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54 Mbps/100 Mbps Wireless LAN
carbon60 writes: "Proxim seems to have very quietly released 802.11a based products. 54 Mbps in standard mode and 100 Mbps in "2X" mode. The main website lists the products." They're a little more expensive, and I dunno about Linux drivers, but still, that's some fast wireless action.
I'm sure this is good for somebody but my 11mb wireless lan is already 11 times faster than my net connection. Locally, I rarely every transfer large files between machines.
It seems to be that good 'ol 802.11b is still the price/performance leader. And with a range of only 20 feet, I can't see much use for 802.11a in my house.
Maybe when cards that support both 802.11a and 802.11b are cheap enough I'll start buying those. That's what it took for 100 mbs lans to take over, that's probably what it will take for 54 mbs wlan to take over the marketplace.
That which does not kill me only makes me whinier
Dunno about Linux drivers
:-)
Well, Proxim did a good set of (albeit binary-only) drivers for Linux, which work swell under 2.4 or later - I should know, I'm using one right now
Seriously, I'd expect that Proxim will either release a driver for this soon, or it will be covered under existing ones.
How do I feel that this is already posted (perhaps here?) Oh well, must be one of those Deja vu-thingies, I guess.
This is the place where you write something that will make you seem like a complete idiot.
Given similar power and antenna size, 802.11a range is about the same at 802.11b.
Seems to me that this is going to do for the price of existing 802.11b hardware what 100Mbps hardware did to the price of existing 10Mbps hardware.
This is great, because 802.11b is easily fast enough for most home broadband. The $19.99 802.11b card was already on the way, this will make it show up faster.
With such a short range, a VERY limited product line (where is the desktop hardware?!), and a 2x mode that is proprietary, is anyone really going to jump on these just yet?
I know I'm certainly not switching--this just isn't good enough to replace Cat5 yet. Plus the price is too high and the range is too low to attract consumers away from 802.11b. I'm going to hold off until there is a much larger selection of products by more than one company before I even think about 802.11a.
As an engineer, I like things that are named after specs., or at least numbered. Kinda like automobiles; If I were to drive a BMW 535i, or a Datsun 260Z, I know what I'm getting.
Lumping all wireless technology under wi-fi is fine, but there is a distinction (and compatibility issues) between eight-oh-two-dot-eleven-bee and eight-oh-two-dot-eleven-eh. The naming convention should reflection that.
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Actually, no I didn't just read the press release and post my comments. I read the press release weeks ago when it came out, and I've actually got a few of these cards on order.
Your point about stepping down is true, my point though is if you look at the speed/range on a chart you will see that the only way you will get that 100mbps throughput is at 20feet with no multipath. Even 11mbps 802.11 will drop down to 2mbps very quickly.
So what's the point of worrying about 100+ megabit when you are actually only going to get a couple?
Still, like I said it's a good start. As you said the band is clearer. This card is only meant for early adopters and enginering people really. It's a preview of what's coming.