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WiFi Woes With .11g
Herby Werby writes "The Register has an article on the incompatibility between .11g and .11b across differing unnamed vendors due to premature roll-outs. The part which really hurts is the suggestion that if there's a .11b participant to your .11g network then either it gets ignored or the network reverts to .11b status. Anyone tried this yet with their new Powermacs?" As the article points out, this is most likely due to the fact that .11g hasn't really even been set as a *standard* yet, so incompatibility is to be expected. I just hope vendors get really good with flash updates.
They became famous for their "v.Everything" modems, which allowed you to basically connect to any other type of modem, even with bad line conditions. Could they produce an 802.11Evertyhing? It could talk to all these incompatible "standards" and sell well to higher end consumers who need guaranteed connectivity.
Naming conventions for networking standards are all over the map: airport, airport extreme, wifi etc.
You'd think it would just be simpler to use the 802.xyz definition because at least that's a version number.
Oh yeah, except 802 isn't even a version number. The first meeting of the IEEE Computer Society "Local Network Standards Committee", Project 802, was held in February of 1980. It was called 802 for the second month of 1980.
So all these things are pretty arbitrary. Personally, I think networking standards should be named Uhura.
Not saying anything about the correctness of the Reg article or of your assesment of it. HOWEVER, you use an example of them claiming the IEEE being "forced" to make a decision, you state that statement is incorrect, and then offer up a couple of examples of how the IEEE was on schedule. What does one have to do with the other? How does the IEEE being on schedule relate to them being "forced" into a choice? Do you have more info to clarify your point?
This is going to do nothing but piss a lot of people off and make even more think that .11g sucks ass due to bad word-of-mouth.
This article doesn't deserve to be promoted on /., and besides is old news anyway.
The main aim of the article seems to be to try to boost the author's own credibility by making it look as if his previous 802.11g pessimism was prescient. But the author is really trying to stretch the facts to fit his premise; he's not making a useful report.
He says of the release of pre-standard agreement 802.11g devices: "As predicted, the result is a monumental cockup"
Monumental cockup? Hardly. These devices work pretty well and manufacturers such as Apple are open about the fact that the standard is still in draft form - and have stated they will release firmware updates to bring their products in line with the final specification when agreed.
What this article actually gives us is a load of FUD about 802.11g, even quoting a Gartner analyst for a 'techincal'
explanation!
It makes you wonder if this guy's got friends in the 802.11a camp...
As bad as the game companies that send out a game still in need of patches. They know there are errors; they know things need fixing; they know it's not a "solid" game yet.
So what do they do? They ship it...and keep working on it.
Right now the manufacturers are hiding behind the statement, "this is based on a draft of the 802.11g standard and may differ from the standard when it's published."
They are putting out a product that will mostly achieve the results people are looking for with 802.11g and hoping they can get the devices into the needed spec with firmware updates when the standard is published.
On a side note, 802.11g may be a much more viable solution for large businesses. Those companies which require their wireless users to sign in through a DMZ and VPN into the network (thereby not having to worry so much about wireless security problems) will find the added bandwidth of the 802.11g standard very helpful for their wireless users.
Those of us setting up a home network, well, it's nice to keep up with the Joneses, but you won't see me upgrading my 802.11b wireless network anytime soon.
Obviously this stuff is based on my opinion, but being a wireless networking specialist at one of the largest computer manufacturers, that opinion is also based on factual observation.
And no...my company won't be putting out 802.11g equipment until we are much closer to the standard and more of the bugs are worked out between b and g compatibility.