brand compatability

[adams828]

so i'm movin' to my friends place, and he has a lynksis 802.11b router.. can i get any brand wireless card, or would generic work? i mean, i know it should work, but will it give me trouble to get working?

 

[Nothinman]

Any should work fine, most 802.11b cards are just rebranded and use the same hardware, there's only like 3 different chipsets.

 

[Comp625]

I work at Staples and customers come in all the time complaining that they have a Brand A wireless router and when buying a Brand B accessory, they claim the Brand B doesn't detect/work with Brand A.

So even though all the brands should work together, I tend to recommend keeping wireless networking products uniform by brand. It could just be that Brand B accessory was a defective product or that the end-user was incompetent. Who knows?

 

[jackschmittusa]

When wi-fi first came out it was a common problem. It is accually pretty good now. The turbo modes are proprietary to brand though. If settings are kept at 11mbps, any current model nic should work with any router. Many people really are incompetent. I get calls all the time with problems making some new thing to work. Get it going in 5 min and hear "Damn! Tried getting it to work for 2 hr. Ready to throw it out the window.". People swear they read the directions but seem to have no problem skipping a step or two.

 

[cmetz]

The Wi-Fi certification that you see on many 802.11b devices means that the device has been certified to meet a fairly detailed set of compatibility requirements. The theory is that two Wi-Fi certified devices should be capable of interoperating. That much is pretty much true these days. However, a lot of vendors have proprietary "enhancements" (such as all these "Turbo" modes) and a lot of vendors disagree on the user interface for WEP keys (some ASCII, some hex, some who knows what). Just because it's possible to configure the devices to interoperate doesn't mean that YOU will be able to do it without tons of headache.

So the short answer to your question is that if you stick to one brand, you'll generally have less hassle.

 

[adams828]

yeah thanks, that's what i figured.. i've already set up one network at home, so i think i can figure it out (famous last words). just going to wait until i see a good deal on a wireless card now...

oh also he has 802.11b i was thinking of maybe getting a 802.11g card now (i know it will run at 802.11b speeds on his router), but in case i want to get a 802.11g router in a few months. or when are new specs supposed to come out, and should i just get 802.11b now and wait for whatever is coming next? 802.11b works fine for most of what i do (internet, etc.) but i was wondering, will it be fast enough for online gaming or is 802.11g better for that?

 

[Nothinman]

802.11b will be fine for gaming as long as the signal is good, latency matters, not throughput.

 

[adams828]

oh ok, interesting. so is the latency between 802.11b and 802.11g the same or are there any differences

 

[Nothinman]

Probably the same or atleast not noticable enough to make a difference. The one time I played a game over 802.11b I was in pretty close range and latency was fine, I doubt 802.11g make much difference in real gameplay.

 

[loup garou]

The only problems I've ever had with mixing brands is with D-Link's 800AP+ 802.11b AP/Repeater/Range Extender. It only seemed to work reliably with D-Link cards. With the other cards I tested it with (Dell Truemobile, Orinoco Gold, IBM built-in), the signal would disappear regularly every 2-3 minutes (and no, it wasn't WZC).

Otherwise, I've mixed and matched just about every brand and model of SOHO 11b equipment for clients with no problems.

 

[JackMDS]

Originally posted by: werk
The only problems I've ever had with mixing brands is with D-Link's 800AP+ 802.11b AP/Repeater/Range Extender. It only seemed to work reliably with D-Link cards.

Yeah, and D-Link states it in thier documents.

To add what cmetz said above.

If you buy 802.11b and use it straight forward brand does not matter.

If you buy 802.11b+ (22MHz) or you need to set a unit to a special Mode (like a Repeater). You need to buy the matching Unit of the same Brand.

Note: Currently it is possible to find Off Brand 802.11b units (especially PCMCIA Cards) that manufactured a while ago and firmware was not updated or the manufacture is not supporting the hardware any more. Some of these cards are offered at prices like $5-$10 for a Wireless PCMCIA Cards. If you can not return such a card and you are not inclined to risk $5-$10 do not buy them..

802.11g the latest entry are compatible one with the other. There could be some problems with cards from few months ago.

Prices of 802.11g are still passing the $50. Do not buy unless you can return.

On WIFI.

WIFI is a certification process. A company gives its Hardware to WECA and they test and certifies (or not). It costs a nice sum of money, and it delays the product introduction into the market. As a result most of the inexpensive Wireless Network Hardware companies do not take part in this process.

For cooperate setting, insuring interoperability is very important. You do not want people to get stuck and not be able to Log On to the Networks when they are roaming between buildings and various corporate sites.

For Home and SOHO? If it not compatible (which is very rare) you return the gizmo and get another brand

 

[loup garou]

Originally posted by: JackMDS

Originally posted by: werk
The only problems I've ever had with mixing brands is with D-Link's 800AP+ 802.11b AP/Repeater/Range Extender. It only seemed to work reliably with D-Link cards.

Yeah, and D-Link states it in thier documents.

They only state that they support Repeater/Range Extender mode with their equipment. No mention is made that it does not work correctly with other manufacturers' 802.11b cards in AP mode.

This may have been changed recently, but that's the way it was when we purchased a half dozen of them 3 or 4 months ago.

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

One thing about sticking with a single brand. My D-Link DI-614+ router has a 4x mode that will work with other D-Link stuff, but if you mix the WiFi, you have to turn it all off an run at 11mbit. By sticking with the D-Link brand stuff, you could have better speeds without paying for 802.11g or 802.11a stuff.