Gossip

Delay to launch 11g equipment - bugs in boxes?

Word leaks out that a big launch of 802.11g (preliminary) wireless equipment planned for next week, has been postponed. There is also gossip suggesting problems with the firmware, or perhaps the hardware ...

We know of one hardware reviewer who has tested an 11g access point and card - only to discover that it actually doesn't work as well as his old 802.11b equipment.

Buffalo (Melko) is already shipping a Broadcom based AP/router - and this has already been upgraded since launch, with new firmware now being supplied.

Other product brands are waiting for final release, and our tester says there have been serious problems with his sample.

"It won't allow an old 11b WiFi client to connect at all; and at a range where 11b is working fine, the 11g equipment just scrambles the signal, and can't maintain an IP connection," he told us. "It's clearly a dud - what I can't tell, is how many such duds they've been turning out."

Coincidentally, a couple of 11g manufacturers have revealed plans to launch, only to pull the date, and move it two weeks or more into the future.

Test samples from Melko/Buffalo and Linksys are already with reviewers, and Apple is promising samples of its new Airport Extreme shortly, too. But word from the silicon side of the business, back in November, suggested that products would be shipping openly by now.

"Generally, most gear in for review has worked OK. The really worrying thing is: how are users going to be treated, if they report problems? It's taken a supplier three days to admit that our test sample isn't working; they pretty much made us re-install everything several times first," commented one labs worker.