Newbie, 802.11g and 802.11b together

[Rangeball34]

I was looking into buying a wireless 802.11g router. I know that a 802.11g router will work with an adapter that is 802.11b or 802.11g. My roommate has a microsoft mn510 802.11b adapter. My question is can I get a 802.11g adapter and run the router at 802.11g and still allow my roommate to run his 802.11b adapter?

 

[kwebb]

You'll have to run mixed mode (or whatever the AP you buy calls it). If you run .11g only he will not be able to associate to it. Well I've never tried it, it might associate as that is basically beacons, but no data will be passed because it won't be talking CCK, which is what the .11b client will be using. Mixed mode will degrade your available bandwidth though how much depends on the what product your talking about. They vary a bit.

 

[Rangeball34]

Thanks for the insight, i was looking at the buffalo technologies high speed (128mps) router. I haven't heard much about it, but the promise of 128 mps is awesome.

 

[kwebb]

The signalling rate is 125 Mb. The actual throughput appears to be a bit faster than standard 802.11g gear. Still uses OFDM at 2.4 Ghz. Some kind of compression I'd think. I'd like to see what it does with large downloads. 34 Mbps is still very good for a consumer grade wireless LAN product. Have you priced them? I haven't really seen alot of advertisements or chatter about them in the realworld.

 

[goloap]

125Mb is weird. Usually you see turbo modes that boast twice the regular bandwidth but it usually is implemented using channel bonding: the AP frequency band is twice the regular. It is equivalent of using two channls at the same time. I would be curious how they get 125Mb.

In ancient times they had no statistics so they had to fall back on lies

 

[kwebb]

"Broadcom said it achieved the performance gain with technology that closes the timing gap between data packets."

 

[Rangeball34]

On Newegg the set together runs about $167, 72 for the adapter and 95 for the router. A bit pricey but if it does what it says, that is faster than a cable.

 

[kwebb]

Wired Fast ethernet should yield in the 80-85 Mb realworld data throughput. The broadcom chipset is getting 35+ mb in thier test labs. Wireless is along way away from matching copper. You don't go buy the advertised signalling rate with wireless when your talking actual througput. Wired either for that matter but for a switched network the numbers are much closer to reality on the wire.