This paper is concerned with the discontinuous Galerkin approximation of the Maxwell eigenproblem. After reviewing the theory developed in [A. Buffa, I. Perugia, Discontinuous Galerkin approximation of the Maxwell eigenproblem, Technical Report 24-PV, IMATI-CNR, Pavia, Italy, 2005 (http://www.imati.cnr.it/similar to annalisa/PS/maxwell.pdf)], we present a set of numerical experiments which both validate the theory, and provide further insight regarding the practical performance of discontinuous Galerkin methods, particularly in the case when non-conforming meshes, characterized by the presence of hanging nodes, are employed. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.