Rodent Regatta

TERMINOLOGY IS THE KEY TO UNDERSTANDING

Paradigm? No, pair of standards: The change by the Wi-Fi Alliance two weeks ago to their Wi-Fi trademark certifying interoperability represents a challenge for the re-education of journalists and users. I’ve used Wi-Fi generically for almost two years, as it was a simpler and friendlier way to say 802.11b while implicitly discussing interoperable 802.11b equipment. The Wi-Fi Alliance made the right choice, in my opinion, but certainly muddies the waters. You can no longer say, ”Wi-Fi operates at 11 Mbps.” You can say, ”802.11b operates at 11 Mbps” or ”The 2.4 GHz certified flavor of Wi-Fi operates at 11 Mbps.” [80211b News]