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Airwaves Get Faster With Linksys Draft-N |
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Written by Adam Gosling
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Tuesday, 04 July 2006 |
Linksys has announced its new wireless networking gear based
on the Draft-N specifications. The new hardware pushes throughput rates to an
expected 150Mbps an improvement over standard G WLANs that makes multiple streams of multimedia
content a reality.
Linksys, the consumer and SOHO
division of networking giant Cisco Systems, has released three products in its
Draft N range. The Access Point is a router, the Linksys WRT300N and then a notebook
adapter (WPC300N) and a desktop PCI adapter (WMP300N).
Technically, the Draft N gear should provide networkers with
four times the range and up to 12 times the throughput over standard 802.11g
hardware. Enough capacity, says Linksys to surf the web, enjoy multiple streams
of high definition video, listen to digital music collections and make Internet
phone calls - all at the same time.
"A substantial number of products for both homes and
businesses will soon depend on compatibility with Wireless-N to reach their
full potential," said Graeme Reardon, regional director of Linksys Australia and New Zealand.
"Because of the
importance of the technology, we have taken the unique step of conducting
extensive testing with multiple vendors to ensure that the greatest possible
number of them will perform at peak levels when interacting with our 802.11n
products."
You see the problem with the emerging Draft N network
hardware is there's no guarantees it will continue to be interoperable with
hardware based on the final 802.11n specifications.
But with the standards process taking for ever and a day,
the vendors have taken to releasing the technology based on the first draft of
the standard. Interoperability between vendors has been tested for this early
gear, but in the future, well who knows.
Not that it's such a huge investment for most SOHO and SMB environments.
The Linksys pricing is not cheap, but it's not exorbitant
either. The Wireless-N Broadband Router (WRT300N) carries an RRP of $279.95,
but the notebook and PCI adapters could add up if you have a few machines
hanging off your network, both are priced at $219.95 (RRP).
There is the opportunity to mix and match though. In the
past wireless networks would slow down to the lowest common denominator, but
the N specifications allow mixed mode operations and backward compatibility to 802.11a/b/g
so you can upgrade one PC at a time if you're short on cash.
The PCI adapter comes equipped with a beefier antenna system than users might be used to for wireless cards, a consequence fo the advanced MIMO and antenna technologies inherent to the N specifications.
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