Bizmo -
This is really getting tiresome. You've been posting doom and gloom notes, as well as links to either the same articles, or to others that quote the first articles, over and over again.
You keep posting these in response to my posts about my personal experiences with other products, and the rationale for my decision to try Belkin's Pre-N products. Unfortunately, it appears that you have NOT read, or have not understood, the contents of my posts. You seem to be intent on discrediting Belkin and especially in attacking their Pre-N line of products.
Just to clarify the issue:
Belkin's Pre-N products have been certified as being compliant with 802.11b and 802.11g. THAT'S ALL. That's also the ONLY certification they claim. They explicitly state that these products are NOT intended to be compatible with whatever shape the eventual standard for 802.11n takes.
My interpretion of the name "Pre-N" is that this new technology that Belkin is offering ON TOP of their certified implementations of 11b and 11g is, perhaps, somewhere between the current standards (11g) and what we may expect to see in 11n sometime in the next 18 to 24 months. In case you haven't read up on this, there has been a lot of discussion about the idea of using "MIMO" (multiple in, multiple out) technology as part of the upcoming 802.11n standard. This is a way of using multipath signal reflections to actually extract MORE information from a signal than is currently done -- a novel approach, considering that multi-path has traditionally been a cause for distortion and interference in radio. However, if you do your homework, you'll find out the Belkin doesn't claim that even this part of "Pre-N" is going to be part of the 11n standard. They simply mention that they are taking advantage of a similar technique with their use of Airgo's chipset and core software.
That's it. No pretense that "Pre-N" is based on any upcoming 11n standard -- as even Belkin acknowledges that the 11n standard simply isn't a known quantity yet. NOBODY can claim compatibility with this future, yet-to-be-announced, standard -- and NOBODY DOES. It's that simple.
I'm starting to feel mighty silly responding to your repeated "warning" posts about Pre-N, but it seems that you have a strong desire to discredit Belkin and Pre-N. Many people come here to learn about various products and technologies -- and I feel something of a need to temper your dire warnings that seem to be based more on a personal bias against Belkin than anything else.
For the record:
Precisely as Belkin states, their "Pre-N" equipment is certified by the WiFi alliance as being compliant with 802.11b and 802.11g - period. On top of this, Belkin offers a proprietary MIMO mode (based on Airgo's technology), that allows Pre-N equipment to communicate farther and faster than standard 802.11g, when the devices on both ends of a connection are Pre-N. This is precisely analogous to what Broadcom has done with "Afterburner", and Atheros has done with "Super G". All three of these technologies are "non-standard", all three offer better-than-11g performance, and all three will only offer this benefit when equipment on both ends of the connection use the same proprietary technology.
Belkin's Pre-N is simply another alternative in the "better-than-11g-but-not-standards-based" market. Based on my experience to date, Pre-N works better, has better range, and is far more stable than Super G. I have no personal experience with Afterburner. However from what I have read (I believe it was a PC Mag lab test), Pre-N clocks the best range and throughput to date with a stock product packaged for the SOHO market.
Bizmo:
- If you can point us to an article or quote in which Belkin is saying something fraudulent -- please do so now.
- If you can point us to an article or quote in which Belkin claims that "Pre-N" will be compatible with the as-yet-undetermined 802.11n standard -- please do so now.
- Are you equally suspicious and angry that Atheros, DLink, Fujitsu, Aztech, Wistron, Airlink, OrangeWare, Senao, Netgear, Linksys, and MANY more companies world-wide are doing the exact same thing? Each sells devices that are 802.11b and 802.11g certified -- but also offer an enhanced proprietary mode that is FASTER than 11g. In case this wasn't apparent -- that's EXACTLY the same proposition that Belkin is offering with "Pre-N".
To everyone else:
I apologize if my reponses to Bizmo are prolonging this silliness -- that's not my intention.
However, I spent close to a year wrestling with my DLink di-624, a "super G" laptop card (dwl-g650) and a "super G" pc card (dwl-g520). I lost a couple of hundred hours to this, and found that although the Atheros technology is very promising, the implementation left a lot to be desired in terms of stability and customer support. I still own my DLink equipment, and would be thrilled if a new firmware release somehow made it all stable.
In the meantime, having given up a few weeks ago on my DLink setup, I opted to try Belkin's entry into the "more-than-11g" market. I've had it up and running for about 2 weeks now. In my experience, it has been everything that I had hoped the DLink equipment would be: faster than 11g, very solid and stable, and maintenance-free. That's only 2 weeks, so far -- and it took me a lot longer than that to become disenchanted with DLink, so who knows? Maybe the honeymoon won't last. But for the moment, I'm finding the Belkin F5D8230-4 "Pre-N" router and the corresponding notebook and pc cards to work very well indeed.
I don't expect these products to be 802.11n compatible when the standard is announced sometime in 2006. But I do expect them to offer me better-than-g performance for a long time to come -- especially since I have a lifetime warranty on the products and their performance, and I plan to exercise it if either should fail.
Since Bizmo likes to quote magazine articles, here are a few pretty good ones to look at:
»
www.pcmag.com/article2/0 ··· 0,00.asp»
reviews.zdnet.co.uk/hard ··· 0,00.htm»
ecoustics-cnet.com.com/B ··· 672.htmlIn the end, I believe it comes down to a few key points:
1) the products are 802.11b and 802.11g certified, and are backward compatible with these product standards.
2) they cost a bit more than similar 802.11g and "enhanced G" products that compete in the same price range.
3) you should NOT purchase these with the expectation that they will somehow be compatible with an as-yet-unannounced standard for 802.11n, which will NOT be announced for another 12 to 18 months.
4) If you like being an "early adopter", you might find these devices appealing.
5) The lifetime product and performance warranty is an important plus in my mind.
That's it. As far as I can tell, there' no evil hidden agenda here. But if Bizmo can point us all to it, I'd be happy to learn about it. PLEASE BIZMO: if you have something new or constructive or fact-based to post about Belkin and Pre-N, especially if it's something that supports your notion that it's all a scam and should be avoided at all costs, THEN BY ALL MEANS POST THIS!
But please don't continue to bash Belkin and Pre-N here based on a personal agenda and bias.
- Jon
Jonathan R. Strong
The Strong Group, Inc.
