N Wireless Network

[button_ripple]

Has anyone implemented a pre-n wireless network. Could they please tell me why?

We have just had it recommended to use by a "professional". The fact that it is still not verified makes me feel that it could still be dangerous as well as the point that the standard may change so any technology may not be compatible.

Should i stay away until it is officially released or just install it?

Also, does anyone know if n works with g technology (such as a g card in a laptop) surely it just works at a lower speed. (we have been told we will need to put external wireless cards into the laptops to make it work with the access points.

[m25man]

The fact that your post has gone unanswered seems to state the obvious, either no one has done it or they did and don't want to admit it publicly!

There are at least a dozen reasons why you should not even consider this for mass deployment.

But in a nutshell because the system uses almost every WiFi technology ever invented OFDM, MIMO, A/G trunking, Spatial, Fast MDS and STBC to name just a few, the chances of finding any of your existing equipment being able to take advantage of it is probably 0 (unless you have a new Mac of course).

It's thirst for spectrum usage will make you the most unpopular neighbour on the block and despite the fact that you may get the throughput upto 70Mbs the fact that you will only get 1 or 2 points to co-exist in he same vicinity before they just fall back into a compatibilty mode of some sort means that unless you want to set light to your entire 2008 budget on another RF white elephant I wouldn't bother.

As everyone on this forum will no doubt tell you, the only decent campus wireless system is a managed one.

802.11 "pre N" devices might be fine for at home to stream the next 46 episodes of Lost onto your 108" LCD TV but as far as filling a school with 20 of them, is a waste of time, effort and taxpayers money.

Stick with the more traditional managed systems from Cisco, 3Com, HP, Aruba and you might not be fast but at least you will be usable.

[dhicks]

Has anyone implemented a pre-n wireless network.

Yes.

Could they please tell me why?

They seemed to be the cheapest stand-alone devices we could get that supported PoE. We can't afford a managed solution, so we have a half-a-dozen Linklsys WAP4400s instead.

Also, does anyone know if n works with g technology

Seems to work just fine. Admittedly, I don't know if this is an optimal solution in terms of bandwidth throughput and so forth - we only have a few people at a time use wireless here, so it's not been an issue.

--
David Hicks

[m25man]

Yes.
They seemed to be the cheapest stand-alone devices we could get that supported PoE

Be careful with this one. A can of worms is opening.

Draft 802.11n uses two radios, these can have a much higher current drain on earlier specification 802.1af POE midspans and switches.

Make sure that your POE equipment is going to support your Draft N AP's without roasting the switch, POE or AP in the process.

[dhicks]

Draft 802.11n uses two radios, these can have a much higher current drain on earlier specification 802.1af POE midspans and switches.

Indeed - was it you who posted that link to an explanation on this a while back? It's no problem with our setup - we simply have PoE injectors to power each access point, we don't have nearly enough money to buy a proper PoE-capable switch.

Make sure that your POE equipment is going to support your Draft N AP's without roasting the switch, POE or AP in the process.

These have been up for nearly a year now and seem to be quite reliable. Again, they're not under any serious load, though.

--
David Hicks