Wireless networking [was Re: [NCLUG] Re: Sean's Social Hacking]

John L. Bass jbass at dmsd.com
Mon Jan 22 02:28:28 MST 2001


	Where are you getting that pricing information?  The WebGear cards are
	closer to half the price of 802.11b cards.

Not from my seat. I stated both my observations on ebay and buy.com earlier.
I was told that CompUSA was selling Linksys cards at $99 earlier this month
(after rebate) - when the BO's are filled, I expect we can see that return.

Receint deals on ebay for Lucent cards abound:

 1206139554 LUCENT WIRELESS WAVELAN SILVER 11MB CARD	$117.50 6 01/09 08:35 
 1206080208 LUCENT WAVELAN WIRELESS SILVER 11MB CARD	$110.00 8 01/10 20:10 
 1206148212 LUCENT WAVELAN WIRELESS SILVER 11MB CARD	$117.50 8 01/11 09:29 
 1206081959 LUCENT WIRELESS WAVELAN SILVER 11MB CARD	$112.50 7 01/12 20:17 
 1208036485 Lucent WaveLAN Turbo Silver PC Card 	$90.00  1 01/15 05:30 
 1205998770 Lucent WaveLAN Turbo Silver PC Card 	$96.00 10 01/15 14:06 
 207667476 Lucent WaveLAN Turbo 11mb Silver PC Card 	$105.00 6 01/16 11:05 

I did better by $11, just need to be patient and avoid auction fever. Simlar
prices on Cisco/Aironet 4800B/340 cards - maybe better if you include the
Dell Aironet cards (which have sold between $75-100 this month) which probably
work just fine - haven't tried one yet.

 1205393867 Dell Aironet Wireless PCMCIA 4800LT 802.11b  	$ 94.50  3 01/07 09:49 
 1206074328 Dell/Aironet 4800LT Wireless LAN card-PCMCIA 	$100.25 16 01/08 19:44 
 1205393669 Dell Aironet Wireless PCMCIA 4800LT 802.11b  	$113.45  6 01/09 09:48 
 1205852059 Cisco Aironet 340 Series 11Mbs PCMCIA !!NEW!!	$150.00  1 01/11 19:20 
 1206804360 Dell Aironet Wireless PCMCIA 4800LT 802.11b  	$ 89.00  1 01/12 08:22 
 1206377929 Dell Aironet Wireless PCMCIA 4800LT 802.11b  	$ 89.00  1 01/12 11:06 
 1207022308 Dell Aironet Wireless PCMCIA 4800LT 802.11b  	$ 96.09  3 01/13 08:45 
 1206681929 New Cisco Aironet PCM-340 PCMCIA wireless NIC	$132.50 19 01/15 16:12 
 1207807626 Dell Aironet Wireless PCMCIA Card-4800LT 		$ 93.00  8 01/18 22:09 
 1208498238 Dell Aironet Wireless PCMCIA 4800LT 802.11B 	$ 75.00  1 01/19 20:06 
 1208620328 Cisco Aironet 340 PCMCIA LAN adapter 		$135.00  1 01/20 11:51 
 1207808964 Dell Aironet Wireless PCMCIA Card-4800LT 		$ 91.00  6 01/20 22:23 

Clearly the two @ $75 (was a dutch auction) on 1/19 was a bargin for someone,
a smart/lucky ebay shopper.

I see the going price on WebGear cards at about $80-100ea (discount mail order).
I see the going price of 802.11b cards at about $100-120 (discount mail order).
I see the going price of high end Lucent/Aironet 802.11b cards on Ebay at about
$90-130.  Just current prices ... tring to informative and allow people to make
informed choices. I personally think the WLAN driver is a long way from even
alpha test - which is why I provided an alternative link - after talking with
the developer and getting shutdown on offers to help - and observing the slow
progress this last year - it will be a while till it gets fixed. I personally think
that given Ebay's prices for Lucent Silver and Cisco 340 cards, that is a superior
cost performance choice .... but that is an individual decision made balancing
a lot of factors/wieghts.

The 4-5X speed difference at the same/nearly the same (less than 25%) cost is an
important cost/performance point for making decisions - especially for heavier users.

	>The 802.11 protocol at 1-2mbps can do much better than that.
	Hmm?  The WebGear cards are running 802.11...  You mean DSSS?

No - I mean that the problems with the WebGear are not 802.11 FHSS design
problems. They are a WebGear hardware/software problem - if I owned some,
it might be fun to debug.

	Knock it all you want, the WebGear cards have served me well for the last
	year or so.  It was worse when we had 5 stations on at the new office (before
	we got the 100Mbps wiring in), but even then it was usable the majority of the

Not knocking it at all, just tring to be objective and informative ... I have
absolutely no vested interest in any party or player involved. Heck - I don't
care if people use piezo transducers with can's and string for a network if that
is what they want.

I'm not pushing any particular product ... offered three different vendors at
similar prices - in an attempt to be both informative and non-aligned.

If the only reason for wireless is to share a 56K internet connection - then that
person probably doesn't need much. If they are sharing an @home connections, then
there is a good chance 1-2mbps wireless will be a significant bottleneck at times.
If they want to share a disk server for common files and backup, 802.11b might be
important.

And ... things (bandwidth demands) change over time. A few years back I used ascii
terminals (anybody need any ADM3A's) and didn't need remote X graphics - today I
find 10bT way too slow.

Have Fun,
John



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