Subject: Re: Wireless @ D.C. IETF

From: Stuart Cheshire <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 12 Oct 1999 13:45:01 -0700

>I'll give you a free Wireless Access Point(10BaseT to wireless ethernet 
>bridge) and a PCMCIA Wireless NIC if you can provide a functioning
>driver by 8:00am on Sunday Nov. 6th for one of the following platforms
>
>MacOS (PowerPC, Open Transport 1.0 or higher)
>...

I fear you will have trouble finding anyone to do the Mac version. Apple 
already has IEEE 802.11 (DS) at 11Mb/s, and the price is only $99 for the 
card and $299 for the Ethernet/Wireless/Modem base station. Starting with 
this summer's new Macs, they all have dual antennas built in to the 
plastics, so you get much better signal strength and you don't have 
inconvenient little dongles hanging out the side of the computer.

Anyone with the necessary skills to write your driver would probably be 
able to afford $400 to buy their own hardware.

On a related note, Apple sells about six million machines a year, and the 
$99 wireless option is reported to be very popular. Don't underestimate 
the effect that this will have in establishing a de-facto standard for 
wireless LANs. Once 11Mb/s wireless networking gets established at a $99 
retail price-point, it won't easily be displaced until we have something 
that's a lot faster, or a lot cheaper, or both. 10Mb/s Ethernet was 
around for more than a decade before people finally made the switch to 
100Mb/s.

Stuart Cheshire <[email-masked]>
 * <A HREF="http://ResComp.Stanford.EDU/~cheshire/">Web Page</A>
 * Wizard Without Portfolio, Apple Computer

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From: Brian Lloyd <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 12 Oct 1999 16:24:28 -0700

At 01:45 PM 10/12/99 -0700, Stuart Cheshire <[email-masked]> wrote:
>card and $299 for the Ethernet/Wireless/Modem base station. 

And while not trying to plug our company's products, the Lucent WaveLAN
PCMCIA card already comes with drivers for MacOS.  Please support 802.11
DSSS and people with Macs don't need a special driver written.

Brian Lloyd                                    Lucent Technologies
[email-masked]                                3461 Robin Lane, Suite 1
http://www.livingston.com                      Cameron Park, CA  95682
+1.530.676.6513 - voice                        +1.530.676.3442 - fax

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From: Brian Lloyd <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 12 Oct 1999 16:24:28 -0700

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From: [email-masked] (Jim Thompson)
Date: Wed, 13 Oct 1999 10:57:15 -0500

Stuart Cheshire writes:
> Don't underestimate the effect that this will have in establishing a
> de-facto standard for wireless LANs. Once 11Mb/s wireless networking
> gets established at a $99 retail price-point, it won't easily be
> displaced until we have something that's a lot faster, or a lot
> cheaper, or both.

While I appalaud Apple's lead here, Apple isn't the only notebook
manufacturer to have suddenly gained clue about 802.11 high-rate.
Dell has announced a relationship with Aironet, and other major
manufacturers will also soon announce 802.11 DS 11Mbps bundles.  

(NDAs prevent me from revealing 'who'.)

Nokia announced their 11Mbps 802.11 product yesterday.

Intercil's website quotes their "Prism II" chipset at $36.04 for all 5
chips.  Prices will fall to $100 (or less), and the market will reject
the slower solution.

My offer of a 'loan' of 802.11 DS (high-rate) access points stands.
If the IETF prefers, I'll find a way to get half a dozen of these
donated to the IETF for use at its meetings.  

-- 
"Pain is temporary.  Glory is forever."

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From: [email-masked] (Jim Thompson)
Date: Wed, 13 Oct 1999 10:57:15 -0500