Many of us with computers have tried using different wireless products, be it in a hotel, internet cafeteria or at home in your office, some of these products works quite well, though some seem to be just hopeless.

Back in the days when wireless networks were a relatively new product there was a couple of problems, one of these problems were and are still the available range of the network, other problems included that manufacturers will apply the ratified wireless communication standards slightly different in their products making some vendors equipment disrupt or slow down the wireless communication when used in conjunction with equipment from other vendors.

A wireless network will consist typically of an access point connected to an internet connection, your computer will then either have an external wireless card connected to either a USB or PCMCIA slot, or as is more usual these days a card which is already built into your computer to communicate with the access point.

In the past there were a couple of wireless standards to choose from. There was the “802.11b” With advertised speed of 11Mbps (but in reality this was more like 2-6Mbps.)

“802.11a” With advertised speeds of up to 54Mbps (in reality the speeds would be in the mid 20Mbps range.)

“802.11g” Standard which uses the same frequency as the “802.11b” (2.4Ghz) and touted 54Mbps (in the real world the speed was around mid 20Mbps). This is the same frequency as the “802.11b” uses.

At the point of the “802.11g” standard “b” and “g” units could exist together in the same network, though this degrades the performance of your network.

Now there is a new kid in town, meet the “802.11n” standard.

This standard has a real world possibility of 200Mbps and perhaps more, it does have capability of working together with “802.11g” units, but working together with “b” units is unclear at this moment and might in the end be vendor specific.

“802.11n” is still in what they refer as “draft” in the standardization process, however the phase which it currently is in guarantees that the “802.11n” hardware you buy today will be compatible with the “802.11n” hardware equipment of tomorrow as the standardization process goes on.

Having “g” units in your new “n” infrastructure will also degrade the performance of your network

There are many wireless products on the market today which uses the “b” or “g” standard, my suggestion would be not to buy these at this point, some products of these

standards include wireless security cameras, wait for them to come in the “802.11n” standard, or make them wired.

A problem that users of “802.11n” equipment has noticed is that their wireless networks using older “b” and “g” standards has gotten more unstable after implementation of an “n” network, this is at this time more prevalent in densely populated areas, this happens because their new “802.11n” device will interfere with “b” and “g” networks close by.

To sum up:

1. Do not buy any new specific “802.11b” or “802.11g” equipment at this time, whether it be routers, wireless cameras or network cards, if however the card supports “802.11n” as well as the other standards it is safe to buy.
2. Make sure that the “802.11n” standard product you buy is of “Draft 2.0” revision or above. Do not buy the products labeled as “Pre N” these products might not be 100% compliant with later hardware requirements.
3. If you do buy “802.11n” for your office, home or guesthouse it will be safer if you stick to one provider.

Note: These different standards should not be confused with the cellular network extensions to 3G which in Thailand is known as EV-DO or CDMA.

These standards are medium speed broadband connections in more or less the same way as your ADSL is.