| SOME OF THE MAIN TOPICS IN THIS CHAPTER ARE Overview of the 802.11g Standard Installing Linksys Wireless-G Broadband Router (Model Number WRT54G) Installing and Configuring a Wireless Network Adapter Which Wireless Protocol Should You Use? The preceding two chapters discussed two wireless protocol standards that are on the market today at very inexpensive prices. IEEE 802.11b hardware is quickly reaching the status of a commodity item (just check the prices at your local computer or electronics discount store). You can buy network cards for under $50 if you get them on sale or with a rebate. You can purchase wireless Access Points for less than $100 ”again if you watch for the sales and rebates. At those prices, IEEE 802.11b is a bargain ”approaching the lower costs of 100Mbps Ethernet equipment. Because 10/100Mbps network adapters for a wired network can now be purchased at some chain stores for around $15, you need to evaluate your network to decide whether wireless networking will enable you to further your business requirements. For example, if you already have an installed base of network cables for users in a wired environment, do you really need wireless networking? Conversely, there are a few scenarios that make wireless networking the best solution. If wireless is for you, the question of which standard to choose arises. Although some variants of wireless networking hardware are now very inexpensive, there are a few relevant considerations you need to think about, such as these: -
Major vendors are now shipping IEEE 802.11b hardware. Yet this is a slower specification and may not suffice for your network bandwidth needs beyond a few years (depending on the applications used in your network). However, in a SOHO environment, where you are the boss, 802.11b may be an excellent choice for your applications. For many word processing and other office applications, this bandwidth should suffice for your needs. -
IEEE 802.11b provides for a data rate of 11Mbps. IEEE 802.11a increases this to 54Mbps, as does IEEE 802.11g. -
The newer standard, 802.11g, can interoperate with both 802.11g and 802.11b. Thus, you can obtain a network bandwidth of 54Mbps in the 2.4GHz bandwidth, and use both 11Mbps and 54Mbps in the same network. The 802.11g devices can be used as an upgrade path for 802.11b hardware. Pay as you go, so-to-speak. Do you really need to use 802.11a if you can achieve the same bandwidth using 802.11g? And 802.11g lets you start replacing older hardware as you can afford it, because it can also work with your legacy 802.11b hardware. -
Cost, of course. However, this is not much of a factor today unless you have a very large wireless network in which replacing several hundred network cards (as well as Access Points) can add up to a large amount of cash. The 802.11g standard was approved in 2003. Even though devices based on the draft specifications work quite well, you should probably make sure that future hardware purchases of 802.11g hardware are based on the final standard. The first-to-market hardware devices are not necessarily a good solution unless upgrades to firmware are available from the manufacturer to meet the final specifications. Note In the past few chapters have you noticed that the letters used for wireless networking don't seem to be in the correct order? IEEE 802.11b hardware came to market first, and then IEEE 802.11a suddenly appeared. Then along comes IEEE 802.11g ”now where did that come from? The truth is that the IEEE 802.11a standard was developed over a longer period, with different participants having to wrangle and compromise over the 802.11a standard. Before they finished, however, the IEEE 802.11b standard was completed and hardware is now readily available. Because "b" was the first to market, enough time has passed to make the hardware very inexpensive. Keep in mind that "a" and "b" are backward if you look at the standards from a time and bandwidth viewpoint. IEEE 802.11a, as you learned in Chapter 21, "Faster Service: IEEE 802.11a," is faster than the "b" version. IEEE 802.11g tries to incorporate the best of all the wireless protocols and may come out the winner in this new race for a standard. This is the standard that is covered in this chapter. And just as the 802.11g standard now offers the same bandwidth as 802.11a, you can expect that in the next few years newer standards will be developed that make even 802.11g outdated ! However, for today, 802.11g or 802.11a are the standards you should choose if you want the 54Mbps bandwidth. |  |
