Pre-802.11n Offers 4x the Speed

An anonymous reader writes "Belkin said on Monday that they'll be releasing a wireless network card and router that uses pre-802.11n multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) antenna technology created by Airgo Networks. Belkin said the new pre-n products will provide four times faster speed and coverage area than 802.11b and g products. The new products will also be compatible with older products and in fact will increase performance on those older products."

Comments

Multiple signals?

[Davak]

Anybody know if the increase number of signals increases the amount of interference?

new pre-n products

[router_ninja]

Pre-standard? I'll wait thanks. Especially with the history of this company.

Maybe It Means Something

[shadowcabbit]

OK, so we have 802.11b, 802.11n, and 802.11g. Is there an 802.11o? Because that would be interesting, seeing a wireless router advertise itself as being "802.11b/o/n/g Compatible!"

Oh, and I would have titled this "First Pot", but that would just be low-class.

wireless vs wire

[Davak]

Reliability rivaling that of wired connections and effortless connectivity at real-world distances is why Belkin's True MIMO products have ushered in a new era in wireless."

When I can wirelessly play my PS2 and download torrents at the same time, I'll be in heaven. As much as I love wireless, I think we are far from the reliability and connectivity of a hard wire.

Wow!

[dhoonlee]

How many pringles cans does this come with?

must have more speed

[frovingslosh]

Unfortunately, I know way too many people who paid a lot extra to get 802.11g than 802.11b - but only use it to surf the Internet. The truth is that even the 802.11b connection is faster than high speed brodband to the home, so there is no real gain in using 802.11g. I even saw (in a previous /. forum) someone who was plannig on opening a "Internet cafe" and was thinking he should go for 802.11g, not understanding that no user would exceed the 802.11b speed and not even realizing that the entire network would downgrade to 802.11b anyway if even one user was connected through 802.11b equipment.

Now, it seems, people are going to be rushing to these new "standards". Sure, if you're going to be transfering a lot of large files around your internal network, perhaps while you stream real time video to your "entertainment center", then you might justify the extra cost and being on the bleeding edge; but most users just think in terms of "I want the newer faster stuff" or simply "I want the good stuff" and they will end up paying a lot more now for the technology they never use than they would if they just waited until the standrds were worked out, the products came down in price, and the connection to the rest of the Internet caught up in speed to justify the choice.

4x the coverage = 1/2 the wardriving!

[Jtheletter]

Woohoo! Finally, now I don't have to sit in my car in front of my neighbor's house, I can just leech their connexon from my living room!