802.11b or g access point

Hi All,
I'm considering buying a Dlink 900+ AP but have found that the
802.11g version is not that much more expensive.

Any reason NOT to use a "g" standard AP for the public network.

They interoperate with "b" standard equipment, but is there a downside, IE Distance etc?

Cheers,

Bigted

Yeah, I'm wondering that myself, as I'm eyeing up which AP to get. There are a couple of new b/g products worth considering.

Unless every thing is 11g then I'd say you won't get very much of an advantage.

802.11g really only works where is is all 11g and no 11b devices in the channel (even if they are on a different SSID I beleive)

Also remomber that, in a G spectrum, you could THEORETICALLY get throughput up to 54Mbps (22Mbps in reality). The problems revolve around having to use a SHARED media (the 2.4GHz spectrum) with potential B-only devices.and also 11b, let alone other devices ( bluetooth, cordless phones) If a B device is transmitting, then the G's have to wait .... 11Mbps "talkers" will take up more time than a 54Mbps "talker" for the same size packet. Then, don't even try to imagine the multicast/broadcats issues (which throttle down REAL SLOOOOW). Broadcasts/Multicasts in a 11b network are sent at the 1Mbps. So if a 11b device is present in a G network then broadcasts are sent at 1Mbps. Now get a few chatty games or some MS boxes and things really start to SLOW down.

Guy

I hear (rumour so far) that if a B device is around the G aP will fall back to B even for the G it is talking to. Sounds strange as it only transmits 1 packet at a time. so in theory it could switch quickly between packets.

Yes it probably will share it's time with between the B and G devices.

The big bug bear for me is that the specs on G devices I have looked at show that the transmission power drops back on the AP when it transmits on G. So G won't get as far. This will probably change as they get the silicon to push the power at a greater speed.

As for interferance, G should cope better with noise from bluetooth and telephones etc, well in theory. G uses a better error checking system than B (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing "OFDM" cf DSSS) Does this mean better penetration because of better error checking. However remember the power of transmission is lower.

Generally look at:
1. Power (As tim the toolman says......)
2. External aerial connector, nsome are just odd.
3. Access point or PCI card for a linux box?
4. COST
5. Brdige mode? or just AP mode
6. Brand / model see PC world NZ "WIFI NOW!"
Scott Bartley gets hands-on with new kits that make wireless networking faster and (sometimes) better.
by Scott Bartley
Tuesday, 4 March, 2003

http://pcworld.co.nz/pcworld/pcw.nsf/UNID/...=2,access,point

Interesting review.