Whats the Difference?

[NicRuf]

What is the difference is the wireless netword cards and routers.

Some have a b at the end and some have a g at the end and some have a/b and all kinds of stuff. What exactly is the difference and is there a preference between these?

I know nothing about this stuff and im looking at laptops. Thanks.

[Bill in SD, CA]

Speed is the difference.

802.11

HTH,

Bill

[John Prophet]

802.11b is by far the most popular and "standard" one....

802.11a which was a lot faster...but "a" wont work with "b"

Now the newest one is 802.11g.

G is faster than "b" and is also backwards compatible with "b"...so if you have a "b" network you can use "g" stuff with it.

Of course if you want to have the full "g" speeds you need to have "g" stuff on both ends...in other words you need a "g" card in the laptop and also a "g" wireless router. If you have just one "g" card mixed with a "b" router or vice versa then you just get "b" speeds.


So basically "a" never really took off too well so dont buy any "a" stuff.....if you are going to buy you may as well go ahead and buy "g" stuff.



If it says a/b that means it is designed to run either a or b.

JP

[kwebb]

It's a little more complex for that but for most peoples requirements the speed is the significant difference. .11b=11 Mb, .11a and .11g have a 54 Mb signalling rate. b and g operate in the 2.4 Ghz GSM. a gear using a 5 Ghz carrier. CCK modulation at 11 Mb, and OFDM at both 54 Mb technologies. 3 non overlapping channels for b and g, 8 for .11a, which can be significant when you saturate a WLAN with AP's. .11a is more of a enterprise technology. Pricepoint was just to high for the home consumer and initially the coverage was poor. With the prices so low, at the moment .11g hardware is the easy choice for residential purposes.

[NicRuf]

Ok thanks guys, so g is prob the best bet right?

[DVNT1]

yes