Linksys Releases Dual-Band WiFi Card

[Janak Parekh]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://news.com.com/2100-1039-991309.html?tag=cd_mh' target='_blank'>http://news.com.com/2100-1039-99130....html?tag=cd_mh</a><br /><br /></div>"Wireless networking company Linksys on Wednesday released a PC card that supports two nascent Wi-Fi standards. Linksys's Wireless Dual Band A+G Wireless PC Card for notebook computers supports not only 802.11b--the prevailing IEEE standard for wireless networking--but its newer cousins 802.11a, which sacrifices bandwidth for range, and 802.11g, which is supposed to be backward-compatible with 802.11b."<br /><br />How long do you think it'll be before we see these everywhere? Having dual-mode cards could be a convenient solution to the whither-a-or-g problem -- both technologies have their use in improving WLAN bandwidth. What I'd <i>really</i> like to see is a Pocket PC integrated with a/b/g capabilities. Oh, while we're at it, I'd also like Bluetooth, GSM/GPRS, and CDMA/1xRTT. I'll finally be happy then. ;)

[Jonathon Watkins]

Sounds good - 'as long as' the 'g' part can be flash upgraded when they actually finalise the spec. See here:

Don't mess with 802.11g, researcher warns
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/69/29651.html

Last month, the Wi-Fi Alliance, a non-profit organisation that certifies the interoperability of 802.11 WLAN equipment, said it will begin certification testing of 802.11g products once the IEEE has approved the final standard.

But that approval has been a long time coming, and while the 802.11g is available in draft form, it has yet to become a true standard. In anticipation, many vendors have released 802.11g products anyway. Technically, all these 802.11g implementations are proprietary and can't be guaranteed to operate with other vendors' 802.11g units. And they may not pass the Wi-Fi Alliance's tests, says Gartner.

Certified products are likely to appear by the end of the year, and buyers should wait until then, suggests Gartner. At the very least, we'd add, stick to products that manufacturers promise can be flash upgraded to the official version of the standard in due course.

[pocketpcdude1024]

Umm, it may be a typo, but that article is dated in July 2003 :lol: :

Don't mess with 802.11g, researcher warns
By Tony Smith
Posted: 07/03/2003 at 17:17 GMT


Businesses have this week been warned to steer clear of 802.11g wireless LAN technology by market research organisation Gartner.

Devices based on the 802.11g specification operate in the same 2.4GHz band as current 802.11b WLAN products but have a maximum throughput of 54Mbps rather than 802.11b's 11Mbps.

Attractive though the 802.11g technology is, Gartner believes that until products based on the spec can be officially certified, buyers should put purchasing on hold...

[bdegroodt]

Umm, it may be a typo, but that article is dated in July 2003 :lol: :

Don't mess with 802.11g, researcher warns
By Tony Smith
Posted: 07/03/2003 at 17:17 GMT




That's the European date format 7/3/03 is March 7, 2003.

[Pony99CA]

"Wireless networking company Linksys on Wednesday released a PC card that supports two nascent Wi-Fi standards. Linksys's Wireless Dual Band A+G Wireless PC Card for notebook computers supports not only 802.11b--the prevailing IEEE standard for wireless networking--but its newer cousins 802.11a, which sacrifices bandwidth for range, and 802.11g, which is supposed to be backward-compatible with 802.11b."

I read that on AvantGo, and think they messed up. 802.11a does not sacrifice bandwidth for range; they got that backwards, I think. 802.11a is a 54 mbps standard, just like 802.11g. It's frequency is in the 5 GHz range, so that may sacrifice range for bandwidth and, possibly, less interference with other 2.4 GHz devices.

