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Two, Two, Two Base Stations in One


Linksys today announced it is shipping the Instant Wireless Dual-Band Wireless Access Point (WAP51AB), combining two wireless access points into one to communicate with both 802.11a and 802.11b wireless network devices. As we noted last week, the newer 802.11a format (as opposed to 802.11b, which current Apple Airport products support) operates in the 5GHz band, so it is immune to interference from technologies like Bluetooth, portable phones, and microwaves, that all have to share the 2.4GHz band with 802.11b. 802.11a also offers five times the data transfer rate. At US$299, Linksys’ access point looks like a better buy than Apple’s Airport Base Station, since it won’t leave you out in the cold as 802.11a becomes the new standard, and yes, Linksys supports the Mac. At press time, their website had not been updated to show the new product.

By Jason O'Grady

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