802.11N What's the lowdown??!?!?

[UsernameX]

My friends and I are moving out and renting a house this summer. I'm more or less the most tech savy person out of the bunch. I've read a little about N and it's having patent issues still and a couple of other issues I can't think of right now, and that the current routers available are having issues. My main question is though, when will an "official" 802.11N router and network cards be available?

 

[blue68f100]

If the 11n follows 11g history, Don't hold your breath. There are so many issues to be resolved. Stay away, till 6 mo after the approval. Because they will be tring to clear out old stock.

Just get a good 11g setup. The weak link on most wireless router is the low gain antennas. Replacing with high gains will greatly improve the performance.

 

[UsernameX]

I see so the antennas that come with the card are pretty bad? Thanks for letting me know. How much do they cost? (ball park range)

 

[blue68f100]

All routers that I have seen are 2 dbi , only about 3-4" tall. My AP came with 2 5 dbi antennas about 9" tall. Normally they are around $30 each. Beam antenas have a higher gain, but directional. I think if you are buying AP's they come with the better antennas. Because most AP are the same price as a router.

Another thing I have run into is builtin AP supplied with LT. Most are junk. Example: Mine is made by Raylink, only good for line of site, 20 ft max. My USR 5450 AP and my USR 5410 PCMCI card will cover by whole house with the power setiing on LOW. Thats going through a MAX of 4 walls.

 

[Captain-M]

Ive had the Belkin pre-N MIMO router/PCMCIA for several months now without a hitch. The router is by a window in the house, and my laptop is in the 2nd floor. Signal is about 80% or so. I have extended warrenty for 3 years. Im getting 108mB/sec on the laptop. If run my network every day, again all is well.