Maximum PC IEEE 802.11n RSS Feed

Wi-Fi Alliance Adds "N" to Its Logo

Ryan Whitwam — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 21:30:20 -0500

After years of seeing draft-n wireless products, the IEEE finally ratified the standard this summer. Now the Wi-Fi Alliance has created a new certification program complete with new logos. "Wi-Fi CERTIFIED n builds on the success of our draft-n certification program and marks a point of maturity in 802.11n technology," said Edgar Figueroa, Executive Director of The Wi-Fi Alliance.

The new Wi-Fi certification program includes all the requirements from the draft standard, with some additional optional features. The optional features include support for transmission of up to three spatial streams, STBC encoding to increase reliability, A-MPDU packet aggregation, and channel coexistence for the 40MHz operation in the 2.4GHz band.

The new, longer logo shows all the standards that a device supports. The new certification program also allows products to indicate if they support optional features. The new logos should even show up on devices that were previously draft-n, as many were certified for the full standard.

Modded Wireless Network Can See Through Walls, but Can’t Save the World Just Yet

Jason Barry — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 19:20:24 -0500

The folks over at the University of Utah are working on using wireless networking equipment to see through walls. Yep, they are trying to turn your wifi network into an investigative x-ray machine.

Well, it is slightly more complicated than that. They set up a 34-node wireless network and used principals similar to sonar to aggregate the movement of objects behind physical objects. You can practically hear the excitement from all the spy-happy teenagers. Joey Wilson and Neal Patwari’s intentions were much more altruistic.

“We envision a building imaging scenario similar to the following. Emergency responders, military forces, or police arrive at a scene where entry into a building is potentially dangerous. They deploy radio sensors around (and potentially on top of) the building area, either by throwing or launching them, or dropping them while moving around the building. The nodes immediately form a network and self-localize, perhaps using information about the size and shape of the building from a database (eg Google maps) and some known-location coordinates (eg using GPS). Then, nodes begin to transmit, making signal strength measurements on links which cross the building or area of interest. The received signal strength measurements of each link are transmitted back to a base station and used to estimate the positions of moving people and objects within the building.”

Obviously, privacy is a concern. But let’s face it, you’ve got nothing to hide so long as you aren’t a terrorist, hostage wrangler, or scantily clad getting out of the shower.

New D-Link DIR-628 Router Features Dual-Band 802.11n at Popular Prices

Mark Edward Soper — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 18:04:07 -0500

DIR-628: Two Modes in One Router...

The new D-Link RangeBooster N Dual Band Router, the DIR-628, joins a very short list of 802.11n-compliant routers that are compatible with both the 802.11n 2.4GHz mode (backwards-compatible with 802.11g and 802.11b) and the optional 5GHz mode (backwards-compatible with 802.11a):

Linksys WRT600N
D-Link's own Extreme N Duo Media Router DIR-855
Netgear's RangeMax WNDR3300

(Buffalo Tech's Wireless-N products are involved in ligitation and are currently not available in the US).

5GHz support enables 802.11n networks to escape the channel congestion inherent in 2.4GHz networks (where only three of the 11 channels theoretically available do not overlap) and achieve faster throughput through the use of double-width (40MHz) channels.

To find out how the DIR-628 implements the 2.4GHz and 5GHz modes, and to find out what level of wired Ethernet it supports, keep reading.

...But Not Two Routers in One

The DIR-628's dual-band rivals actually feature two routers in one: they have dual radios that can transmit on the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands at the same time, enabling you to have two separate wireless networks (one for data and one for streaming media).

By contrast, the DIR-628 uses a simpler (and less-costly) design: during setup, you select whether you want to use the 2.4GHz or 5GHz frequency. Thus, if you have dual-mode 802.11n and/or 802.11a wireless adapters (which run at 5GHz) on your network, you can run in 5GHz mode. If you have only 2.4GHz adapters (802.11n, 802.11g, or the pre-Cambrian 802.11b), choose the 2.4GHz mode.

This router gives you the ability to move from 2.4GHz to 5GHz without replacing the router, but there's no way to have a mixture of clients. If the DIR-628 is at the center of your wireless network, you must upgrade all of your clients from 2.4GHz or 5GHz at the same time. Ouch!

