Draft Or Not, 802.11n Gear is Here

802.11n 802.11

Buffalo Technology is no different, with its new Wireless-N Nfiniti Dual Band Notebook Adapter. The 32-bit CardBus adapter is designed to draft IEEE 802.11n standard 1.0 specifications but can also connect on 802.11a and 802.11g/b networks.

As the draft currently stands, 802.11n will have a maximum throughput of 600 Mbps, but will typically operate at 200 Mbps—about twice that of wired 100BaseT Ethernet and nearly four times the maximum of 802.11g. Buffalo promises the Wireless-N Nfiniti Dual Band adapter can go up to four times the range and 12 times the speed of standard 802.11g cards. If used on a network with a Buffalo Nfinity router, the adapter will achieve connection speeds of up to 300 Mbps. That's enough bandwidth to stream HD video and movies wirelessly. With this network, transferring HD content from one location to another is simple, without relying on co-axial cable or Cat 5e wire.

While there are some concerns over how well the early Draft N gear would work with the final spec, those issues should be resolved with a firmware upgrade. The adapter also supports Buffalo's AirStation One-Touch Secure System for easy setup, and a variety of other security protocols such as WPA2, WPA-PSK and 128/64-bit WEP. The card comes with Buffalo's Client Manager 3 software to manage local networks.

Unlike Buffalo's Wireless-N Nfiniti product line, the Dual Band product line supports Gigabit networking and can avoid 2.4-Ghz interference common with cordless telephones. Dual Band adapters are also verified for Intel Viiv and certified for Microsoft Vista.