First Draft-N Wi-Fi Gear Disappointing

The impending 802.11n Wi-Fi standard, which promises spectacularly fast networking, won’t be final for months. But products based on the first draft of the standard are here. After conducting preliminary testing, however, the result is quite disappointing and draft-n gear not up to marks.

With WPA2 encryption turned on, draft-n–compliant routers and PC Cards from Buffalo Technology’s Nfiniti, Linksys’s Wireless-N, and Netgear’s Range-Max Next lines were slower at close and medium ranges than older Linksys SRX400 products based on the Airgo Networks True MIMO Gen3 technology. And while the average medium-range speed of 24 megabits per second for the draft-n products was more than double the 11-mbps rate for a standard 802.11g network with no speed-boosting technology, it still fell far short of 10/100 ethernet’s 80 mbps.

At long-range distance, Netgear’s RangeMax Next router and PC Card did beat the SRX400 products but the Buffalo and Linksys could not hold a connection long enough to complete the test.

Products based on the same draft-n chips from Broadcom (the Buffalo, Linksys, and Netgear RangeMax Next lines) worked together fine. But Netgear’s RangeMax Next Gigabit Edition router (with a gigabit ethernet switch and based on Marvell chips) connected to the Broadcom-based products only at 802.11g speeds. Draft-n products using different chips also differ in how they handle interference from nearby networks.

The final 802.11n standard promises theoretical throughput up to 12 times as fast as 802.11g’s and interoperability certification by the Wi-Fi Alliance. Vendors hope that you will be able to upgrade draft-n gear to the final standard.

Given the underwhelming performance and the interoperability and interference issues of draft-n, the best option is wait. But if you must buy right away, go with Airgo Gen3–based products for performance and stability; consider similarly priced draft-n gear if you want a chance of upgrading to the eventual standard. And if you do buy draft-n, look for firmware upgrades to enhance performance