COMDEX: Proxim's Skyline 802.11a Wireless Gadgets

As Omid mentioned in his Comdex Day 0 article , it's weird that 802.11b at 11Mbits hit the streets before 802.11b at a much more acceptable 54Mbit/72Mbits (not to mention using a naming convention that's bound to confuse the masses). So, if you're thinking about moving to a wireless network for your home or small office, you're probably better off waiting for the faster technology to become cheaper. Just rest assured that the minute you buy into it, something faster will come along. It always does, and it's almost as though tech advances are designed to keep us smarty pants geeks humble. Proxim's new Skyline 802.11a compliant family of wireless products include the Skyline 802.11a CardBus Card and Access Point, both of which feature Proxim's 2X mode, which is supposed to give you connection speeds up to 108 Mbps. Skyline says its 802.11a products aren't affected by interference from devices like microwave ovens, cordless phones, Bluetooth devices, and nearby aging 802.11b wireless LANs, since they operate in the 5 GHz band. They also support eight non-overlapping channels to increase bandwidth. The Proxim Skyline 802.11a CardBus Card is an 802.11a-compliant adapter for Windows notebook computers running Windows 98SE/ME/2000/XP. Macintosh support is planned for the first quarter of 2002 (won't they be gone by then?). Both products are based on the AR5000 wireless LAN chipset from Atheros Communications. The Skyline 802.11a CardBus Card and Access Point will be available in December at list prices of $179 and $449 respectively. But what about our clunky old desktop computers?