The wireless market has expanded far and wide from the days of old 802.11b. Now, not only do we have 802.11g products, but many vendors have used proprietary technology to boost those speeds far above the basic 802.11g. Unfortunately, this throws the interoperability idea of a standard out the window. For those individuals that purchased laptops or other items which work with the “g” standard, proprietary transmission protocols are worthless. Why spend money on technology you really don’t need or can’t even use?

Not every company is doing this; some like Actiontec have decided to focus on the standard, and only the standard. This means that if you have purchased an 802.11g product, then it will work with an 802.11g router. There is no need to troubleshoot settings and switches within the router just so can browse the internet from your laptop. Simple and to the point - or at least that is what I am told. For just this reason I have in front of me three of Actiontec’s wireless G products: the Cable/DSL router, USB wireless adaptor, and PCMCIA notebook card.