What I'd really like to see is a Pocket PC integrated with a/b/g capabilities. Oh, while we're like it, I'd also like Bluetooth, GSM/GPRS, and CDMA/1xRTT. I'll finally be happy then. ;)
You forgot GPS. Sheesh. :lol:

Steve

[PapaSmurfDan]

The minute that the 802.11a and g products hit the shelfs is when many consumers became confused. I finally picked up a router/AP for home, but I had to go through a sea of g's and a's to find a simple plain old b router. Finally 802.11b is becomming more stable and from what I have heard, there is still significant compatiblity problems. I wouldn't touch the 'g's until there is more compatiblity, and from what I have seen. From my own testing, a PPC can't even suck up all 11mbps of bandwidth at the moment, so why do you want g support when it should be backwords compatabile with b.

[bdegroodt]

I honestly don't see this A/B/G issue being adopted by consumers unless tri-mode becomes an affordable offering for APs and cards. It's too much to keep track of for the average occasional CompUSA shopper to understand. Better to have the 3 options and universal compatability in any uncontrolled environments (Starbucks, Wayport, corner cafe etc.).

I saw D-link is shipping a tri-mode and I think that's the place to be once everything gets blessed by the powers that be...and a few months for the price to come down.

I'm with Janak on the ubber-connection built in please...and yes, I'd pony up a few extra bucks for it to be built in.

[Jonathon Watkins]

Yup, lets have it all. :lol: Then it's a case of 'what confusion?'.

There was a problem with 'a' being licsenced over in Europe because of the differnt frequency. 'g' is OK of course.

Pocketpcdude1024, that is the 'correct' way to write a date. :!: :wink:
It is entirely logical, day, month, year. Having it month, day, year is all backwackwards and confusing. I think only the US writes it this way (perhaps Canada as well - any thougths?). The rest of the world used the 'right' way of doing things. :idea: :wink:

[bdegroodt]

The rest of the word used the 'right' way of doinl things. :idea: :wink:

You mean kind of like how the U.S. was supposed to convert to the metric system decades ago :?:

[Janak Parekh]

I read that on AvantGo, and think they messed up. 802.11a does not sacrifice bandwidth for range; they got that backwards, I think.
Yeah, I suspected as much -- higher frequencies tend to have less range. On the other hand, the 5GHz spectrum is less cluttered, so the net range may be competitive.

I honestly don't see this A/B/G issue being adopted by consumers unless tri-mode becomes an affordable offering for APs and cards.
I'm not sure about that. Since 802.11g is already backwards-compatible (in theory) with 802.11b, you'd only need a dual-mode setup. On the other hand, it remains to be seen how broad each standard's adoption becomes.

--janak

[bdegroodt]

I honestly don't see this A/B/G issue being adopted by consumers unless tri-mode becomes an affordable offering for APs and cards.
I'm not sure about that. Since 802.11g is already backwards-compatible (in theory) with 802.11b, you'd only need a dual-mode setup. On the other hand, it remains to be seen how broad each standard's adoption becomes.

--janak

Sure. You and I know that, but the average Joe won't and that's going to put a big stop on sales until they understand.

I believe it's why Apple calls their new G release Airport Extreme, instead of by it's IEEE standard's name. I also think D-Link is on the right path. Just create one box that does it all (Probably produces higher margins for them, too.). Consumers only want to know that when they open up their notebook or their PDA and are in range of a signal, it works. Not the name and the tech specs. Quick, average Joe, tell me what A/B/G means and what the compatability is with your existing or soon to exist infrastructure. Personally, I think the .a,b,g naming convention is far too confusing and lacks logic (A is faster than B? Why is it before B? What happened to C,D,E and F? Will Z be faster than A?)

That means it has to be converged into one "WiFi" naming convention and standard (Tri-Mode etc.) so that Joe consumer can look at the side of the box or the sticker on the Starbuck's door and take a look at his WiFi card and go "Cool, I can log on with this/here!"

[Janak Parekh]

That means it has to be converged into one "WiFi" naming convention and standard (Tri-Mode etc.) so that Joe consumer can look at the side of the box or the sticker on the Starbuck's door and take a look at his WiFi card and go "Cool, I can log on with this/here!"
I think there is progress in this direction; I posted a while ago (can't find it now; maybe I forgot?) that Intel is working along with some wireless manufacturers to make Wi-Fi more interoperable; this includes using standardized logos at hotspots.

