N is the watchword, or, rather, the watch-letter, for newer WiFi equipment. And while the current gen is still officially a "draft" standard, PC World reports that interoperability isn't a problem. Instead, the problem is that mixing and matching makes your network slow as a slug, and that some products are simply junk. Plus ça change.
Rounding up the current crop of routers and corresponding host adapters, mixing and matching in order to create a panoramic view of the marketplace, Becky Waring writes that everything worked at short range, with throughput maxing out at 130 Mbps, but often pitching as low as 6-35 Mbps when different makes were paired off. Noting a correspondence between antenna count and bandwidth, Becky recommends the Buffalo and D-Link models—with PC cards from the same make and model range, whichever you choose.
New Wi-Fi Draft Ensures Compatibility [PC World]
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