Now that 802.11g is ratified...

[WhiteKnight]

Now that 802.11g is ratified, does anyone know what the situation is with the higher end manufacturers? I know DLink, Linksys and others have had G draft equipment for a while now but what about Cisco and such? Is there a G Orinoco card available now? Also, are the draft versions from D-Link et al upgradeable to standard version through firmware updates?

 

[StricJux]

D-Link and Linksys said that they will provide 802.11g firmware uprgrades for 54g routers, but we have yet to see that!

 

[JackMDS]

Now that is ratified the ?cautious? upper scale manufactures will come out with 802.11g hardware.

Within the limitations of the hardware that is already in their products, D-Link and Linksys will try to keep to their word, just be patient. (It is much easier to post on AnandTech, than actually doing the work).

However summer just started, and traditionally action dwindles down.

I would expect that the Fall, and the 2004 Holidays pre sales (November 2003), will see a boom in new 802.11g, with prices closer to what we pay today for 802.11b.

If you have to buy now! Get a D-Link, or Linksys 801.11g cable DSL/Router and buy1 $20 Cheappo 802.11b card.

 

[WhiteKnight]

I checked Proxim's website and they have a b/g PC card up there now. I hope it's as good as the b version! I think I may pawn off my b equipment to my sister when she goes to college in the fall and pick up some g for myself, assuming prices are good and such.

 

[JackMDS]

Yeah, there are few 802.11g cards available.

But the selection is dismal, and they are overpriced.

 

[knutp]

BTW Linksys already got their wrt54g and wap54g "final" 802.11g firmware out. And it does also include WPA. I also saw that both products are wi-fi certified for 802.11b. Personally I have had less problems with the Linksys wrt54g than with the d-link DI-624. The SMC 2804wbr is also a nice 802.11g router, and now with Intersil's "nitro" support.

The d-link router is the one with the "oldes" firmware to date, and the one with most compatability problems (at least with my own tests).

The strange thing is the behavior of the di-624 is identical with the problems I got with another d-link unit, namely the di-614+. I also got two other wlan products with the 22Mbit performance that got the same problem. All four of this units are prodused by global sun technologies, and I wonder when they will figure out how to fix this.

btw, have anyone heard about corega? I just got a unit to test the other day, but the webconfig is in japanese. Are there any firmwares for the WLAP-54GT in english?

btw, buffalo, netgear and belkin also got their 802.11g compliant firmware out.

I will hopefully recieve some more wlan units to test them and see how they stand out from the pack soon.

Personally I would not be afraid of bying 802.11g equipent for soho use, but there is some problems between the different "g" cards that would show quite a large difference in performance. But I haven't had a card that doesn't connect to the others. I have tried cards with atheros, broadcom and intersil chipsets.

Proxim have announced their 802.11g client cards and also for the use in their orinoco cor and ror systems. 3Com also got their products ready. And Asus got some new interresting products. EG the 500g router that got a usb 1.1 connector supporting either a webcam, printer or even a mass storage device. If you connect a mass storage device it can use it as an ftp server. Asus are also using the broadcom chipset. Smc are using intersil and d-link are using atheros in their current 802.11g line.