Draft-N 802.11

[Mercutio]

Has anyone used or tried a draft-N 802.11 product yet? I'm about to order a Linksys WRT300N; I've heard PreN equipment pretty much KILLS b/g signal if it overlaps, and my poor old Linksys 802.11A router is acting like it's about to die.

 

[sechs]

It seems like you're taking your life in your own hands with draft equipment. Not only are there compatability issues, but it's quite possible that some of that pre-N/draft N equipment may not be upgradeable to the final standard with ease.

I'd suggest saving your money and getting a nice B/G AP.

 

[Mercutio]

2.4GHz is worse than worthless in my apartment. I can see ten different WLANs right now from my laptop (none of them are mine), and there are phones, baby monitors and microwaves to contend with on top of that.
Historically, I've prefered 5GHz A equipment, but A equipment is very hard to come by.

Supposedly, a huge feature of N is that just obliterates anything else on 2.4GHz equipment on the same channel. That, and massive, massive range. I have some hope that "draft N" equipment will support upgrade to "N" when it becomes available, though. Draft N has been around for... 18 months now? A long time, but worst case scenario, I end up with an expensive 802.11G router.

 

[Groltz]

I don't have a complete answer, but I've been running a WRT300N for a couple months now.

The thing is, I bought it for future expansion and am not using its wireless aspect yet. That will come after a future laptop purchase.

As a 4-port wired router, however, it's great and I've had zero problems.

I'd expect that Linksys will issue a firmware upgrade to bring the unit to final "N" specs once they're finalized.

 

[sechs]

I've found that use of channels 13 or 14 often solve these problems.

It's also possible to up the output on a number of APs, to the effect of overpowering other devices.

 

[ddrueding]

There is a setting on many WAPs that asks what country you are in. I was under the impression that this was to make sure you didn't exceed the power limit in your country. Anyone know what would be the most powerfull choice?

 

[Mercutio]

Pretending you're from Euroland lets you use the higher frequencies.
And if you have a hackable AP (mine isn't, the WRT55AG doesn't run Linux like the WRT54G does), there's usually firmware to boost your signal output by as much as 20 - 30%.

 

[sechs]

Convincing the Intel wireless card in the Thinkpad that it was in Europe was far more difficult than getting the AP to think it was in Japan.

 

[Mercutio]

I bought the Draft-N device, but looking around, I've got quite a few spare APs, range extenders and routers. I'm going to try to see whether I can make a blanket of 2.4GHz coverage with the stuff I've got. Maybe take a channel back that way.

 

[sechs]

What did you get?

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1992140,00.asp