Wireless Networking Questions

[Ruler2112]

I've been doing some research on wireless networks lately and have a few questions for those who know more than I about the subject. (AKA- You guys. )

I've heard that 802.11b will interfere with 2.4g cordless phones, as it operates in the same range of the frequency spectrum. It will also be interefered with by said phones, as well as microwaves, cell phones, and various electronics. I read somewhere that a guy had to scrap his entire network because it rhendered his phones inoperable. Is this a valid concern? (I'm planning on using 802.11a because of this; operates on 5 ghtz band and is therefore unaffected by the above.)

I've also read stories indicating that wireless NICs of a given brand won't always work when connecting with wireless NICs of another brand. This is somewhat puzzling to me, as I thought that was one of the purposes behind having a standard. Is this true or is it not something I have to worry about?

Lastly, one of the machines I'm going to be networking is running RedHat Linux 9. Is there any certain type of card I should try to get or try to avoid for the linux box? Are any brands of wireless NICs better than others?

Thanks in advance for any help.

[Telexen]

It's valid, it may not be that bad though...just depends. That's the main reason I haven't bothered with wireless yet

They don't always work. The only instance I've seen myself of that was an SMC access point not picking up a Buffalo wireless NIC

[Idigguns]

I agree, those concerns are certainly possible. I've heard the same thing. I've never actually met anyone that has had any of those problems, though. As for different brands, yes, they should all work together. Of course, nothing in life is guaranteed. I think the big reason people say to buy all the same brand stuff is in case you have any problems. If you have to call for tech support and you have all different brands, it could be more difficult.

[M_Six]

I run an 802.11b network at home. My phones don't ever cause problems or vice-versa. I use the Linksys dsl/cable router with built-in wireless. I have one PC using their WUSB11 wireless USB adapter that I have occasional problems with. My laptop has an Orinoco Gold PCMCIA wireless cards and works flawlessy all the time. I'm going to dump the WUSB11 adapter and hang a wireless bridge on the one troublesome PC. I'm not sure if the problem is with the adapter or not, but I have other uses for the bridge, so that's what I'm going to try.

[Ruler2112]

Thanks for the info guys. I do have a couple of more questions, but I'm posting them in the Linux/Unix forum as they deal more with that subject than the networking side of it.