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DSL-G624T Wireless A DSL Router User’s Guide
About 802.11g Wireless
Today's 11-megabits-per-second 802.11b wireless networks are fine for broadband Internet access (which typically tops
out at about 1 mbps) but rather slow for large internal file transfers or streaming video. However, 54-mbps, corporate-
oriented 802.11a is expensive--and because its radio uses the 5-GHz band and 802.11b uses the 2.4-GHz band,
upgrading to an 802.11a network means either scrapping 802.11b gear or buying even-pricier hardware that can support
both standards.
But 802.11g promises the same speed as 802.11a and the ability to coexist with 802.11b equipment on one network,
since it too uses the 2.4-GHz band.
802.11g is an extension to 802.11b, the basis of many wireless LANs in existence today. 802.11g will broaden
802.11b's data rates to 54 Mbps within the 2.4 GHz band using OFDM (orthogonal frequency division multiplexing)
technology. Because of backward compatibility, an 802.11b radio card will interface directly with an 802.11g access
point (and vice versa) at 11 Mbps or lower depending on range. You should be able to upgrade the newer 802.11b
access points to be 802.11g compliant via relatively easy firmware upgrades.
Similar to 802.11b, 802.11g operates in the 2.4GHz band, and the transmitted signal uses approximately 30MHz, which
is one third of the band. This limits the number of non-overlapping 802.11g access points to three, which is the same as
802.11b.
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