Any new word about Wireless N ?

[rwc]

There was a big hoopla about Wireless N (and Pre-N)...but then it died down. Does anybody know the status of wireless n?

thanks!

rwc

[pftg4]

Originally Posted by rwc

There was a big hoopla about Wireless N (and Pre-N)...but then it died down. Does anybody know the status of wireless n?

thanks!

rwc

Not Sure about status but you can buy pre n router from belkin for $140

[Crashless]

I read somewhere it won't be ratified until next year, so there won't be any official N products until about 3-6 months after that.

Any 'pre-N' products available now will most likely NOT be upgradeable to the standard when it is ratified. This may or may not be a big deal if you have to access other APs, (or need other people to access yours). If your equipment never leaves the house, it might not matter to you, and I would say 'go for it'. But if you ever want to be able to access other 'official-N' APs, I'd recommend you wait.

[shhas]

I recently setup a pure Pre-n network for a friend (three level house.. 4-5000 sqf) and it rocks. The belkin one...

It rocks.. easy setup, flexible, reliable, and excellent throughtput for video streaming.

(still need to be careful with 2.4 devices and mircorwave interference)

It is working for him so really does not matter if it's a radified version or not.. we should be result oriented.

[GTwannabe]

I wouldn't buy into the Pre-N stuff... too proprietary and can't be upgraded to 802.11n

You might want to consider an 802.11a network, since it uses the 5ghz spectrum instead of the crowded 2.4

[mikejaner]

802.11a has a much shorter range. The non interference is the plus side though.

[falchulk]

All pre n products will be upgradeable to my knowledge. It was the same way with G before the standard was finished. All it took was new drivers and firmware to get up to the final standard.

[Crashless]

Originally Posted by falchulk

All pre n products will be upgradeable to my knowledge. It was the same way with G before the standard was finished. All it took was new drivers and firmware to get up to the final standard.

This is incorrect. The 'g' products in question were made after the hardware side of the standard was in place, so only the protocol needed to be updated.

The 'n' standard is still FAR from being ratified, and the hardware portions of the standard are still being debated. The current 'pre-n' offerings use a technology called MIMO (multiple-in multiple-out), and it is one of a few competing technologies that are trying to get into the 'N' standard.

As a result of this, firmware can't update the hardware to make it compatible when the standard is finally ratified.

Please see this for more information:

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/...1675587,00.asp

[Crazedz]

What do you guys think about Wimax?

[falchulk]

Hmm, thats strange. The hardware is up to the vendor and not implemeted the same way regardless of standard. The hardware is usually based on a general idea of what the final requirements will be. The software then allows the hardware to do what it needs to decode the pre and final standard. Remember, the first stage of the hardware here is a radio transmitter and a radio reciver. Thats not going to change. The way the second stage encodes/decodes the signals may. The second stage is normally fully programable and can be altered via firmware on the router and firmware/drivers on the PC. This is the way it worked for A,B, and G. If you are correct, this is a departure from the standard practice vendors have been doing for many years. Not a very wise thing to do and would anger many customers expecting compatability.

[Crashless]

Originally Posted by falchulk

Hmm, thats strange. The hardware is up to the vendor and not implemeted the same way regardless of standard. The hardware is usually based on a general idea of what the final requirements will be. The software then allows the hardware to do what it needs to decode the pre and final standard. Remember, the first stage of the hardware here is a radio transmitter and a radio reciver. Thats not going to change. The way the second stage encodes/decodes the signals may. The second stage is normally fully programable and can be altered via firmware on the router and firmware/drivers on the PC. This is the way it worked for A,B, and G. If you are correct, this is a departure from the standard practice vendors have been doing for many years. Not a very wise thing to do and would anger many customers expecting compatability.

And this is why consumer groups are so pissed about the whole thing.

Hardware will always be part of the standards process because of specific functions it is required to do. For instance, you couldn't flash a 802.11g router's firmware to be compatible with 802.11a because they operate on different radio bands, and their antennae need to be physically different to perform properly in each space.

For the same reason, if MIMO isn't included in the final 802.11n draft standard, the current 'pre-n' offerings will be incompatible because they are designed to use multiple transmission and reception antennaes to increase throughput.

Make sense?

Originally Posted by Crazedz

What do you guys think about Wimax?

WiMax seems pretty cool, but I don't believe it's being targeted at the home user. It will most likely be positioned as a 'last mile' broadband solution, or even a mobile internet solution to replace hotspots, EV-DO cards, or the like. I don't believe you'll be able to go out and buy a WiMax router for your home in the traditional sense. They may come out with routers that connect to the net via WiMax then to your LAN via some other a/b/g/n standard.

[shhas]

Perhaps I am missing something here and am not following the logic correclty.

We buy and utilize various products because we want to get "something" done. The purchased material (in this case Pre-n router) is not the goal but the means by which one would like to do something specific. In this case, I assume people who come to this forum would like to stream media particularly stream video and move large files between PCs.

If in fact Pre-n accomplishes this (and it does), why not go for it today? We live now and would like to use our toys today as well
What difference really does it make what kind of hardware, firmware, antenna, etc is being used? You want high throughput and long range and it provides it. It's not by any means perfect, but it's currently the best there is and the "goal" is accomplished without much hassle.

Just because in a year or perhaps two years from now a fully ratified protocol and associated hardware come out, all existing Pre-n devices will not suddenly stop functioning. Most of us usully upgrade whole systems every few years anyway and the discussion becomes kind of moot at that point.

To me the argument for waiting on a ratified protocol is like saying not to buy any computer this year because they are going to be much faster in two years.

Cheers,

[Crashless]

Originally Posted by shhas

...snip...

To me the argument for waiting on a ratified protocol is like saying not to buy any computer this year because they are going to be much faster in two years.

And that's a perfectly valid argument - provided you fully understand that your pre-n router won't work with your new 'official n' laptop next year.

I wasn't trying to argue that 'pre-n' hardware isn't good. I was asserting that 'pre-n' hardware won't necessarily work with ratified n hardware like the 'pre-g' hardware did.