3Com has a lot of experience in business-class hardware, and it shows in the high-end 8750. With its included site survey tool (the best among the products reviewed) and the ability to store and retrieve firmware and configuration files centrally, the 8750 can serve small-business networks quite well out of the box, though it may fall short for larger businesses. Uniquely, the 8750 lacks any power connection, relying instead on Power over Ethernet (PoE), including a PoE injector if your switch does not have PoE capability.

The 8750 does not support external antennas, but we found coverage and performance with the included antennas to be good (but not impressive). On our tests, the 8750 achieved a throughput of 7.6 Mbps at 120 feet in "g"-only mode and showed a throughput of 19.3 Mbps before losing signal after 90 feet in "a/g" mode.

A full range of security options includes WPA in both enterprise and preshared key mode. And the individual AP management interface was one of the better ones we saw in our roundup. In addition we like the built-in discovery program that automatically identifies all 3Com APs on your network. Security-conscious administrators can enable SSL and disable management over a wireless connection—a good idea to prevent parking-lot hackers from getting at your configuration files. For larger networks, 3Com Network Director ($3,495 list) can provide a centralized view into multiple access points.

The tools 3Com includes in the 8750 make it a good fit for midsize businesses deploying dozens of access points. When combined with optional management software, however, the Cisco and Proxim products offer a richer solution better suited to large enterprises. Even so, the 3Com 8750 is still an impressive product at $500 less than the Cisco 1200 Series.