802.11g not ready
From Guy Kewney's Mobile Campaign comes the story of interoperability problems with new 802.11g equipment. Anyone looking to buy the new 54 Mbit/s systems should take a serious look at these issues:
<a title="Features - New wireless 11g " standard" ends in tears" href="http://www.newswireless.net/articles/030207-clash.html">Features - New wireless 11g "standard" ends in tears
One quote from the article has Nick Hunn, managing director of TDK Grey Cell, extol the virtues of standardization and cooperation:
"In my belief, 'standard' means something that everyone adheres to for the common good. Within the IEEE, former home of engineering, but now merely court jester to vested interest, standard seems to mean 'I'm already shipping it - look how big my wallet is,' or something very similar."
In a further article Guy Kewney adds a comment from Bill Carney, business development director of Texas Instruments:
"You incorrectly assert that in a mixed mode network consisting of 11g and 11b nodes, that 11g devices will have to revert to a maximum of 11mbps," commented Bill Carney, business development director for Texas Instruments, in response to our recent analysis - "But this is completely incorrect."
This doesn't change the fact that currently shipping equipment from D-Link, Linksys and others display this property, though.
It is clear to me, and also our recommendation to clients at wire.less.dk, that this stuff just isn't ready for primetime.
Don't buy it unless you know exactly what you're doing. But then again, if you know exactly what you're doing you should know not to buy it.
Anyway, who really needs those extra10-15 Mbit/s??? Honestly now?
