Wirelessness – what tha? dual band? 2.4 or 5GHz “n”?

Having been doing some shopping for a wireless network of late I thought I’d try and discover what the whole “dual band” ‘n’ router thing was and why I would benefit from buying one especially since the costs are much higher than a single band ‘n’ model. In the process I’ve learned a lot more about bandwidths and the pro’s and con’s of 2.4GHz versus a 5GHz band. I didn’t know the draft ‘n’ specification includes both radio frequency bands; furthermore, it doesn’t necessarily require operation on both. Yes, that means it could be either one and this is of course pretty important to connecting a transmitter with a receiver (networking). I’ve also learned that there aren’t many 5GHz ‘n’ products on the market if there are any at all.  Let me Google that for you.  I’ve also learned that the promise of a 5GHz HOV styled expressway for wirelessness is in reality less than fantastic in that the higher bandwidth 5GHz doesn’t penetrate through walls as well nor go quite as far as 2.4GHz.

Here’s some more 5GHz food for thought – http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ou/?p=411

The next ongoing discovery was that Linksys (and others aka NetGear do the same) sells and promotes their simultaneous “dual band” expensive high-margin router (WRT610n) promising the ability to get better HD video streaming and online gaming performance on the relatively empty 5GHz band versus the crowded 2.4GHz band. …that sounds great The hollow and empty promise truth is that Linksys doesn’t sell a single 5GHz N network adapter (WMP300N is 2.4GHz) except for notebooks; you aren’t going to be throwing a simple adapter into that gaming rig box at your or your boy’s desk. That’s right and you are probably now connecting the dots. …all hype and no delivery Worse yet, you cannot easily find what band their “N” adapter offerings operates at (whether 2.4GHz or 5GHz); at least not from any of the product literature, spec sheets, and packaging that I’ve looked over (some mfg’s do provide this). Lacking a desired decent desktop adapter card, your only option then is to purchase another 5 GHz router and use it as a bridge with its wired ports.  In fact this is kinda what NetGear is selling as a “kit”.

bah humbug!  …this is one frustrated & frequency fatigued shopper