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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.
Well since Ether means Airwaves, maybe we should call it Ethernet.
Oh, wait.
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
This uses a 5 Ghz piece of spectrum. The antennas can be smaller or have more gain for their size, which would enhance range. This would be great as a point-to-point link with highly directional, high gain antennas (like a 12 element yagi or something).
I was about to ask 'Whut in da heck is NetStumbler' but instead I got off my butt and
found out for myself:
Network administrators deploying an 802.11b wireless network need site survey tools to help plan locations for access points. Once installed, the access points need to be checked periodically to ensure they are providing adequate coverage.
Some wireless network cards provide reasonable survey tools, but the freeware Network Stumbler is far superior to most. The program captures signal strength and signal-to-noise statistics, but perhaps more important, it helps network administrators identify and locate rogue access points--those that employees may have installed without central IT's permission--as well as determine whether or not WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) is being used, to help prevent potential security breaches.
- For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat
Does it work with NetStumbler?
Yes. 801.11b and 802.11a are physical layer protocols. Toms hardware has more details, but basically they operate in different frequency bands but once you get to link layer the differences begin to dissolve. by the time you get to network layer, it's the same protocol. which means it has all the same security holes outlined by the recent paper on the subject and exploitable by airsnort.
So yes, you can use NetStumbler to steal more bandwidth now. Whether or not someone will figure out how to solve the solved problem of mutual authentication for the wireless community remains to be seen.
Read the press release and post your comment, eh?
802.11a runs up to about 150 feet indoors *at full speed* where 802.11b can run more like 300 feet. (These are just random numbers, of course, because internal obstacles like plaster coated chicken wire stops transmissions.)
But 802.11a has a number of step down speeds: if it can't do 54 Mbps, it drops to the next, and so on. I believe it has 12 stepdowns to 802.11b's 4 (1, 2, 5.5, 11).
This means that where 802.11b might be able to run at 1 Mbps at a few hundred feet from an access point, 802.11a could still be running at 12 Mbps.
Further, when you get out into the open landscape and can do point-to-point, you can run miles and miles, just as with 802.11b. Or, with an access point mounted externally for a neighborhood or campus.
And 802.11a uses the 5 GHz band, which is uncrowded and reserved, unlike 2.4 GHz (Bluetooth, HomeRF, cordless phone, microwave oven interference).
Freelance tech journalist for the Economist, MIT Technology Review, Macworld, and others
Maybe what you really needed was a heating solution, not a networking one.
Wireless is going to cause a revolution in our societies, geeks will start to mingle with normal people in the living rooms, and our world will change forever :-)
This is completely false. The range of 802.11a at full rate (54 Mbps) is quite short, yes. But, 802.11a can achieve 11 Mbps at longer range than 802.11b, and it can reach 1 Mbps at quite long range. Thus it is correct to say that 802.11a actually has better range than 802.11b.
>...eight-oh-two-dot-eleven-eh...
For those among us who don't speak Canadian (and by the way, it's "eight-oh-two-dot-eleven, eh?") this is "eight-oh-two-dot-eleven-ay".
Always glad to help.
Virg