PC World's latest results on product reliability and service show "average" is the standard for Wi-Fi: The race to the bottom and commoditization of Wi-Fi consumer products are taking their toll. No Wi-Fi maker stood out as above average in any category of reliability that PC World put in front of its survey takers. In struggling to make equipment work in my daily reviewing, testing, and operations, I find reliability to be lacking. Gateways at home and work need to be regularly rebooted even with no configuration changes. Manuals are versions out of date (even in downloadable PDF form) and lack critical terms. Devices don't function quite as promised, but they do function.
A friend recently spent six hours wrestling one day with configuring two devices (an AP and a gateway) from a bestselling maker the name of which shall be withheld. Several hours into it, he checked the firmware. The mail-order firm, also reliable, had shipped him one unit with a 2003 firmware image. Upgrading firmware helped a bit, but the two-unit system kept crashing. Finally, he figured out one problem after a tech support call with a tired sub-continental woman who answered every question with, "Sure, why not?" Setting the AP to "wireless repeater" instead of "wireless client" resolved the problem. His investment? At least 10 hours total.
If you want to be depressed about the state of the electronics industry, read the overall scorecard: No winners in their desktop and wireless gateways category, and sometimes multiple losers on the other side of the equation.
I see Apple is not listed in the PC World survey. If memory serves, Apple's AirPort units came out on top in a similar survey not too long ago. I wonder why Apple units weren't in the survey group, since Apple does sell a ton of AirPort and AirPort Express hardware for both Mac and PC users.
[Editor's note: It looks like the survey is somewhat user driven, so they only list items that a statistically significant number of users are working with. Apple is no longer a significant Wi-Fi source for non-Mac users because of the large price disparity: $50 to $80 for full-featured 802.11g gateways versus $200 for the AirPort Extreme that is missing many gateway features despite a few unique items and a great interface. --gf]
It's not all that bad!
How is this for a mixed-up setup:
I'm writing this on a Zaurus c1000 Linux PDA with an AmbiCom WL1100C-CF Wi-Fi adapter. This card worked out of the box. No need to install a driver. It connects to my DSL line thru an Apple Airport Express (AP) hanging from a Linksys BEFSR41 Cable/DSL Router.
Regards, Klaus Ernst