On Wednesday D-Link became the first to offer an update to its 802.11n Wi-Fi gear bringing the industry one step closer to more reliable and higher-speed Wi-Fi access.
D-Link says if you own one of its draft 802.11n D-Link Xtreme N products you can download an update based on the draft 2 of the 802.11n standard. Here is a link to D-Link's support page where you can get the update.
The 802.11n standard promises theoretical maximum speeds of up to 300 megabits per second, compared to 54 mbps for its predecessor, 802.11g, and 11 mbps for the original 802.11b standard. The draft 802.11n update was agreed upon by the engineers charged with developing the IEEE's 802.11n Wi-Fi standard in February.
PC World has been told by a number of major networking gear makers that updates for their hardware to the 802.11n draft 2 specification will be available as soon as this summer.
Update to Boost Interoperability
As my colleague Yardena Arar has previously reported the update is good news for people who had either already invested in Wi-Fi products based on the initial draft of 802.11n or have been holding off on buying draft-n products in anticipation of more stable and compatible products.
While agreement on the final 802.11n standard is a long way off, vendors told PC World in February the 802.11n draft 2 finally settles issues that have made for iffy interoperability and significant performance differences between products based on the original draft-n chips from different vendors.
D-Link products compatible with the 2.0 802.11n draft 2.0 update are:
D-Link Xtreme N Gigabit Router - DIR-655
D-Link Xtreme N PCI Express Desktop Adapter - DWA-556
D-Link Xtreme N Notebook ExpressCard - DWA-643
D-Link Xtreme N Desktop Adapter - DWA-552
D-Link Xtreme N Notebook Adapter - DWA-652
Upgrades for remaining draft 802.11n D-Link products are expected within months.
I just visited the D-Link site and the support site for my DIR-655 router and there is nothing on their site about this upgrade.