wireless

okay, so i'm back to sorting this shit out.

i'm gonna go small to start -- bridge/router connected to a wire network and a wireless card for my laptop.

so.... wtf is with all these wireless g mimo set ups? it seems like there's a new pseudo standard out there that is built on g, but with multiple antennas or something to give better range/coverage. is that correct? is it still just g speeds but with a better ability to handle interferrence? would that means a simple set up would probably not be much better than "standard" wireless g (because i'm not trying to build a network that spans 300 feet).

i see netgear has some "rangemax" wireless g router that seems okay (if it will do everything my current netgear router vpn firewall setup does). but the laptop card that works with it is $100. that's just silly. i've seen normal wireless g cards for under $20 (i think). i could probably just do that -- netgear hub, generic pc card...

why do they make it so complicated?

anybody familiar with airnet101? i think that's the name. they seemed to have a pretty full range of wireless stuff at reasonable prices. any good?

 

The RangeMax is for greater distance, yes. That's why it's more (and it's newish, I think).

 

from what i'm learning, it's a new breed of "mimo" setups (multiple antennas, basically). but then there's d-link's srx version of mimo. some other company that just says "mimo". and of course belkin gets in with pre-n. who am i forgetting? i'm afraid if i buy one, it'll be the wrong one. i suspect in under a year, a new standard will come out that won't be fully compatible with the current versions of this wireless g branch and i'll be sol.

i was about to just buy a backaged kit from netgear that had a router and card for $60. i think it was only 54mps and not the 108 that seems so common -- basically a straight wireless g without any bells or whistles. i figure that way, when new shit comes out i can upgrade then. or maybe just stick with old g, yo. it's probably fast enough for surfing (which is all i'll likely be doing).

 

I would say that you would be fine with the 54 mbps wireless, especially if all you are going to be doing is browsing and such. I will say that I personally would stay away from 108 mbps wireless mainly because the technology that these companies are using is proprietary and not based on any standard like 802.11g wireless (54 mbps) is. Also some of these companies are marketing their router as 108 mbps when all they really have is a router that has full duplex and claim that the router is 108mbps which would not be fully true. I use 802.11g wireless at my house and get wonderful signal no matter where I am, including my backyard so you should have no problems at all.

 

there is a new standard set to come out. I read about it at some point, but from what I've read it'll be backwards compatible.

 

Yup.

 

MIMO = Pre-N = 802.11n, the new standard coming out. I just bought the netgear MIMO (RangeMax) setup (router, PC Card for laptop, PCI card for MCE machine), and while it cost $250, it got me connectivity where I never could get it before with my Linksys G setup.

I get 108mp/s everwhere but the super-hard spot that got ZERO signal with Linksys (even with replacing all antennas with high-gain ones from Linksys), and that spot even gets 11-54mb/s depending.

Definitely worth the money if you've got that issue (old plaster wall houses with wire mesh in every wall are evil on wireless).

 

my understanding is that rangemax is a different standard (or at least, uses different technology) than the other mimo set ups. or perhaps it's just using a different manufacturer's chip?

it's good to see that it's at least a standard that's being developed (which makes the name "pre-n" a lot more understandable).

i guess i could always just get something from frys and if it doesn't work, just return it. that's one thing about on-line that i don't like -- very difficult to return stuff.

 

Did you try aluminum foil?

 

most of the pre-stuff is flash upgradeable to the certified stuff whenever the official stuff is ratified. if not, I don't care, as it works for what I want now...

returning on-line isn't hard...if you buy from newegg, it's a lot easier than driving all the way to compusa or bestbuy and waiting in line forever...I just put it in the mail and my credit card is reimbursed, and I can have USPS come to my house to get the package... Case and point: I bought normal netgear stuff from newegg, returned all of it and got the more expensive MIMO stuff just last week.