--janak

[ricksfiona]

What I'd really like to see is a Pocket PC integrated with a/b/g capabilities. Oh, while we're at it, I'd also like Bluetooth, GSM/GPRS, and CDMA/1xRTT. I'll finally be happy then. ;)

Except for CDMA, I completely agree. C'mon HP!

[bdegroodt]

What I'd really like to see is a Pocket PC integrated with a/b/g capabilities. Oh, while we're at it, I'd also like Bluetooth, GSM/GPRS, and CDMA/1xRTT. I'll finally be happy then. ;)

Except for CDMA, I completely agree. C'mon HP!

Well, seeing how our good friends at Qualcomm already are down the Tri-Mode chip path, what the heck, throw it in there for giggles. Keep the wireless carriers honest.

[ricksfiona]

I installed a Linksys 'g' AP and bought a Linksys 'g' PC card and it works great. In an office environment, I was getting a good 100'+ range with about 20% signal strength. Web and network access was still very good.

However, I have an SMC 'b' CF card and haven't been able to use that with the AP. I get a connection, but I can't get past the AP to access the Internet or network. I secured the AP and know I entered the MAC address correctly into the 'permitted' db on the router. So I think a call to Linksys is necessary. I'm a little wary of my SMC card though.

When 'g' has been 100% approved, I'm confident Linksys will have a firmware update ready.

[Dave Beauvais]

I tried last week to connect my h5455 to a Linksys 802.11g access point, but nothing I tried would allow it to associate properly. I didn't have my notebook and its 802.11b PC Card with me, so I wasn't able to test. The friend who owns the AP has a Linksys 802.11g card to go with it, so his compatibility problems are minimized. I hope that as 802.11g matures, problems like this will go away and it'll be truly backward compatible with 802.11b.

... Pocketpcdude1024, that is the 'correct' way to write a date. :!: :wink: ... The rest of the word used the 'right' way of doinl things. :idea: :wink:
Off-topic -- sorry. I really wish the whole world would standardize on the ISO 8601 Standard (http://www.iso.org/iso/en/prods-services/popstds/datesandtime.html), which represents dates in the YYYY-MM-DD format. It eliminates any uncertainty as to what number represents what, it sorts easily on computers, etc. I've been using this for several years when I have to write or type a date on something. Sometimes I'll write 2003-Mar-08 since "03" and "08" could be ambiguous to those unfamiliar with the standard.

--Dave

[Jonathon Watkins]

Off-topic -- sorry. I really wish the whole world would standardize on the ISO 8601 Standard (http://www.iso.org/iso/en/prods-services/popstds/datesandtime.html), which represents dates in the YYYY-MM-DD format. It eliminates any uncertainty as to what number represents what, it sorts easily on computers, etc. I've been using this for several years when I have to write or type a date on something. Sometimes I'll write 2003-Mar-08 since "03" and "08" could be ambiguous to those unfamiliar with the standard.

No, that sounds fair enough. My camera (Canon S45) downloads the images using this date format and it seems very logical. Let's all switch together! :P

Personally I'm waiting for 802.11g to standardise before commiting.

[pocketpcdude1024]

Pocketpcdude1024, that is the 'correct' way to write a date. :!: :wink:
It is entirely logical, day, month, year. Having it month, day, year is all backwackwards and confusing. I think only the US writes it this way (perhaps Canada as well - any thougths?). The rest of the word used the 'right' way of doinl things. :idea: :wink:

On a recent trip to the UK (well, 2 years ago...) I was informed that although us Americans drive on the right side of the road, they drove on the correct side of the road! :wink:

[cgavula]

The 802.11 a/b/g is even worse than you think. I recently downloaded an IEEE committee status update report for wireless standards. It's made up of one paragraph summaries of each subcommittee and who's in charge, etc. The document is 35+ pages long. There are nearly half a dozen projects dedicated to 802.11b - that means subvariants of "b". That's why some stuff works with "g" routers and some doesn't. "g" is due for final approval this June.

