cross compatiblity of wireless.... B and G?
 

someone i know bought a device with a wireless B palmpilot and was hoping to use it on a new wireless network being installed on campus later this year... he was told that the network is going to be wireless G i think... since nobody nows what they are doing on campus, they told him it wouldnt work and that he would have to return it and buy a new palm pilot... soo thats what he was planning on doing... i recently talked to someone else who knows what he is talking about, and said it would work, i trust his judgement, but i figured i might as post to be sure





the network will be uber-secure and G, the palm is a T | X and it says 802.11b...


http://www.palm.com/us/products/hand...x/wireless.epl





soo does anyone have any input for me about this? will this work?

G device works on both G and B networks
B device only works on B networks

you mean G networks work with both G and B devices?

A B device works with only a B network, whereas a G device will work with both.

B devices will work with other B devices, or with G devices that allow mixed access. However there's no requirement that G devices allow mixed. It's up to the admin.

If the campus access points are G, they certainly could allow access to B devices, and in that setting it would be somewhat silly not to, but there's no way to know without trying.

Edit: I missed the "uber-secure" part. That may be the obstacle. If they require WPA encryption or an advanced authentication method then his old palm may be out of luck. Security and support headaches from shoe-horning old devices are valid reasons a G network wouldn't allow B devices. I'd find the actual connection spec before buying anything.

I don't think I've come across anything yet that allows for mixed access - I've only seen client-side doodads that can pick up B and G.

I suppose it would work, I just haven't seen the soft option yet.

it's up to the network if it allows B devices, but it's usually not a problem

Yeah, the issue probably isn't the B-to-G compatibility. It's the encryption and security. There currently (well... last I looked, which was a few months ago) isn't a WPA client for the Palm desktop. If they're using WEP encryption (which wouldn't classify as "secure", let alone "uber-"), it wouldn't be a problem.

the networking people have since jumped into the situation and are going to test it on the equiptment that is going up soon... as for uber secure, the networking people are really tight about who's allowed on and stuff... the current network is WEP and requires the MAC address to be registered with it beforehand.... and knowing the people, i can only imagine that they will find some crazy new way of securing it....

You can certainly config a wireless router to allow mixed access - here is a screen shot of my linksys, with the specific drop down selector...

http://members.optusnet.com.au/djmwork/allowMixed.jpg

What cyrnel and spindles said. G networks don't have to allow B devices, and G-only cards wont work on a B network. That said, I've only seen a couple of G-only cards--most support at least B, and often A. But we've had a couple of people come in with wireless problems that ended up being because they had a G only card that wouldn't work on the campus B network. The cards were always no-name cheap pieces of junk though--I don't think I've ever seen a major name card that didn't include B access as well.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...Sty/nomode.jpg

*shrug*

that linksys tool thing is alot fancier than microsofts, but i'm not a fan of that ugly purple! :D



http://www.arbybean.com/ar/images/management.jpg