i have a Netgear 54g wireless access point that i connect my latest 12" PowerBook and windows print server to wirelessly.

my friend brought his old 15" PowerBook which only has 802.11b wireless, it could not connect to the access point at all. not even as an open network with no security what so ever, he was running OSX server on it, we updated everything just to make sure, but still couldnt connect, could see the AP, couldnt connect though.

i dont have any other 802.11b cards to test the AP, the AP is meant to mix environments or at least if there is an 11b machine on it will slow everything down to that. just trying to work out if it was hist powerbook or my AP.

any ideas?

does the netgear have a setting that switches on/off 11b compatibility? I know the airport base stations do...

When you say 'AP' what are you referring to?

Because, as said above, you need to ensure that the Netgear basestation is set to operate a mixed envronment, and not G-only.

Anyway, hope this works out for you.

it has the option for "g", "b" and "g and b"

it is set to g and b at the moment, i didnt get a chanve to try it on only b.

when i say AP i mean Access Point, its whta they are most commonly called, on OCAU and most computer stores call them AP's as well.

What's your model of the AP?
Netgear products are generally good with their own devices from my experiences,
and first of my moves is to get the latest firmware for the AP.
It might solve the problem.

In theory, Wifi-g standard goes on the same spectrum of b. It just goes faster but some manufacture's specifications do gives "g" the priority due to a protection mechanism in the g standards, thus shutting out "b" devices trying to get into the network.

Although you may have allowed "b" and "g", it may be the current firmware of your AP is not totally "correct". If you want, give the firmware a try.

No promises as like all firmware updates, there are risks. run a google on your model and see if there are others with the same problem as you.

My friend experienced a phenomenon once where his 802.11g network was running at 802.11b because one machine did.

The AP made everything else run on 11Mbps instead of 54Mbps.

This was just an observation though.

Steve

There are a few AP's out there with dual antennas that can operate at b and g speeds simultaneously. Most operate at the speed of the slowest connected computer however, which usually means b.

I do think it works like the old modem bbs days
the slowest modem rules the p2p connection!! LOL!!

:lol:

I did read it somewhere about b will slow down the entire wifi network
and if it follows the old modem rules, every device in the network
would be forced to go on the slower speed. tat is IF the b device gets
access into the network.

yep. Whenever a b device connects the whole network is forced to run in b mode. Anyone with a g connections will have their bandwidth chopped

hmm, can anyone recommend a AP that has dual antennas for both B and G mixed at the same time?

i have seen quite a few but none have given details to how they work when it comes to mixing.

matt
if its for home use
its not worth the money even if there is such device..
besides, if your network is fairly new, and only have a few devices.
you can go ahead and buy all g standards. how many devices are potentiallly b
all the time??

Frankly speaking, unless u are doing huge file transfer
the speed differences is insignificant. I have only used b standards.
if speed is really the issue, the best way is still wired networks aka ethernet cables.

Well, best thing to do is visit one of our sponsors here at Appletalk.

The internet speed you have will not be effected by the speed of the network because the fastest net connection for home use (1500Kbps) is still 10 times slower then the 802.11b standard.

It will be more important when considering large file transfer between two or more computers.

If I have to do that, I use firewire anyway.

Judging by the responses since I posted last, then it is true. The network will run as slow or fast as the slowest node. Most WAP's that support both 8011b and g will run in mixed mode.

Mine is a Linksys WAP54G which supports both, which I need because the ibook is Airport (802.11b) and I have a Linksys WMP54G running inside my G4 450Mhz tower...great!!! its 802.11g in an old mac.

Steve

thanks all, and my net connection is bigpond cable, which on average from a good server is 400-600KB/s, got 1200KB/s once or twice. so thats why i dont really want it to slow down. and my friends all have laptops with 11b wifi

oh well... not a big drama. thanks all anyway

1200KB/s will be theoretically the maximum transfer speed with 802.11b. Which is still fine, considering you average 400 - 600KB/s

I assume you mean Kilobytes? or Kilobits, very big difference.

Steve

It's definately less than the speed of the 802.11b connection. Australia's broadband services are quite backwards compared to some places, there's nothing in Australia that will be bottlenecked by the 802.11b standard short of a commercial site installation that nobody would have at home