Anyone Try Ruckus?

snipped-for-privacy@nospam.com hath wroth:

I prefer Airgo based products. Ruckus was formerly Video54. Their "BeamFlex" technology is basically a smart antenna that figures out where to put the peaks and the nulls and avoid inteference. It's used by Buffalo, Linksys, and Netgear Gen 1 Rangemax. It's better than ordinary 802.11g, but not really the best. See comparison with other MIMO method at: |

MIMO product comparison (a bit old): |

Beam forming and beam steering have nothing to do with WDS. WDS is a a store and forward repeater system that can simultaneously act as a transparent bridge.

So it doesn't really work as advertised? I am thinking about a old house with plaster walls and three floors. From what you say I guess Ruckus can't cover this house without many many hop points and speed degradation.

snipped-for-privacy@nospam.com hath wroth:

Yep. Everybody lies, but that's ok because nobody listens. Did you read the article? |

Like I mumbled, RuckusWireless/Video54 beam switching[1] technology is not really a big improvement over ordinary 802.11g. I had a good laugh with the Netgear WPN824. The antenna is a flat circuit board with 7 switched antenna elements (with lots of flashing lights). That type of system really only works if the antenna were laid flat horizontally. Yet, Netgear supplied a vertical "tower" mounting legs, which negate all the beam switching benifits. Oh well.

Review of WPN824: |

pages long and well worth reading if you're interested in the technology. There are a few suprises, such as erratic performance in one direction. See the summary chart on page 19. "If you're using standard 11g gear, you may see some improvement, but little if upgrading from Super-G stuff."

All houses are different. Lath and plaster is fairly good at blockiing RF because of the water in the plaster. Some plaster is also laid over chicken wire which is also a bad idea. However, if the plaster is fairly thin, you might have a chance. The easiest way to tell is to do a "site survey". Borrow an ordinary 802.11g wireless router. No need for an internet connection. Locate it at a prospective position. Take a wireless laptop and walk around the house. You should have a good or excellent signal level anywhere you plan to use the wireless. It should a be a fairly stable signal, not a single amazingly strong peak at one small location. Use Netstumbler on a laptop for testing. Try different router locations and antenna configurations. If the router is at one end of a long house, try a reflector such as: |

guess(tm) is that you'll have problems going through the floors to the opposite end of the house.

[1] I'm not sure if RuckusWireless BeamFlex does beam switching or beam forming and am too lazy to check at the momement.