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Belkin Offering Pre-802.11N Products
redshield3 writes "Belkin is offering what it is calling "pre-802.11n" products for mass consumers now. CompUSA is reportedly carrying these items in stores. They claim 800% range improvement over 802.11g as well as full backwards compatibility and the ability to continue pushing out n-speeds when a 802.11g or 802.11b device is introduced to the network."
however wifi range is a constant headache for me
I saw one of these on the shelf the other day. The price wasn't much higher than for 802.11g options.... my biggest question would be whether a firmware upgrade would necessarily be able to bring these into full 802.11n compatibility once the standard is ratified?
It would suck to end up locked into a dead-end solution like that, but if it can be patched to become standard.... I might think about trying it out.
Because the 802.11n spec isn't finalized, therefore it isn't 802.11n compliant?
There are a plethora of articles out there right now describing the chance you take buying "pre-N" wireless gear. Since there is no N standard yet, none of these companies can claim with any certainty thier product will be N compatable. If you buy one of these products, go in expecting that it won't work with true N when the spec is actually released.
The N standard isn't even finalizd yet. The problem is -- when someone goes ahead an releases hardware when the standard isn't written, it ties the hands of the working group writing the standard. If I were them I'd tweak something to make the belkin shit (and yes, its shit) worthless :)
Religion is a gateway psychosis. -- Dave Foley
We went through this with 56K modem and 802.11g standards. A vendor's marketing department tries to get the jump on everyone else by introducing equipment that is "pre-standard". People buy them to get the latest whiz-bang capability and either don't care about the consequences or are too clueless to understand them. If the approved standard turns out to be what the equipment uses then the company is home free with an existing market share. If not then marketing beats on engineering to put together a minimum cost (to the company) upgrade path. If there is no practical upgrade path then the customer is left with a doorstop and no recourse because the unread fine print says compatibility is not guaranteed. Either way the company profits by being first out of the gate.
My point exactly.
Open source firmware can greatly expand not only the feature set of a piece of hardware, but also its useful lifespan. For a perfect example just take a look at all the features added by Svesoft's firmware for the WRT54G series. (please let's not get into a debate over Svesoft's source publishing practices, I just used them as an example, there are many active projects modifying Linksys firmware)
Because of Linksys's use of a Linux based firmware we are not dependent on them to patch vulnerabilities or correct bugs. There will come a day when Linksys decides to end support for their Linux powered products, but the impact of that business decision will me minimized for the userbase.
I feel this is especially important for pre-standard hardware. Belkin has not promised to make these "pre-N" products compliant with the full standard if or when the standard is certified. Open source firmware removes my dependence on the good will of hardware vendors.
My niece was visiting, and for whatever stupid reason, her middle school requires everyone have a laptop. (Insert rant about kids and computers here; apparently, using IM to chat about cute boyz is a new class they didn't have when I was in school. But I digreess.)
I like to offer my net connection to guests so they can chat on vacation. So I point her to the nearest wall socket and ask if she needs a cable.
"No, I'm just using the wireless connection. There's like 2 or 3 of them."
Of course, at the time, I didn't have a wireless connection. But a few of my neighbors do: LINKSYS, LINKSYS, and, uh, LINKSYS.
So, I'm all for more range. More free net access! And, this means I don't have to let anyone's spyware-ridden box on my home network when they visit.
I can explanate how to administrate your network. You must configurate and segmentate it, so it can computate.
Does anyone know if any of the 802.11n products have non-ndiswrapper drivers?
Last I was reading of pre-N stuff (a co worker was interested in it) they haven't even settled what frequencies N will use, or how wide the signal will be, these are some pretty big changes that could be made.