Wireless N?

AtticusAtticus Dryden, Ontario, Canada.
edited September 2006 in Science & Tech
Heyo!

Has anyone tried the 802.11 pre-n or draft-n products? What was your experience if you have? I'm asking cause i'm interested in doing the wireless route for my new apt. Thanks.

Comments

  • Sledgehammer70Sledgehammer70 California Icrontian
    edited September 2006
    One of my renters bought a Linksys Wireless N router and a card, and well we did the test Vs, his regular A, B, G router.... Not much difference even with the wireless N card vs. the wireless G card. The tech just isn't mature enough yet.
  • AtticusAtticus Dryden, Ontario, Canada.
    edited September 2006
    I'll hold out then, thanks alot!
  • deicistdeicist Manchester, UK
    edited September 2006
    I'd beg to differ. I had a 'g' router and a pre-N access point. The signal from the g router was hard to pick up a couple of rooms away. The signal from the 'pre-N' access point was weak, but usable on the other side of a dual carriageway. Your mileage may vary, but I'd say the difference is certainly noticable.
  • Buddha16Buddha16 Austin, Tx Member
    edited September 2006
    I agree with Deicist. We were trying to give access from our office to a laptop in a house across an empty lot...say 200ft away with a linksys g router and pcmcia card and it could barely connect at all. But then we bought a belkin pre-n router and pcmcia card (when they first came out) and the connection was always at the min good.
  • Sledgehammer70Sledgehammer70 California Icrontian
    edited September 2006
    m,y access via G and N are the same being 150 feet away behind 4 walls... 5 bars... we even did the drive by test being outside down the street... the G gave 4 bars the N gave 5.. to me thats not worth the cost of a new router and cards...
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited September 2006
    I also disagree with Deicist. As an employee of Best Buy, I'm trained to try almost every wireless part that comes through the door. Be it Pre-N or Draft-N (The latter universally being inferior to the former), few things offered better than G.
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited September 2006
    Some say it sucks, some say it's great. Hope that helps! ;D
  • Sledgehammer70Sledgehammer70 California Icrontian
    edited September 2006
    primesuspect wrote:
    Some say it sucks, some say it's great. Hope that helps! ;D

    The man makes a good point....
  • edcentricedcentric near Milwaukee, Wisconsin Icrontian
    edited September 2006
    from what I have seen so far with pre-N or Draft-N is that it does work well, with longer range.
    BUT, you must use only parts of the same brand with the same chip in them. Right now it doesn't look like there is any compatability yet.
  • AtticusAtticus Dryden, Ontario, Canada.
    edited September 2006
    :confused:

    Is pre-n the latest offering or is draft-n the latest? From what i've read draft is the most current. It sounds like draft is worse than pre-n..

    I'm not quite as concerned with range so much as speed. Did anyone notice a difference in transferring files, or speed in general? How about reliability, any drops or hang ups?
  • Park_7677Park_7677 Missouri Member
    edited September 2006
    I had an issue of eWeek in July talking about 802.11n products available on the market. It showed a lot of them weren't compatible with each other (usually have to match router & NIC brands). If you want to read the 3 pages, the article is here: eWEEK Labs: 802.11n Is a Gamble
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited September 2006
    Atticus wrote:
    :confused:

    Is pre-n the latest offering or is draft-n the latest? From what i've read draft is the most current. It sounds like draft is worse than pre-n..

    I'm not quite as concerned with range so much as speed. Did anyone notice a difference in transferring files, or speed in general? How about reliability, any drops or hang ups?

    Draft is the latest and does suck more.
  • edcentricedcentric near Milwaukee, Wisconsin Icrontian
    edited September 2006
    I saw a test where two items from the same mfg used different chips, and they didn't want to play with each other.
    It doesn't look like you are getting any more speed yet.
    The hope is the channel bonding feature (two channels linked together). As soon as the figure out how to keep this from screwing up all nearby existing wireless signals.
  • mtroxmtrox Minnesota
    edited September 2006
    edcentric wrote:
    I saw a test where two items from the same mfg used different chips, and they didn't want to play with each other.

    That might have been this recent test by PC World. They particularly cited the Netgear pre-N products as not all using the same chip so that communication between Netgear pre-N's was spotty. I've seen other bench tests that are not the impressed with pre-N...for range and speed. And if you like the little built-in pci card in your laptop, I don't think the pre-N gets you much, if anything. In some cases its worse.
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