Purchasing Pre-N

[grapes911]

I've heard in many different threads people ask about purchasing pre-n routers. I also heard people wondering when Apple will include 802.11n cards in their computers.

I for one have always held the position that I want to wait until the standard gets closer to being ratified. Many agree with me. Many others believe that a software or firmware upgrade will take pre-n routers and make them conform to the n standard when it is ratified.

It seems that even router manufactures are split on this issue.

So is the current 11n gear safe to buy?

Vivek Pathela, Netgear's marketing vice president, said performance and compatibility testing is going well, and so far he has been able to fix problems with software tweaks. Even so, he's careful to add a caveat.

"I cannot say that we can upgrade to something that we don't even have," he said.

I still say be careful when purchasing pre-n technologies. You may or may not get stuck with equipment that doesn't work with the next generation of wireless.

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/wireless/0,70806-0.html