[ale] wireless lan that's not wifi?

[Stuffed Crust]

On Wed, Aug 25, 2004 at 06:43:10AM -0400, Geoffrey wrote:
> So I'm talking to this guy yesterday and he tells me there's this 
> wireless technology out there that can be used for networking and he 
> refers to it as 'wireless lan.'  Says it's not wifi and actually has 
> been around longer than wifi.  Can't be bluetooth.  So folks, anyone 
> know what this magical, mysterious technology is?

<de-lurk/>

Wi-Fi is actually a marketing term created by a group of manufacturers,
technically only covering 802.11b radios, although it does encompass
802.11g due to its backwards compatibility.  They've since exteneded the 
certification to the other letters of the alphabet soup.

IEEE802.11-1999 actually specified three physical layers with the 802.11 
protocol stack, 2.4GHz DSSS (which was extended to 802.11b and 
802.11g), 2.4GHz FH (Frequency Hopping), and even a spec for operation 
over an Infrared band.

There's also the old WaveLan Aviator cards that predate the 802.11 spec 
entirely, they were a competing "Standard" that didn't make the cut.  
Much like USR/Rockwell's 56K modem technologies.

But I digress.  I have a stack of 2Mbps 802.11 cards lying around at the 
office. including many FH cards that never really caugot on because of 
their higher price and complexity.  802.11b/g's exclusive use of DSSS vs 
FH pretty much signalled the end of the FH stuff.

Oh, there are also many things that operate in licensed spectrum, plus 
many things that work in the 900MHz spectrum.  Think older-school 
wireless ISPs, like the mostly defuncy Sprint Broadband.

 - Pizza
-- 
Solomon Peachy        				 ICQ: 1318344
Melbourne, FL 					 JID: pitha at myjabber.net
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur
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