Wireless networking

[Duane Attaway]

On Tue, 18 Nov 2003, Becker, Rob wrote:

> Does anyone have any rants or raves on wireless networking gear?

Its cheaper and faster than cabling.

> Anyone have experience with Belkin gear?  

Belkin is in the game to get out the cheapest product.  But beware of
their routers as it was discovered they have an amusing feature.  Do a
google search for "belkin router" although their wireless products do not
seem to have these surprises.

> I'm looking to set up an 802.11g network, any recommendations?

The advertised speed is the capability of the card's radio.  Actual packet
transmission rates are quite lower.  The overhead of assembling a packet 
and its latency makes perfect sense for an electrical engineer, but this 
may seem like deceptive marketing for us consumers.

> How about suppliers?  

Microcenter, Compusa, Bestbuy, etc...  All these stores are on Metcalf and 
makes shopping around easy.

> If Belkin's equipment is decent, 

Quality of workmanship is solid.  I have not seen any surprises in the
wireless equipment world.  Yet.

> I'd prefer to go with them for their warranty.

I don't think you will find one of these radio cards that will fail.

Oreilly has a nice writeup of 80211g devices:

http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/wireless/2003/01/23/80211g.html