Apple's 802.11n Wireless Standard

Apple has made another great step in what wireless connection hardware is concerned. Apple wireless routers will use the new 802.11n standard (not yet finalized), a descendent of the 2003 faster 802.11g and the elder '99 802.11b, the first wireless networking standard to go mainstream.

The team at ComputerWorld analyzed thoroughly Apple's latest Airport Extreme base station. It has a newly designed flat Mac Mini Look and it adopts the new Wi-Fi 802.11n standard that will deliver better transfer range and faster speed of transfer. Apple is also "making a foray into home storage networks with its new base station", wrote those at ComputerWorld.

The '99 802.11b can offer a theoretical maximum speed of 11Mbit/sec and a range of about 150 feet. The 2003 802.11g could deliver about five times that maximum speed, 54Mbit/sec, and a wider range of coverage. Apple says this new wireless networking standard will be five times faster and will cover double the range of its predecessor.

Apple's new hardware device will also be able to use 802.11a networking, which is more common in enterprises, and has a built-in NAT firewall and three 10/100 Ethernet LAN ports.

Now you can connect by USB a hard drive to your Airport Extreme base station and create a permanent storage repository that can be accessed by wireless connection. The team at ComputerWorld thinks this hard drive should enable you to back up your files by using the Leopard-announced Time Machine.

The editors say this may as well be the beginning of a home storage networks trend, but we'll have to see if their premonitions will become a fact. For more detailed information, see the article at ComputerWorld.