— I have some time on my hands, as my last employment opportunity ended a week after I broke my wrist, so I’ve decided to do a little analysis of WiFi chipsets currently shipping or sampling. Analysis of these things, and development of closely-related software, is what I do for a living, so this probably isn’t going to be total hogwash.
Here’s the list of the chipsets I’m going to look at:
Resonext
Xtreme Spectrum
Envara
Agere (chips only, due to Proxim deal)
Intersil
Texas Instruments
Atheros
Intel
Bermai
Channel Technologies
Please leave a comment if I’ve left out anybody important, excluding flim-flams, snake oil merchants, and vaporware dealers.
Aside from chipset reviews, I’m wondering how to create an 802.11 “relay” — actually a bridge I guess — so I can extend coverage of a network without having to run cables down range for placement of another 802.11 node. Am I making any sense?
One way to do what you want is with a passive wireless repeater – it’s like an antenna-booster that simply increases your range in a certain direction. See this post for details on how Bob Cringely did it.
do you have the technology to make a booster for wifi?
Actually a booster wouldnt be good enough unless there is one on both connections. Its a 2way conversation.