From: "Lewis G Rosenthal" Received: from [192.168.100.201] (account lgrosenthal HELO [10.99.79.73]) by 2rosenthals.com (CommuniGate Pro SMTP 5.1.16) with ESMTPSA id 2544876 for os2-wireless_users@2rosenthals.com; Fri, 19 Jun 2009 19:20:40 -0400 Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: SnapperMail 2.3.7.01 by Snapperfish To: "OS/2 Wireless Users Mailing List" Subject: Re: [OS2Wireless] Very basic wireless question Message-ID: <27592-SnapperMsg4EDDFFFDC661CDC7@[10.99.79.73]> In-Reply-To: References: Date: Fri, 19 Jun 2009 19:20:05 -0400 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit On Fri, 19 Jun 2009 15:49:25 -0700 "Mark Henigan" wrote: >I'm attempting to select a T43p and am concerned that >I don't really understand 802.11 compatibility. It is >obvious that a machine with 802.11abg hardware is >compatible with wireless connection points/routers/etc >that use any of these protocols. But, if a laptop is >stated to have only 802.11g would it be able to connect >to other hardware that was only 802.11b compatible, for >example? In otherwords, can the 802.11abg fall back to >the other protocols on its own, while the 802.11g would >depend on the other end of a connection to include its >protocol? > Hi, Mark. 802.11g is fully backward compatible with 802.11b. Thus while it is possible to configure an access point (access point, mind you, *not* usually a client card) to deny 802.11b clients (or even 802.11g clients), in order for the unit to be certified by the Wi-Fi Alliance as an 802.11g device it *must* have the capability of accepting 802.11b clients as well as 802.11g. So, any client card which states that it is 802.11g is - by definition - also 802.11b compatible (same radio; in the 2.4GHz spectrum, and both utilize the exact same channels). 802.11a is another matter. This uses a different frequency altogether, in the 5GHz band, and as such utilizes a completely separate radio. HTH!! ___ Lewis G Rosenthal Rosenthal & Rosenthal, LLC Sent with SnapperMail