OT: HOME Networking

[Brian K. White]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Fairlight" <fairlite at fairlite.com>
To: "Filepro 2 List" <filepro-list at lists.celestial.com>
Sent: Monday, December 27, 2004 3:02 PM
Subject: Re: OT: HOME Networking


> This public service announcement was brought to you by GCC Consulting:
>>
>> By the way, the wireless products were Linksys with "speedboost". 
>> Everything
>> connected to the wireless at 104KB.  My laptop connected at 54Kbs; it has 
>> an IBM
>
> Is this anything like D-Link's "Turbo"?  :)  You must mean 108Mbps.  Seems
> like everyone has their own flavour.

There are three things out right now that exceed standard 54g, and all of 
them are compatible with standard 54g and 11b.

First off, 802.11g while nominally "54 Megabit/sec" provides nowhere NEAR 
54mbps even under optimal conditions due to radio packet protocol overhead.

The oldest and the least politically correct is "108" which uses 2 of the 
available 12 channels running basically ordinary 54g on each but bundled 
together into one logical connection. This provides nowhere near 108 mbps. 
It provides approximately 2x normal 54g performance.

The next is "125", called "125 High Speed Mode" by Broadcom who invented it 
and at least HP and Belkin. Linksys calls it "SpeedBoost". This doesn't 
perform anywhere NEAR 125 mbps. It's basically 54g with a more efficient 
packet protocol so that it wastes less of the raw radio bandwith on protocol 
overhead. This results in about a 30% increase over normal 54g performance 
under optimal conditions which is still much less than 54 mbbs of actual 
useable speed.

The 3rd is something by Belkin called "Pre-N". I don't know much about that 
but it _seems_ like that may just be Belkin's marketing name for products 
that use a new extra smart, extra sensative radio chip by broadcom, based on 
the similarities in the wording on the Belkin and Broadcom sites. If that's 
the case then it isn't technically faster than "125", it's just "125" that 
maintains more of it's optimal performance at further distances.

The Pre-N and/or new Broadcom chip are the only things that provide a useful 
enhancement. The increased range would be actually useful if it works. The 
speed enhancements are mostly hot air under most conditions so don't even 
bother worrying or thinking about them. Just get whatever mix of "G" 
hardware is convenient, like if your laptop has G built-in, just use it and 
don't worry about what, if any, enhanced "turbo G" modes it may or may not 
support.

Brian K. White  --  brian at aljex.com  --  http://www.aljex.com/bkw/
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