But did you know...there's a "j" standard for higher frequencies in Japan. There's an "F" standard (anong other letters) for communications between access points. There's an 802.16 committee working on WiFi that's community-wide. There's an 802.20 committee working on mobile wireless (WiFi while moving). And those kinds of things are the tip of the iceberg.

This stuff is going to get a lot more confusing before it gets simpler. For those of us who are old enough we remember the various flavors of ethernet on wired networks (thicknet, thinnet, 10baseT, 10base 100, FastEthernet, and the related technologies of Token Ring, Token Bus, Arcnet) that took years before things finally started to standandardize where routers knew how to talk most of the popular variants.

As is usually the case, the market will help dictate which of these variants survives and which doesn't and which gets rolled into multi-band products. In the meantime, the best rule of thumb is to keep things consistent - use the same flavor and brand of equipment together whenever possible. If not, try to go with the lowest common denominator - in this case "b". At least that's the advice that Gartner gives, and that's one of the best think tanks in this business.

--Chris

[st63z]

Stay up to date at 80211-planet.com...

So many names: dual-band (2.4/5), multimode, 802.11a/b/g, 802.11a+g, etc, etc.

Opponents say .11a shorter range, proponents argue higher throughput at any distance point. At the very least a has more simultaneous channels (8 vs. 3 IIRC)...

Netgear's PC Card looks good. I like Netgear, their 1000btx copper NIC had been stellar...

[Pony99CA]

Pocketpcdude1024, that is the 'correct' way to write a date. :!: :wink: It is entirely logical, day, month, year. Having it month, day, year is all backwackwards and confusing. I think only the US writes it this way (perhaps Canada as well - any thougths?). The rest of the word used the 'right' way of doinl things. :idea: :wink:
Hey, Gerbil, what's the "right" way to spell "world" and "doing"? :lol: (Sorry, I couldn't resist.)

I heard a story about someone from Europe visiting a bar here in California. Even though they were 21, the bouncer wouldn't let them in because the passport's European-style date made it appear they weren't 21. The unambiguous way to write the date is to spell out the month (assuming English, of course).

Steve

P.S. Here's a British joke. I heard that Great Britain is switching to driving on the right side of the road. To avoid confusion, they'll implement this in stages. For the first month, only cars will drive on the right side; after the first month, buses and lorries will have to drive on the right side, too. :rofl:

[Jonathon Watkins]

That's what I get for not spellchecking my posts before posting them. :oops: The colour of my cheeks! :wink: I shall analyse my sentences more carefully in the future.

I wonder if the Linksys WiFi units will be aluminium in colour. :wink:

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

I hope that as 802.11g matures, problems like this will go away and it'll be truly backward compatible with 802.11b.
Well, I was thinking about upgrading my WiFi setup... good thing this thread came... I sit out until I hear more feedback and further developments.

... Pocketpcdude1024, that is the 'correct' way to write a date. :!: :wink: ... The rest of the word used the 'right' way of doinl things. :idea: :wink:
Off-topic -- sorry. I really wish the whole world would standardize on the ISO 8601 Standard (http://www.iso.org/iso/en/prods-services/popstds/datesandtime.html), which represents dates in the YYYY-MM-DD format.
Yeah, that's my preferred format as well. When I'm in Europe, I often either use their format (DD/MM/YY) or I'll use the format that this board uses in signifying when a poster joined (DD Mon YYYY). It's the only way to be unambiguous.

As for which side of the road we drive on, I was ignorant in thinking the US was the only country driving on the right side. I had made many trips to Japan and Thailand in the past and both drive on the left. Being in Europe, I now realize that the UK is in the minority there.

[ctmagnus]

As for which side of the road we drive on, I was ignorant in thinking the US was the only country driving on the right side.

Canada uses the right side as well (at least we're supposed to; it doesn't always happen that way, especially just east of here.)

When I went to Europe way back when, I was initially surprised that everyone drove on the right over there except for England out of the countries we went to. I had expected all of Europe to drive on the left.