range than
operation at 11 Mbps. The ASUS Wireless Router will automatically adjust
the data rate to maintain a usable radio connection.
Therefore, a client that is close to the ASUS Wireless Router may operate
at 11 Mbps while a client that is on the fringe of coverage may operate at 1
Mbps. As mentioned earlier, you can configure the data rates that the ASUS
Wireless Router will use. Note that if you limit the range of data rates
available to the ASUS Wireless Router, you may reduce the effective
wireless range of the ASUS Wireless products.