Upgrading to 802.11n Wi-Fi: Easier Than Ever
May 12th, 2008 (4:00pm) Samuel Dean 2 Comments
In an earlier post, I made the point that web workers who rely on home Wi-Fi networks, and who haven’t yet upgraded to 802.11n Wi-Fi wireless technology should definitely do so. Even though the 802.11n Wi-Fi proposed standard is not quite ratified yet, and some potential upgraders fear that the ratified products won’t be compatible with what they use now, there are numerous reasons to upgrade anyway to Draft-n. Now, some good solutions are emerging for upgrading easily, and there are signs that more businesses are moving up.
Lots of readers of this blog are Mac users, and many readers are already using 802.11n Wi-Fi because it’s built in to Apple’s Airport Extreme routers and many Apple systems. However, if you have older Macs, Other World Computing is offering good ways to upgrade those inexpensively.
Wi-Fi is radio technology, so to be using 802.11n Wi-Fi you need it in your router as well as in the devices you connect to your Wi-Fi network. Other World Computing has a new line of Wi-Fi adapters that will inexpensively bring 802.11n to any G3, G4, G5, or Intel processor-based Mac or PC with an available PCI, USB 2.0, or PCMCIA Card slot running Apple OS X 10.3.x or later or Windows 2000/XP and later.
You can check the prices for routers and adapters here. They’re quite reasonable, and adapters start at $67.99.
What if the final 802.11n standard turns out not to be compatible with your Draft-n products? Most people think that firmware upgrades will make this a non-issue, but if it does occur, a typical user would need only a few hundred dollars of upgrades. Meanwhile, due to the MIMO (multiple-input, multiple-output) antennas in Draft-n products, and more, you get vastly better performance than you can get with 802.11g Wi-Fi.
On a related note, Aruba Networks, which works closely with the Wi-Fi Alliance on Wi-Fi certification, has announced that it has shipped its 10,000th 802.11n access point. Universities and other organizations are upgrading prior to the official ratification of 802.11n. It makes much sense for web workers to do so as well.
Are you using Draft-n Wi-Fi?
2 Comments Post your own comment
Brian Carnell says: May 13th, 2008 5:13am
I upgraded my router and adapters to wireless N several months ago and have been very happy, but it’s not necessarily for everyone.
Specifically, it’s great if you’re doing any sort of networking between computers in your house. I’ve got a multi-terabyte server in the basement, and wireless N means file transfers/streaming from the server to the clients in my house happen much faster.
However, a lot of people I know use their wireless for nothing more than distributing Internet access to different computers. In that case, wireless N is a very expensive upgrade for very little improvement over 802.11g.
lawrencesalberg says: May 13th, 2008 4:28pm
This is misleading. “There are numerous reasons to upgrade” you say in the opening paragraph. Then, you fail to give any.
But, instead we get a hodge-podge collection of products and associated links. Are these paid links? Be honest.
The fact is, like Brian said above, that for most people an upgrade is useless. Let’s see… my current G network speed is 54 Megabits per second. My broadband internet connection? 8 Mb/s.
It’s only useful for connecting to other machines - and only for large and relatively consistent file xfers. Like gamefile .exe’s, DVD’s, streaming music, etc. The once-a-week xfer of a Word doc or a even copying a subdirectory over and G (and even 802.11b) is more than adequate.
Not sure why these kinds of things are considered posts. I seem to be seeing more of this stuff on otherwise good blogs.
Hey, I’m happy to read the blog (for free) so maybe I shouldn’t complain. I just think a little more effort should be put into posts. Even though your blog is targeted at web workers who, we assume, know enough to know this stuff, you and I both know that you’ll be getting a lot of outside traffic to various deep links on the site. You’d think being responsible to those visitors would require a little bit more meat and potatoes, and less product placement links.