I've also seen some posters here on AI seeming to claim that the 802.11n max speed will be less than the 100 Mbps Ethernet links, but I don't understand those claims, as they flat out contradict what the Wikipedia article says (and what I've heard in various other venues) about the typical speeds provided by 802.11n.
802.11n will have higher speeds. Current draft-N routers on the market are performing under 90 Mbps. Oh wait...the Netgear RangeMax NEXT hit just over 100Mbps...at 7 feet.
Typically Wikipedia is not an authoritative source. Then again neither are Toms Hardware or ExtremeTech but hey...they've got charts.
Quote:
So, bottom line, yes, it looks like the 100 Mbps Ethernet in the new Airport base stations will be somewhat slower than the speed of the 802.11n links that it provides.
No, not really. And certainly not if you have some draft-N gear from one manufacturer and some from another. If you want draft-N speeds you buy the airport to work with the built in draft-N chipsets in your macs. Or at least make sure the router you do buy uses the same chipsets...
And it is mildly puzzling that the new Airport does not provide 10/100/1000 Ethernet ports that would operate at the full 1 Gbps (1,000 Mbps), since that has indeed become so common in other devices -- including all of Apple's computers. But, personally, I don't see that it's such a big deal.
The Belkin N1 Draft-N router doesn't either. Nor does the Buffalo WZR-G300N and Linksys WRT300N. Why? The Buffalo and Linksys both use the BCM5325 10/100 switch. Why not the BCM5397 (the GigE part)? Because Broadcom only announced on Dec 6 that they added Gig-E to their Intensi-fi draft-N chipset with the BCM4705 for use with their BCM5397 GigE switch chip.
Dunno what chip is in the Airport but it'll get a gigE bump soonish I think. Probably the older Broadcom chipset given Apple already uses some in current Macs.
I think that some people are forgetting something. Apple does little updates every now and then to keep you interested in their products. The computers get speedbumps and such. Im sure this will get gigabit in the future.
Not so with their Airport hubs. A quick glance at Designed in California shows that the Airport Extreme hub has basically kicked about unchanged since ... April 2004! The Airport Express came out a month later (I bought one right away) and basically exceded it in features for a lower price ever since until now. Seems to me like the track record is against this new hub getting a makeover for quite a while. Shame, because I too, like every good minded geek, prefer the idea of a single solution to a household wi-fi and wired gigabit network. Apple, evidently, think different.
Forget about the gigabit ethernet, put an optical port for AirTunes in it an I would buy it tomorrow. I don't want to have 2 wireless devices to connect all of my peripherals.
IE I want this new Airport to allow me to print, stream music and access my external hard drive, I don't want to print and access my external HD from one device and stream music via the other. And yes this is quite important for laptop users who are often on the go and wish not plug in a lot of wires everytime the get back to the desk.
Comments
I've also seen some posters here on AI seeming to claim that the 802.11n max speed will be less than the 100 Mbps Ethernet links, but I don't understand those claims, as they flat out contradict what the Wikipedia article says (and what I've heard in various other venues) about the typical speeds provided by 802.11n.
802.11n will have higher speeds. Current draft-N routers on the market are performing under 90 Mbps. Oh wait...the Netgear RangeMax NEXT hit just over 100Mbps...at 7 feet.
http://www.extremetech.com/image_pop...=146345,00.asp
http://images.tomshardware.com/2006/...annote_big.png
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/index...=100page5.html
Typically Wikipedia is not an authoritative source. Then again neither are Toms Hardware or ExtremeTech but hey...they've got charts.
So, bottom line, yes, it looks like the 100 Mbps Ethernet in the new Airport base stations will be somewhat slower than the speed of the 802.11n links that it provides.
No, not really. And certainly not if you have some draft-N gear from one manufacturer and some from another. If you want draft-N speeds you buy the airport to work with the built in draft-N chipsets in your macs. Or at least make sure the router you do buy uses the same chipsets...
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/...2013307,00.asp
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/conte...27008/100/1/2/
Or you're going to get G speeds.
And it is mildly puzzling that the new Airport does not provide 10/100/1000 Ethernet ports that would operate at the full 1 Gbps (1,000 Mbps), since that has indeed become so common in other devices -- including all of Apple's computers. But, personally, I don't see that it's such a big deal.
The Belkin N1 Draft-N router doesn't either. Nor does the Buffalo WZR-G300N and Linksys WRT300N. Why? The Buffalo and Linksys both use the BCM5325 10/100 switch. Why not the BCM5397 (the GigE part)? Because Broadcom only announced on Dec 6 that they added Gig-E to their Intensi-fi draft-N chipset with the BCM4705 for use with their BCM5397 GigE switch chip.
Dunno what chip is in the Airport but it'll get a gigE bump soonish I think. Probably the older Broadcom chipset given Apple already uses some in current Macs.
Vinea
I think that some people are forgetting something. Apple does little updates every now and then to keep you interested in their products. The computers get speedbumps and such. Im sure this will get gigabit in the future.
Not so with their Airport hubs. A quick glance at Designed in California shows that the Airport Extreme hub has basically kicked about unchanged since ... April 2004! The Airport Express came out a month later (I bought one right away) and basically exceded it in features for a lower price ever since until now. Seems to me like the track record is against this new hub getting a makeover for quite a while. Shame, because I too, like every good minded geek, prefer the idea of a single solution to a household wi-fi and wired gigabit network. Apple, evidently, think different.
IE I want this new Airport to allow me to print, stream music and access my external hard drive, I don't want to print and access my external HD from one device and stream music via the other. And yes this is quite important for laptop users who are often on the go and wish not plug in a lot of wires everytime the get back to the desk.