NETGEAR hits the street with tri-mode a/b/g card

NETGEAR today WAG511 Dual Band 802.11a/b/g Wireless PC Card . The card was announced last week together with a tri-mode access point and router and is based on Atheros' AR5001X chipset.

Last week's announcement said that the street price of the card would be around $129 , but it appears that on-line pricing is coming in around $105 . NETGEAR said a future firmware update will allow the card to support an 11g "Turbo" mode that will provide a 108Mbps maximum raw data rate. This proprietary mode is similar to the 802.11a "Turbo" mode supported in Atheros-based 802.11a products, and is not part of either the 802.11a or 11g standards.

Although the availability of the tri-mode card is certainly a first, NETGEAR is behind on delivering draft-11g access points and routers. The announcement did not say when the tri-mode AP or routers that were also announced last week would be available. Nor has NETGEAR's Intersil-based WG602 draft-11g Access Point shown up in the retail channel yet either.

Early adopters will most likely be trying out the WAG511 with Broadcom-based products from Linksys or Buffalo Technology . This will give the interoperability of Atheros' design a good workout!