Will the G router talk at 5ghz?

[Iman74]

View <a href="http://www.linksys.com/edu/wirelessstandards.asp">this</a>

I want to know if anybody read anywhere that there are sets plans in the very near future for the G router to talk at 5ghz as well as 2.4 ghz.

[glc]

I doubt it. 5 GHz has proven to be very short range, it's my impression that G was created to give you the range of B with the speed of A. I'm not selling any G stuff yet, B is just fine for my customers' needs and the price is sure right.

[mbossman2]

I'd have to agree with glc. 11g gives the network admin the ability to preserve their investment in 11b technology, while giving power users the ability to connect at the higher data rates.

I have not seen alot of action on the 11g side as many people are waiting for the standard to be completely ratified before they sink their very scarce IT budget dollars into something that is not fully ratified (I can see the conversation: well boss, I spent $30k on the wireless project on a pre-standard release of a product and now it does not interoperate with my existing wireless equipment or applications, not the smatest move).

Other than speed, the next big thing in wireless LANs will be the incoporation of switch type technology in wireless (right now, wireless is a shared technology). A couple of manufacturers are offering some switch features (like VLAN's and QoS) in their enterprise level products, but the cool thing will be the dedicated bandwidth that a switch offers (not sure how it will work, but it will be cool).

[Iman74]

Thanks for the replies...okay I have a few more questions.

Go <a href="http://www.linksys.com/products/group.asp?grid=33&scid=35">here</a>

I am currently interested in either WAP54G or WRT54G.

Here is what I am interested in:
I currently own the Linsys <a href="http://www.linksys.com/products/product.asp?grid=34&scid=29&prid=20">BEFSR41</a>
I want to uplink our existing hub to one of the wireless hubs previously mentioned. My preference is the WRT54G because without my exisiting hub I could just use this one. But I am not one who likes to waist good existing computer equipment so I would just uplink this router to the other router but since they both are firewalls and support DHCP I am wondering if I will have all kinds of issues.

Do you think this is possible? If yes, what kind of problems do you see me facing?

[marycp]

I have similar questions as Iman and wondered if anyone had any input on this topic or answers to his questions.

[glc]

There is a wireless concept you need to be aware of. A wireless access point is only capable of operating in either bridge mode or infrastructure mode - not both simultaneously, unless you buy a $400 WAP.

If you can be more specific as to what you are trying to do, it would help.

Here's an example of what I have had to do for a customer.

Scenario: One DSL line, 2 buildings where a wired interconnect is not feasible (and 1/2 mile apart), multiple computers in each building, need to have them all on one network, laptop roaming needed in both buildings.

Main building with DSL, 10 computers, 2 jet directs, and one Snap server: One BEFSR11, one 16 port switch, 2 WAP11's. Remote building with 3 computers and one jet direct: One 8 port switch, 2 WAP11's.

In each building, one WAP11 is set up infrastructure to service roaming laptops. The other WAP11 in each building is set up to bridge, with directional antennas on the roof of each building. The WAP11's are plugged into the switches and the router is also uplinked to the switch in the main building. All WAP11's are set up with strict MAC security, only allowng specific MAC's access - each bridge WAP11 is set to only accept the MAC of the other. The 2 infrastructure WAP11's are set to only accept the MAC of the laptop cards in use.

I don't think you can bridge consumer grade routers - even if you can, having 2 routers on one network will be a configuration nightmare.

If you are using Linksys equipment, call their tech support and give them your scenario - see what they have to say, that's how I figured out what I had to do at that site.

[Byte 2.0]

This has been very interesting, I Had a customer the other day asking me about wireless G. He didn't know much about it and at the time I knew nothing about it. The wireless I support is 802.11b he thought the g was going to be 802.11g, told me it was suppose to be faster but he had no details. It will be interesting, I wonder if it will be backwards compatible?

[Iman74]

Okay, I don't think I am being clear. This is for personal use only; in no way is this a corporate thing I want to do.

There really isn't much to it. I have 3 desktops, and 2 laptops. I have one existing Linksys router we have been using for a few years now that I mentioned earlier in this post. Now, we want to get a Linksys router that can support the 4 drops as well as wireless devices. So in short if we want to go in our living room with our laptops and surf the web on them while watching a movie, then this would work. But like I said in the earlier post I want to know if I can connect my exisiting Linksys Router into the Wireless Router (I mentioned and posted url's to both in the previous post) using a uplink if one is available, if not I will make a very short crossover cable and have both. Why, simply because I don't want to disconnect my current one. Can this be done?

For any detailed info on the current and future models just read the previous posts. My links are there.

[mbossman2]

802.11g devices will talk to 11b devices and vice versa but only at the 11b speed (11mbps nominally)

[glc]

My best advice to you for that scenario is get a simple wireless access point and plug it into your existing router. Run both notebooks wireless at all times because 3 desktops and 1 WAP will use all 4 ports on your router. If you need more wired ports (which you will need if you want a wired option for the notebooks), uplink the router to a cheap 4 port switch and plug the WAP into that. 2 routers is not the way to go.

[Iman74]

That sounds like a good plan. Thanks.