802.11g Questions. Curious about this D-link ExtremeG 108mb

[RedShirt]

I'm going to be moving into a new apartment soon and we have decided to go wireless.

Does anyone have any first hand experience with D-Link 108mbit ExtremeG 802.11g network products? Is the connection really two times as fast? I read they use compression, but many files that you share over the network are already compressed (video files, mp3s etc).

The reason I ask is because there is a price premium over normal 802.11g products.

Also, to those of you that have normal 802.11g, what is the real speed you transfer stuff? I'm sure it's not 54mbits since there is overhead and less than perfect signal strength.

 

[alexXx]

I thought they consider it 108mb because they use 2 receivers and transmitters for each client (dlink client) so they essentially connect twice so there is room for double the bandwidth.

 

[JackMDS]

You might find info about it here: Wireless What Should I Get?

 

[RedShirt]

alexXx, That is one aspect of it, but there is more.

Taken from Dlink's product description:

Packet Bursting: The packet bursting technique puts more data into a single transmission, allowing more raw data to be stuffed into each packet and as a result not only delivers much more data, but also executes this process with less traffic on the network. Packet bursting transforms lengthy binary code into simple equations, resulting in an overall reduction in the number of 1s and 0s being sent over the network. It is also the technique defined as one of the methods for performance improvement in the IEEE 802.11e QOS draft standard.

Fast Frames: The fast frames technique enhances data throughput by increasing the number of bits sent per data frame and accelerating the timing of a data frame with a dynamic transmit optimizations. This technology enhances the Packet Bursting capability synergistically to provide accelerated performance results. The fast frames technique is also based on the 802.11e QOS draft standard.

Hardware Compression and Encryption: Xtreme G uses the Atheros AR5002 chipset which employs special engines to compress and encrypt data. These hardware engines operate in real-time to enhance throughput by implementing standard algorithms and compressing data prior to transmission and after reception.

Multi-Channel Bonding: Multi-Channel Bonding embraces two radio channels simultaneously. It collapses the available channels from 12 to 6 for increased bandwidth on the available channels. Single and double channels are not run at the same time. This technology senses single channel and dual channel frames and negotiates time-based solutions with priority on single channel processing.

Select Mode: Select Mode gives users the option of locking the Xtreme G products into a Static mode (instead of the default Dynamic mode) for even higher performance within a complete D-Link 108Mbps Xtreme G environment.

 

[alexXx]

yea i was researching different companies a week or two ago, and i assume that stuff on d-link's site is mostly marketting.

 

[RedShirt]

Originally posted by: alexXx
yea i was researching different companies a week or two ago, and i assume that stuff on d-link's site is mostly marketting.

Well, by no means does it hit 108mbit. I'm wondering if we are gonna want to run wires instead. I have no complaints about the speed of a 100 mbit network, but if wireless is gonna be 20mbit or less.... I don't know if that's worth spending money on adaptors for each computer, and a router.... Especally when we already have all the equipment we need already for a wired network.

 

[alexXx]

wired will be far stabler than wireless. If you can get 20mbits/sec with your wireless connection, that is still like 2.5MB/sec which is still very fast. It really depends on the usage.

 

[RedShirt]

Originally posted by: alexXx
wired will be far stabler than wireless. If you can get 20mbits/sec with your wireless connection, that is still like 2.5MB/sec which is still very fast. It really depends on the usage.

This is very true. Normally this would be plenty, but there would be times where someone would be transferring gigs of stuff from computer to computer (for whatever reason) and it'd just seem very slow.

It's hard to know what to do.

 

[RedShirt]

Does anyone have a normal 802.11g (not this extreme g stuff) setup? What kinds of speeds to you get (not connection speeds, actual speeds of sending files etc).

 

[alexXx]

I have a USrobotics wireless router(G),but it is on the other side of my house in the basement, and currently sporting a homemade directional antenna that i dont want to remove because i do no actually have the correct connectors for the cable(cant find a course for RP-SMA female connectors ANYwhere). So... i cant give you any benchmark figures. Sorry