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In the "who's who" of the wireless LAN industry, you'll likely find Lucent Technologies near the top of the list. Hot on the heels of Aironet Wireless Communications' 4800 series, Lucent is presenting its own high-speed wireless LAN system, the WaveLAN/IEEE Turbo PC Card. Supporting a raw data rate of 11 Mbps, the WaveLAN/IEEE Turbo blows the doors off the vendor's earlier standard 2-- Mbps IEEE 802.11 WaveLAN offering, achieving single-station FTP throughput nearly four times faster.
Although I initially experienced some performance problems with the dual-card accesspoint architecture, I easily resolved them by installing high-- gain antennas. And despite this concern, I think the product will generate significant interest, particularly among you WaveLAN users; the WaveLAN/IEEE Turbo will be an easy, cost-effective upgrade.
I prefer the flexibility of the Aironet PC Card's removable antenna to Lucent's fixed-antenna configuration. I also like Aironet's pledge of firmware upgradability to the new IEEE 802.11 high-speed standard due later this year. However, in light of the Lucent PC Card's $495 price tag-$100 lower than that of the competition-Aironet has a worthy competitor.
Hold on to Your Propellers I tested a beta version of the WaveLAN/IEEE Turbo in our Syracuse University Real-World Labs. Because I had a Lucent WavePOINT II Access Point (AP) in...