Draft N vs G etc for Wireless

[Miles_stylus]

Does anyone know how a Draft N WIFI network will react to having a G type machine on the net - will it take the whole N network down to G speeds or have they go over this (as I believe happened with G abd B (I think I have the right letters!)

Thanks

Miles

[thepassenger]

Max speed is set by the speed of the slowest member I'm affraid.
Dunno if it's changing in 'N' but wouldn't expect 'pre-N' kit to be have more functionality than super-G just faster.

Edited by thepassenger on Friday 20th October 19:46

[Plotloss]

Only between the hub and that member though, shirley?

So if you have a G hub two G devices and a B device you get G speeds on all the G devices and B speed on the B device?

Same with N, if its N capable 'clients' then you'll get N speed off an N router.

If that could be anymore confusing...

[bogie]

yep - it will talk at 54Mbps to the G and 270Mbps to the N ...the worse thing at the mo with the draft N is if they detect nearby APs on neighboring channels they may drop to 130Mbps (single channel) so that they play nicely with nextdoors...and dont completely wipe it out

still the draftN is still way quicker

have a look here for router charts www.tomsnetworking.com/2006/06/16/hardware_router_chart_june_2006/

NETGEAR WPNT834 still the fastest...but the N stuff will get better with future firmware releases ...its still 'in progress'

[thepassenger]

Plotloss said:

Only between the hub and that member though, shirley?

So if you have a G hub two G devices and a B device you get G speeds on all the G devices and B speed on the B device?

Same with N, if its N capable 'clients' then you'll get N speed off an N router.

If that could be anymore confusing...

You'd think that wouldn't you? I mean real physical switches can easily handle 10/100/1000 connections at the same time.

If a 'B' device is introduced to a 'G' network (or super-G/G+). All units will be booted off and reconnect at 'B' speeds, or the 'B' device will just not connect.

That's the experience I've had with both Belkin and Netgear SOHO equipment. Mileage may vary with expensive pro kit.

[bogie]

errr 802.11 is not a switched medium - its shared...so think of it like a hub rather than a switch...theres a protection mechanism built in (basically additional RTS/CTS procedure) so when running in mixed mode the 54Mbps devices will allow time for the 11Mbps to 'talk' - this adds additional protocol overhead - about 5 %, but other than that you can run mixed mode just fine...anything Wi-Fi certified will work like this.

[thepassenger]

bogie said:

errr 802.11 is not a switched medium - its shared...so think of it like a hub rather than a switch...theres a protection mechanism built in (basically additional RTS/CTS procedure) so when running in mixed mode the 54Mbps devices will allow time for the 11Mbps to 'talk' - this adds additional protocol overhead - about 5 %, but other than that you can run mixed mode just fine...anything Wi-Fi certified will work like this.

Aye I know it's shared, I was just trying to use a wired network as an example
Was just pointing out that despite the standard being that devices will when operating in mixed mode, attempt to sort themselves out.... I've yet to see SOHO kit actually do it, instead the whole lot jumps down to the speed of the slowest member.

I expect making sure everything you get is Wi-Fi certified is the important bit. I'm not overly sure the kit I've played with (and am using now) is.

[bogie]

I run a Netgear Dg834N in mixed mode - have a couple of N devices, 1 b device and 2 G devices ...works fine

[GreenV8S]

bogie said:

errr 802.11 is not a switched medium - its shared...so think of it like a hub rather than a switch...theres a protection mechanism built in (basically additional RTS/CTS procedure) so when running in mixed mode the 54Mbps devices will allow time for the 11Mbps to 'talk' - this adds additional protocol overhead - about 5 %, but other than that you can run mixed mode just fine...anything Wi-Fi certified will work like this.

Are you describing the new N stuff, or does that description apply to 11B / 11G too? My understanding was that 11G reverts to 11mpbs rates for ALL clients if any 11B client associates with it. I've never tried it, but that's what I've read.

[agent006]

54mb will run mixed speeds between clients. I regularly connect stuff at both speeds to the same kit. Helps that it's not bargain bucket kit, which is sadly becoming all too rare these days.

[bogie]

GreenV8S said:

bogie said:

errr 802.11 is not a switched medium - its shared...so think of it like a hub rather than a switch...theres a protection mechanism built in (basically additional RTS/CTS procedure) so when running in mixed mode the 54Mbps devices will allow time for the 11Mbps to 'talk' - this adds additional protocol overhead - about 5 %, but other than that you can run mixed mode just fine...anything Wi-Fi certified will work like this.

Are you describing the new N stuff, or does that description apply to 11B / 11G too? My understanding was that 11G reverts to 11mpbs rates for ALL clients if any 11B client associates with it. I've never tried it, but that's what I've read.

well what youve read is incorrect....go and read up on the real 802.11 spec

in the very early days then yes....shortly before 802.11g was ratified and the Wi-Fi cert program came in it was revised - you lose a few % and thats it..

[GreenV8S]

bogie said:

well what youve read is incorrect....go and read up on the real 802.11 spec

in the very early days then yes....shortly before 802.11g was ratified and the Wi-Fi cert program came in it was revised - you lose a few % and thats it..

I see you're quite right, perhaps it was an early router that I got this idea from. I'm *pretty* sure I didn't imagine it, but I can't find anything to suggest that current equipment does this, everything I see supports your description. Thanks for putting me straight.