Fast Ethernet in a Gigabit Ethernet World

The other cost-cutting feature of the DIR-628 is its lack of Gigabit Ethernet support. Gigabit Ethernet is supported in other dual-band routers, enabling wired clients with Gigabit ports to run at top speed. And, some 2.4GHz-only 802.11n routers, such as the D-Link DIR-655 and the Linksys WRT310N include Gigabit support at only a slight price premium to the DIR-628.

Missed It by This Much!

In terms of features, the DIR-628 is a puzzling mixture of the interesting (switchable between 2.4 and 5GHz) and frustrating (runs only one band at a time; lacks Gigabit Ethernet ports). The DIR-628 is likely to be of the greatest interest to those who already have 5GHz-compliant 802.11n (or 802.11a) hardware and are looking for a low-cost way to move to 802.11n support. For the vast majority of users, however, who are running in the 2.4GHz band or have dual-band clients, there are better choices in the marketplace.

(image courtesy D-Link)

Think Gig! Time to Shop for Gigabit Ethernet Hardware

By Mark Soper — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 22:37:21 -0500

Although Wireless Ethernet adapters and routers are the SKU kings of your computer store's network hardware department, only the emerging 802.11n standard even gets close to matching the performance of Fast Ethernet (100Mbps). Meanwhile, led by NVIDIA and Intel chipsets, many motherboards and systems have now ramped up their onboard wired Ethernet support to Gigabit Ethernet, offering ten times the bandwidth at 1000Mbps and backwards compatibility with 10/100 Ethernet. If you're wanting to move video or other data really, really, fast, Gigabit Ethernet's the way to go.

Why Move to Gigabit? It's All About the Devices

Although Gigabit Ethernet is becoming standard on the desktop, Fast Ethernet, running at 1/10 the speed, is still the overwhelming choice for wireless routers' integrated Ethernet switches. And, as long as all you're doing is running a network to connect your PCs to the Internet, 100Mbps is fast enough. However, what if you could connect Gigabit Ethernet storage devices to your network? With fast access to storage from any PC, it's a powerful reason to make the move. And, now you have plenty of choices.

Gigabit Ethernet for Faster Network Storage

High-capacity network attached storage with features such as a USB print server, support for network discovery (Universal Plug and Play) for easy media sharing, bundled backup software, RAID support, and support for remote access via the Internet is a really good reason to look at making the move to end-to-end Gigabit Ethernet support.

Some of the network storage devices that include Gigabit Ethernet connections include:

- Western Digital's My Book World Edition (500 and 750GB) and World Edition II (1, 1.5 and 2TB) can be accessed remotely or locally without a PC host, and offer bundled EMC Retrospect Express backup software.

- LaCie Ethernet Big Disk provides capacity up to 2TB, while Ethernet Disk mini provides storage from 320-500GB with USB expansion options.

- Iomega StorCenter Wireless Network Storage combines 1TB storage with a USB print server, 802.11g wireless access, and EMC Retrospect Express backup; Iomega also offers a 500MB StorCenter Network Hard Disk without wireless support.

- Maxtor Solutions' Shared Storage II Dual puts 1TB of storage with RAID 1 mirroring and USB storage expansion on your network. Fusion offers a 500GB capacity, and Shared Storage II offers 320 or 500GB storage.

Have Your N and Gigabits Too

So, if you're ready to make the jump to Gigabit Ethernet, what routers can you choose from?

Some IEEE 802.11n routers, including some that have received Wi-Fi Certification, include Gigabit Ethernet support. Buffalo Wireless-N Nfiniti Dual Band Gigabit router, Linksys WRT330N, WRT350N and WRVS4400N, D-Link DIR-655 Xtreme N Gigabit Router, and Netgear RangeMax NEXT WNR854T are some of the first of a growing wave of Gigabit routers.Choose one of these, and you can boost the speed of your wired network immediately, keep using existing 802.11g clients, and be ready to add 802.11n wireless clients in the future.

Thumbnail image of Western Digital My Book World Edition II courtesy of Western Digital.