11b and 11g question

[dbvegeta39]

stupid question, when there is an 802.11b device on an 801.11g AP or router will the other 802.11g device's be lowered to the speed of that one 802.11b device? thanks.

[Phoenix]

Depends on whose chipset is in the AP. In the simplest case where no throughput enhancement mechanisms are enabled, the 802.11b and 802.11g devices will all have the same throughput (Although the 802.11g devices are transmitting faster).
With throughput enhancement software the 802.11g devices will transmit more data packets at a time and have a higher throughput than the 802.11b devices.

Read the following for more information: http://www.intersil.com/design/prism/prismGT/PRISMNITRO.pdf

[dbvegeta39]

what can anyone tell me about the chipset in a wireless linksys router/AP? all i know is that its made by broadcom. does it have the same ablitys as the Prism Nitro chipset, in the area of mixed networks? -thanks again

[Phoenix]

No. The Broadcom chipset doesn't have any throughput enhancement. In fact it doesn't even use the protection mechanism correctly as required by the 802.11g specification. In mixed mode (b and g) it will perfom like crap.

[dbvegeta39]

After more research it seem that linksys has released a firmware update that complies with the final .11g standard as of 6/23 which has the CTS protection. but still no mention of any throughput enhancements or performance increases. if any one is curious http://www.linksys.com/download/vertxt/wrt54g_ver.txt