MIMO

Absolutely no difference whatsoever. It's a SALES term used to make people think it will be better. People replacing badly configured or malfunctioning equipment will say it is better, but they would say that no matter what they plugged in to correct the problems! In a test side by side there was NO difference, people that sell often lie and take out huge campaigns in the hope that people will fall for advertising. Nothing will increase speed beyone the limitations of the wireless specification. The only thing that increases range is more power, high gain/directional aerial or different arrangemet of aerials to increase the signal in one or two directions. A bit of software can't do anything to RF power or radiation patterns, unless it was to have a number of aerials and transmit in the direction of best reception, which would slow the router down severely.

: >

: Absolutely no difference whatsoever. It's a SALES term used to make people : think it will be better. People replacing badly configured or : malfunctioning equipment will say it is better, but they would say that no : matter what they plugged in to correct the problems! : In a test side by side there was NO difference, people that sell often lie : and take out huge campaigns in the hope that people will fall for : advertising. : Nothing will increase speed beyone the limitations of the wireless : specification. The only thing that increases range is more power, high : gain/directional aerial or different arrangemet of aerials to increase the : signal in one or two directions. : A bit of software can't do anything to RF power or radiation patterns, : unless it was to have a number of aerials and transmit in the direction of : best reception, which would slow the router down severely.

That answer is bullshit and should be ignored. MIMO software doesn't claim to "do anything to RF power or radiation patterns"; it simply exploits the way the radiation patterns behave in response to the conditions that prevail in a given transmission path. It has been shown to have some positive effect by people more knowledgeable in such things than any of us probably are.

That said, there are certainly factors that limit the effectiveness of MIMO. The most obvious is that the access point and the computer's wireless interface are designed to work together, so you have to buy a particular manufacturer's wireless card to get the benefit. And MIMO technology is in its infancy and therefore poorly understood. A particular design may work well under some conditions and provide no benefit whatever under others.

I've bought a few MIMO routers, but only because they support channel hopping, while competing non-MIMO routers in the same price range don't (or didn't at the time).

"og54" hath wroth:

Review of various MIMO products:

Comparison of MIMO versus beam forming technology with test results: Also:

802.11n (MIMO) draft standard tests:

Yea, Ian is a dolt.