IEEE finally ratifies 802.11n WiFi standard

ThraxThrax 🐌Austin, TX Icrontian
edited September 2009 in Science & Tech

Comments

  • QCHQCH Ancient Guru Chicago Area - USA Icrontian
    edited September 2009
    Sweet god... only took them 5 years to review proposals, set 11 drafts, and finally ratify 802.11n standard. :)
  • mtroxmtrox Minnesota
    edited September 2009
    I see that all the "pre N" stuff is compatible. Does "compatible" mean it just works but not as well, or is there a performance compromise in using the "pre N" stuff?
  • chrisWhitechrisWhite Littleton, CO
    edited September 2009
    1) Effin' finally!
    2) Thank god.
  • ardichokeardichoke Icrontian
    edited September 2009
    mtrox wrote:
    I see that all the "pre N" stuff is compatible. Does "compatible" mean it just works but not as well, or is there a performance compromise in using the "pre N" stuff?
    IIRC, all the "pre-N" stuff will be firmware upgradeable to be fully N compatible.
  • edited September 2009
    Sweet thats good I would really like my WiFi N card in my laptop to be upgradeable to it, and all my other Wireless N stuff
  • F-SteinF-Stein Canada.
    edited September 2009
    This might sound like a stupid question, but does this mean my Wii will play online with a better connection, now? Lmao.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited September 2009
    No, I'm afraid. :) If I recall correctly, the Wii uses 802.11g which is slower and older than 11n. They're compatible, but you need an 11n router and device to get wireless n speeds.
  • F-SteinF-Stein Canada.
    edited September 2009
    Righto. Excuse my lack of knowledge on the subject.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited September 2009
    We're all here to learn something, sir! :D
  • Cliff_ForsterCliff_Forster Icrontian
    edited September 2009
    The biggest improvement most people will see on N today is range. The range and signal resilience against outside interference is top notch vs. G.

    As far as speed goes, for businesses that want to incorporate it I'm sure it will have some immediate impact, for home users though, it will take a few years for your ISP's bandwidth to catch up with the wireless standard. I have the most lavish and expensive broadband connection you can buy in the Baltimore/DC metro area now and I'm still only meeting about half of G's potential. So I'm saying, if your wireless G equipment is in reasonable proximity to your gear, don't expect that swapping to N is going to show you any kind of performance boost, but if your gear is three floors away from your router, wireless N could make a world of difference for you.
  • ardichokeardichoke Icrontian
    edited September 2009
    So I'm saying, if your wireless G equipment is in reasonable proximity to your gear, don't expect that swapping to N is going to show you any kind of performance boost, but if your gear is three floors away from your router, wireless N could make a world of difference for you.
    Unless, of course, you run multiple machines on the same wireless network since they all have to share the wireless bandwidth. If this is the case, you should see a marked improvement in speeds between hosts on your network and an N network should be able to comfortably accommodate more wireless hosts than a G network.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited September 2009
    don't expect that swapping to N is going to show you any kind of performance boost

    Unless you do wireless streaming, then your network just receive the ability to stream 1080P.
  • Cliff_ForsterCliff_Forster Icrontian
    edited September 2009
    True that, G is not the greatest for streaming video.
  • BuddyJBuddyJ Dept. of Propaganda OKC Icrontian
    edited September 2009
    I wonder if this is good weefee or bad weefee.
  • chrisWhitechrisWhite Littleton, CO
    edited September 2009
    So what are the major devices will see keeping people in comparability mode? The wii and the DS for sure, does the DSi do it? How about the Xbox, PS3, most Windows Media Extenders or an Apple TV? The iPhone doesn't so my network still has to run in g mode. Do G1's?
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited September 2009
    Every device you listed is 802.11g, except for the new iTouch which may get N enabled through firmware.
  • ardichokeardichoke Icrontian
    edited September 2009
    N is backwards compatible with a/b/g (or so I've read). Thus even though you have a house full of g devices, you can still run an n network if you so choose.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited September 2009
    Yep, it works fine.
  • yaggayagga Havn't you heard? ... New
    edited September 2009
    Wow, I almost lost track of if this was a standard. I didn't think it was, but it's been out so long... I like my hidden and non-speaker interference "A" network for now.
  • edited September 2009
    I have a 802.11g network at home with a WRT54GL which connects 7 computers and several devices over Wifi and one file/ssh server + two compute servers over Ethernet. It is able to support 4 computers over wifi playing games together like Halo, Quake 4. The only problem is when I download a large file, like Windows 7 iso from MSDNAA. It is not practical to distribute such large files over the speed of 802.11g. I will wait for Tomato firmware that I have on WRT54GL runs on a 802.11n router until I upgrade.
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