Is anybody using 802.11g yet? I am considering upgrading and wanted to see if anybody had recommended brands or tips on good deals. I would be getting a base station and a bridge (something like the linksys wet11 only for 'g'). One of the things I would like to be able to do is use DVArchive (ReplayTV client software) for streaming accross the wireless link. Anybody know if 802.11g really provides enough bandwith for this to work smoothly?

-Mike

Yeah. I've upgraded to all 802.11g hardware now. I got what was cheapest at the time which was the Buffalo series of 802.11g products which are all based on Broadcom chipsets. The Linksys 802.11g products are nearly identical inside apart from the casing and the actual web interface.

Buffalo technical support are actually fairly good. They do know about their products and are quite helpful. I've not phoned/emailed any technical problems but have asked several things about upcoming firmware and WPA & WDS. They've usually replied to me within a few hours.

If you can, then you should make sure whatever you buy has WPA support or has firmware available which adds WPA support. It's much more secure than WEP and doesn't have any known flaws.

One word of warning though, if you want to use WDS between APs then you can't enable WPA and must use WEP instead. All 802.11g hardware manufacturers have this problem. Some say it can't be fixed but others say they'll give it a go. You can however buy normal ethernet bridges which support WPA.

If you want Linux support then it is best to buy an Intersil/Harris based card. I bought a Netgear 802.11g card because I wanted it in a Linux server and didn't want a bridge hanging off the back.

I've not got a ReplayTV as they don't exist in the UK so I can't really answer your last question.

If 802.11g can ever be anything like 802.11a, it will be great. The problem is the hardware I have used thus far has sucked. Granted, I was using "54g" equipment that was draft versions of 802.11g.

I just installed a Dell TrueMobile Mini-PCI 802.11g card in my laptop and it seems to be working well on my current 802.11b network. I got in on this deal for an 802.11g router and received it via UPS today. I have not set it up yet, but I have a good felling about it. I will update this thread with my findings.

I'm running a D-Link (looks for box) DI-624 basestation for my Powerbook. Based on what I have seen, I am getting 5 times the speed I got on 802.11b; about 20-25mbps practical speed.

Should be enough to stream the needed 600k/s per stream from your ReplayTV to DVArchive.

Do be careful of 802.11b equipment though. It can drop the entire g network back to b speeds. I set my g router to only allow g clients to avoid this.

Do be careful of 802.11b equipment though.

Yeah, that is going to be a problem for me as there is one device on my network that will still be 11b (it is my roommates and he has no reason to upgrade). Have you tested throughput on your network with a b device?

Also, what about the bridge side of it? Anybody used any of the g bridge products? It looks like linksys and buffalo both have one out now.

-Mike

i also have a d-link (trips over box since only got it the other day) DI-624 for my power book (box on shelve bought ages ago) and it has been fine so far

Yep. I've got a Buffalo 802.11g bridge for my Tivo. Nothing really to it, you configure it like an AP basically and then just plug it in and leave it.

I think you get a slowdown even if the 802.11b node isn't transmitting, it just has to be associated with the 802.11g AP. The 802.11g AP has to give the 802.11b node a chance to transmit every so often. You can fiddle with the settings on the 802.11g AP to give more time to the 802.11g nodes however but you will still end up with some performance decrease.

There was an article that did tests on what happened on an 802.11g network once you associated an 802.11b device. I'll see if I can find it again.

[edit]Can't find the original article at the moment but Tom's Hardware have a reasonably good article on 802.11g[/edit]

I'm also using Buffalo bridges (WLA-G54), except as a wireless link w/directional antennas between two buildings 1/4 mile apart. I get about ~60MB/min throughput (~1050KB/Sec)in the .g only mode. A good technical breakdown on throughput is available through an O'Reilly article.


-Zeke

Thanks for the links guys, they where very helpful. Looks like I may not get enough extra bandwith to use DVArchive (the whole point of this upgrade) as long as I have that 11b node on the network still It is going to be borderline at best if the speed drops as much as that O'Reilly article claims.

-Mike

Make sure to check your TCP/IP settings are tuned for DVArchive. I know with mine, my 802.11b network couldn't stream with my XP laptop (on low quality) until I dug up a post on the non-avs replaytv board about how to get streaming to work. Unfortunatly I still can't get fast forwarding of a streamed show to work well without crashing.

Matthew

So it just occured to me that I already own a large stack of 11b equipment. What happens if I run two wireless networks? The first 802.11b network being a pair of wet11's in adhoc mode (to get my roommate internet access) and the second a 802.11g only network to connect everything else. Will the 11b network still slow down the 11g net? It seems like as long as they are on seperate channels I would get full 11g speed right?

-Mike

So long as you can force the .g equipment to ignore all .b requests (in case one of the .b clients goes into a 'search' mode and picks up the other channel/.g AP). If you ran on different channels I'd put them as far from eachother as possible, as they'd still be creating radio 'noise' for the other. Hey, give it a try and let us know.

-Zeke

I'm using the SMC 2804WBR Router. I'm very happy with it. Does all it's supposed to do with no problems and excellent range.

Running the 11b stuff on a separate channel from the 11g WILL prevent the 11b equipment from slowing down the 11g group, but be sure to choose well separated channels, such as 1, 6, 11, which are far enough apart in spectrum to eliminate interference issues.

Also make sure you are running current firmware/driver versions for the 11g, as there have been lots of refinements over the last number of months since the final 11g spec was set.

Thanks all. I ordered a pair of WBR-G54 today. I'll have one act as a base station and then bridge the second to it. I was able to confirm that some people over on AVSForum have used these units successfully to do exactly what I want. These where one of only two 11g solutions (the other is a pair of linksys access points bridged, but they can't be base stations at the same time) that appeared to definitely work for streaming with ReplayTVs.

-Mike

Just remember that you're stuck with WEP if you want to do bridging. WDS (bridging) doesn't work with WPA at the moment. I've got a couple WBR-G54's and they work quite nicely. Update the firmware though, they normally ship with quite an old release.