4. January 2012 by admin.

The relatively new WLAN spec for 802.11n makes many promises… faster speeds, farther reach, stronger connections, more secure… well, maybe.

The new frequencies lie somewhere within the 5 GHz band.  Why do I say “somewhere”?  Because this new “standard” uses a technology called DFS which stands for Dynamic Frequency Selection. In essence the channel can be automatically changed to avoid interference.  Sounds good huh? … well, maybe.

Does 5 GHz sound familiar to some of you?  That may be because it is also where all 12 channels of the three “Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure” (UNII) 5 GHz bands live. That’s also where my cordless phone calls home.  The U.S. military sometimes runs in 5 GHz as does weather radar and others. Starting to sound a little crowded?

So it falls to the equipment vendors to develop their offerings in such a way as to avoid these problems… well, maybe.

The vendor must get its products that use DFS, certified by the FCC for use in 5.25 to 5.35 GHz and 5.47 to 5.725 GHz ( painfully close to my 5.8 GHz phone system). If not, they have to block those channels, which means you won’t have access to the whole available block of frequencies.

You probably won’t want to run important applications on the UNII-2 bands because these are the areas where DFS channel changing may be an ongoing problem for your location. This is going to result in a lot of delays and an unreliable wireless network.  Some systems actually have to reboot after traffic has been switched to a different location in the electromagnetic spectrum.

So yeah… it’s going to be cool…. maybe.  Check things out carefully before you toss a lot of cash into any particular deployment strategy.

Good Luck and Good Networking.

From down in the trenches,  I’m Tom

Posted in DFS, 802.11n, FCC, WLAN, Wireless, Networking, Troubleshooting, Computers | Print | No Comments »

4. January 2012 by admin.

I just read that Windows XP lost more than 11 percent of its market share from September to December 2011, dropping to an average of 46.5 percent in December.  It is estimated that Windows 7 will surpass XP installations sometime in April of 2012.  Is the reason for this because people honestly believe XP is old school? From my experience, I seriously doubt it. Most likely the driving force is Microsoft itself and their announcement that XP support will be ending soon.  ( April of 2014 qualifies as soon?) That should be enough to get corporate America looking at the next best OS, which without question is Windows 7, but assuming the Mayans are wrong and we are still here on the planet in 2014, I would wager there will still be a large group of XP users ( more than 10%)who would rather fight than switch.

Other driving forces (again Microsoft) is the dead end for XP users who prefer Internet Explorer. Since IE9 won’t run on XP its users are forced to use an alternate browser or upgrade to Win 7.

I do Like XP and always have, but in my personal opinion, Windows 7 is the best operating system Microsoft has developed to date.  From what I hear about Windows 8, it is trying to be all things to all people and that just won’t fly with serious users and corporate I.T. departments. Vista? Bah ! The modern incarnation of Windows ME!  A waste of electrons.

Stick with XP for as long as you want. Networking Delaware (http://www.networkingdelaware.com ) will support you for as long as possible.  When Microsoft stops releasing security updates it will behoove you and I to retire XP for good, but until that day… stand fast if you like XP… don’t be bullied!

Posted in Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows ME, Windows XP, OS's, Networking, Patches, Operating Systems, Computers | Print | No Comments »