[MLB-WIRELESS] Hold off on buying wireless equipment for a few months!

[s t]

Hi all,
       It good to see a good turn out at the bbq, and a special thanks 
should go to Tyson for organising and providing for the event.

I don't place comments very often on this group, but my view is that if 
possible hold off on buying wireless lan 11Mbit cards and access points for 
a number of months.

1) 802.11b, even though rated at 11Mbit, realistically over any
   distance greater than a couple of hundred feet, rarely yields
   an effective transfer greater than 150kilobytes/sec, even with
   high gain directional antenna. I have personally played with cisco
   access points, and lucent cards  and come to that conclusion.

2) You should wait to the middle of this year for the 802.11g (54Mbit)
   to emerge, also based on the 2.4GHz, not 5GHz. Don't waste money on
   the current stuff! Cards from many card manufacturers will hit the
   streets in May, June 2002. The Melbourne wireless group has a unique
   opportunity to start off correctly. If its 5 times faster than
   802.11b, then realistic transfers should be in the order of
   150 x 5 = 750kilobytes/sec. I therefore urge people to hold off
   till then, rather than waste money now, and replace the equipment
   in a few months.

3) Some people may be getting excited  with the new 802.11a cards.
   Whilst these cards do show a significant performance increase, they
   are based on 5Ghz band. The cable, antenna, are far harder to buy,
   and costly than 2.4Ghz.You need to use the 1 inch diameter
   coax,thats costs upwards of $28/meter to drive any
   signal to a remote antenna. 802.11a  is only good for internal
   office communication, and not point to point in my opinion.

Guys, Lets do it right from the start!
A little patience will yield a better result for all.

(In the meantime, build your directional, and omni antennas for June start)

Cheers,
  Steve.




Regards,
   Steve.


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