Pre-N cards?

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highgrovemanor · #1 Post by **highgrovemanor** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 12:19 am

Having FINALLY gotten my T43's 2200BG to play nicely on my home wifi network...I'm curious if people think a future-tensed pre-n or n replacement card will eventually become available. I've been hearing good stuff about the belkin pre-n unit....

Since I didn't need to look into the IBM, I'm ASSUMING our wifi cards use an internal expansion slot of some sort...and I'd rather not have a klunky card sticking out when I goto an n-network.

Side note: anyone doing the belkin or other pre-n wifi? Success stories or more heart burn. I know I'm playing with fire, having gotten pretty well-done with my existing card.

AndyL · #2 Post by **AndyL** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 6:42 am

I have a Belkin pre-n router, a pre-n card in my desktop PC and also one for the X24. I rarely use the one I bought for the X24 - I thought I would want the extra throughput, but it turns out the internal 2200BG is adequate for my purposes most of the time.

On the whole I'm quite happy with the Belkin kit, it has been reliable for me and I had no problems setting it up. Data rates are definitely better than standard 802.11g, and range is significantly better. The configuration options on the pre-n router are a bit basic compared with some others. That's not really much of an issue for me though as I use it in bridge mode.

There are products from other manufacturers based on exactly the same Airgo chipset that would be worth investigating. They should give the same performance and you might find they have better features.

Check out this article from wifinetnews:
http://wifinetnews.com/archives/006193.html
These new Atheros and Broadcom products previewed at CES will probably be available in a few months, and give another step up in performance.

Will there be a miniPCI (internal) version? Doubtful I think. Airgo have a reference miniPCI design for their current pre-n product, but no-one is manufacturing it. I guess the retail market for miniPCI cards is too small. When the official 802.11n standard is ratified, laptop manufacturers will start including it as a factory option so miniPCI cards should appear quite quickly. According to that wifinetnews article, ratification is about a year away. 802.11n seems to have been a year away for quite a while though...

DIGITALgimpus · #3 Post by **DIGITALgimpus** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 12:26 pm

Won't be for a while, if ever.

802.11n is likely at least a year away from being standardized. So a company like IBM isn't likely to support it until then. Nor would I expect a miniPCI card before then.

Besides, the big advantage to 802.11n is MIMO, which I don't think would work with the antenna's shipped in T4x systems.

vincentfox · #4 Post by **vincentfox** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 12:33 pm

Yes, AVOID pre-N at this time.

As many of us can tell you who bought pre-something standards with vague vendor promises about future upgrades, the vendors usually discontinue development on drivers for devices shortly after they start shipping. I have 4 D-Link 900AP+ units for which the vendor promised WPA support when it was finalized. By the time WPA was done, D-Link retracted that promise as it had moved on to new products.

DIGITALgimpus · #5 Post by **DIGITALgimpus** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 3:17 pm

Yup.

personally I'd avoid non-standards period. If it doesn't say "Certified" and have an 802.11x logo for certified on it, I wouldn't get it.

AndyL · #6 Post by **AndyL** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 4:37 pm

The pre-n products are 802.11g compliant. If you want better performance than 802.11g performance right now, you can buy something that has a non-standard faster mode, or wait at least a year. You pays your money and you takes your choice. And to be fair to the vendors, none of them are currently claiming any possibility of compliance with the future 802.11n standard.

vincentfox · #7 Post by **vincentfox** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 4:54 pm

Their sales and marketing people sure do a good job at fooling people though.

Even the use of "Pre-N" implies something don't you think?

I'll give most manufactures a little more credit, who call theirs "Turbo" or "SRX" or something that does more directly indicate it's a vendor-specific extension.

DIGITALgimpus · #8 Post by **DIGITALgimpus** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 9:50 pm

AndyL wrote:The pre-n products are 802.11g compliant.

Just to note "compliant" is very different from "certified".

If it doesn't have a logo like this:
[img=http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/4305/abgportrait4jp.jpg]

I'd think twice. Certified meet standards, "compliant" is slapped on anything with an antenna these days. Hence so many WiFi problems you read about.

DIGITALgimpus · #9 Post by **DIGITALgimpus** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 9:50 pm

AndyL wrote:The pre-n products are 802.11g compliant.

Just to note "compliant" is very different from "certified".

If it doesn't have a logo like this:

I'd think twice. Certified meet standards, "compliant" is slapped on anything with an antenna these days. Hence so many WiFi problems you read about.

highgrovemanor · #10 Post by **highgrovemanor** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 11:34 pm

I was curious if the "pre-N" label had any more weight / interoperability than all the proprietary turbo models out there.

Sounds like the antenna situation (I noticed the 3 antenna's on the belkin) might hose it all up anyhow.

I already wound up dropping a hardwire to my hometheater cabinet for high-def video steaming purposes...so I don't really NEED the wifi bandwidth...actually, my B adapter on the tivo is probably the heaviest user. That plus the wife's VPN to work.

AndyL · #11 Post by **AndyL** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 7:48 am

The wi-fi alliance web site is a good place to check product certifications:
http://certifications.wi-fi.org/wbcs_ce ... .php?TID=2

#12 Post by **bill bolton** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 9:56 pm

AndyL wrote:If you want better performance than 802.11g performance right now, you can buy something that has a non-standard faster mode, or wait at least a year.

I have seen a recent comparitive review, in PC World I think, which indicated some of the pre-N APs perform worse than 802.11b/g APs for some purposes.

Cheers,

Bill

#13 Post by **bill bolton** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 10:06 pm

highgrovemanor wrote:I was curious if the "pre-N" label had any more weight / interoperability than all the proprietary turbo models out there.

All the pre-N products out so far all use the same Atheros chip set, so could probably interwork, but AFAIK, no one has tested this. The reviews I have seen all say use a router and devices from the same supplier if you want pre-N data rates (~60-80Mbps at best in practice).

The pre-N routers include a technology called MIMO..... which is technically a separate technology from the "N" technology, though MIMO is a pre-requisite for 802.11n. We can expect to see MIMO appearing in a diverse range of devices for variety of wireless purposes over time, so its a good technology to watch in its own right.

There is absolutely no guarantee offered by anyone that a pre-N product will be upgradeable to 802.11n.

Cheers,

Bill

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