Wednesday, January 5, 2005

Linksys Speeds Wireless LAN Equipment

Irvine-based Linksys announced new products yesterday which the company claims provides eight times the throughput for standard 802.11g equipment and three times the range. Linksys, a division of Cisco, said that its new line of Wireless-G (802.11g) products use Multiple In, Multiple Out (MIMO) technology to achieve the performance increase. The new product line includes a new wireless router (WRT54GX) and associated PC card (WPC54GZ) which the company says can provide faster wireless throughput, reduce dead spots, and increase wireless range over standard 802.11g networks. The new MIMO technology is part of the upcoming 802.11n standard, and uses multiple wireless radios and antennas to provide the increase in range and throughput. The router provides an integrated router, 4-port 10/100 switch, and Linksys SRX (Speed and Range eXpansion)-enhanced 802.11g access with firewall and authentication. Linksys claims compatibility with all 802.11b/g products.