Audiofn

If you are using a wireless router then you may want to consider the new Linksys wireless G router. It is about 5 times faster then the old technology. I am amazed at how much of a improvement it is. I just put one in a customers house. It runs about 150 for the router and another 80 or so for the PCMCIA cards.

Jon

wwwTOPDJcom

Hey keep you fingers out of my line of work

Sean

Guys,

Keep in mind that your Cable and DSL modems only offer a 10 mb connection speed...so it is still going to be your bottleneck when getting to the web. The connection speed between wired and wireless computers on this network will be faster than the old technology.

Also this new G technology is not standard yet, so you'll need to buy Linksys G network cards for any pcs on this network...

Kohldog

I did an overview of G for our execs. From a Corporate standpoint we will not be using G untill the standard is ratified.

802.11G

What is it?
802.11g is a wireless networking standard that will provide 54 Mbps raw data rate and 802.11b backward compatibility using the 2.4 GHz unlicensed radio band.

When will it be available?
The 802.11b standard is still in draft form and is expected to be ratified in summer or fall of 2003 by the IEEE engineering group. The Wi-Fi alliance which certifies interoperability between 802.11 products will not begin certification until the 802.11g standard is complete. This leads me to conclude that Wi-Fi certified 802.11g standard products will not be available until late 2003.

Are draft products available?
Some pre-ratification 802.11g products are shipping at this time but there is no guarantee that these products will interoperate with or work as well as 802.11g standard products.

Is it compatible with 802.11b?
802.11g standard products will be compatible with 802.11b products. This means that 802.11b clients will work with 802.11g access points and 802.11g clients will work with 802.11b access points. This compatibility does come with a cost. Due to the slower speeds of 802.11b any 802.11g access point with an attached 802.11b client will operate with a lower throughput speed. Due to the standard not being ratified it is not known at this time what the actual slowdown will be.

Is it compatible with 802.11a?
802.11g products will not be compatible with 802.11a products. This is due to the different radio frequencies used.

Are our present access points upgradeable?
Some of our access points will be upgradeable. Our strategic direction for access points is the Cisco 1200. This access point uses a modular configuration that allows replaceable radio cards. If the radio cards were replaced the access points would be capable of functioning with the 802.11g standard. (Cisco is indicating they will have an 802.11g radio for the 1200 Access point.) Our older Symbol access points will not be upgradeable. They use an onboard radio with a chipset that is not compatible with 802.11g.

What are the benefits?
Higher connection speeds of up to 54 Mbps and compatibility with our existing 802.11b products.

What are the negatives?
802.11g's negatives are the same as 802.11b's, i.e. only three non-overlapping channels and interference from cordless phones and microwave ovens.

Donzi38ZX

The 10MB connection on your cable/DSL modem has no relavence on the speed of the actual internet connection. It merely states you can talk to the modem at that rate. Given DSL is limited to 7MB at its absolute fastest (RaDSL very limited availablility) with most connections in the 512kb range and cable is about 1 - 2 MB max, changing the wireless router will have no effect on your internet browsing.

CAP071

220, 420, 120 Whatever it takes!

Playn

I thought the wireless idea sounded pretty neat so with the last couple of laptops I purchased i got an Intel 10/100Mbps Ethernet and 11Mbps 802.11b. Of course, it's not hooked up and has been sitting in a box on my desk for a couple months so by the time I actually hook it up it will probably be outdated (if it isn't already)

Audiofn

Sean I have old and new wireless cards. They are all working on this network. Even some by other manufacturers. There is DEFINATLY a speed difference when I use my old card VS the new one. Seems that maybe they already got the issues you guys are talking about fixed? Anyhow just thought I would let ya all know. This thing RIPS. May have to go get one for my house now.

Jon

Peconic

Yes and no.

Yes, because the bottleneck is the line speed of the broadband connection, what's worse, the real bottleneck is the shared bandwidth of the broadband network's (cable, DSL) connection to the Internet "cloud."

No, because a lot can be going on even on a SOHO network, so some extra headroom can be a good thing. If Audiofn experiences a marked speedup, then he has done something right. Some WiFi connections can be incredibly slow in the real world ....

I run 4 machines at home, and they are connected with Gigabit Ethernet through a fast switch via good old Cat5. I don't believe in that newfangled stuff....

tripps

Hey guys,Im using the linksys now as we cruise from St Thomas to Bahamas then to Maimi for SBI race,The linksys works much faster then the mouse on my laptop,and you can run more than one puter on it **** cable!!! tripps