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Wireless Networking Hardware

Wireless LAN Equipment Shipments Up 185

Posted by CmdrTaco from the no-surprise-here dept.
MrBounce writes "Worldwide shipments of wireless local-area network equipment increased by 120 percent in 2002 from a year ago. So who are the current market leaders in this field?"
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Wireless LAN Equipment Shipments Up More

Wireless LAN Equipment Shipments Up

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  • So? (Score:3, Funny)

    by mrklin ( 608689 ) <.ken.lin. .at. .gmail.com.> on Tuesday June 17, 2003 @03:53PM (#6226196)
    Worldwide population is also up in 2003 and we don't want to know who the most prolific producer is either.

    • Re:So? (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Worldwide population is also up in 2003 and we don't want to know who the most prolific producer is either.

      Utah

    • In other news... (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      In other news:

      - shipment of carburetors is down
      - shipment of 2400 baud modems is down
      - shipment of black and white televisions is down

      Duh!

      It is technology. It moves *forward*.

    • Re:So? (Score:2, Funny)

      by Mononoke ( 88668 )
      Worldwide population is also up in 2003 and we don't want to know who the most prolific producer is either.
      Why, it's FB-, of course. [fark.com]

  • Wireless (Score:4, Funny)

    by ikkonoishi ( 674762 ) on Tuesday June 17, 2003 @03:54PM (#6226206) Journal
    I wonder if the IP over avian carrier rfc would be included as a wireless protocol.
    • I don't believe this quite qualifies as no vendors produce hardware for this specific purpose.
    • > IP over avian carrier

      You mean pidgeons copied the SCO code from AIX to Linux?

    • Avian Carrier achttpd (Score:5, Funny)

      by macshune ( 628296 ) on Tuesday June 17, 2003 @04:11PM (#6226394) Journal
      SLASHDOT CITY--Slashdot.org has been brought up on animal cruelty charges because of an experiment involving the deaths of over 20,000 carrier pigeons.

      "We were just starting to test a new slashdot webserver using carrier pigeons. All of a sudden tens of thousands of anonymous cowards started posting, overwhelming the pigeons' bandwidth," said the Slashdot.org official on the condition of anonymity.

      The official said later that the pigeons somehow got malformed information (packets) and started crashing into each other, eventually resulting in their deaths.

      There were reports of a large, troll-like creature in the area as well, but so far those claims are unsubstantiated.


  • Security? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Jucius Maximus ( 229128 ) on Tuesday June 17, 2003 @03:55PM (#6226217) Journal
    So what percent of them have WEP disabled and SSID-broadcast enabled by default? Can I now wardrive to find 120% more open APs? Ironically, Microsoft branded routers are some of the few that do have WEP enabled out of the box.

    But these shipment numbers made sense. I bought both a wireless router [netgear.com] and AirPort card for my iBook this year.

    • Re:Security? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by thegameiam ( 671961 ) <thegameiam AT yahoo DOT com> on Tuesday June 17, 2003 @04:00PM (#6226258) Homepage
      it's funny - there are two approaches to Wireless:

      1) try to create wired-equivalent security, with WEP, et. al.
      This usually results in "security" which can be cracked by a persistent teenager in a car in under about 20 minutes.

      2) leave everything "open" and make sure that all security is host/application based. Treat the network as "untrusted"
      Personally, this is where I stand: I think that it works better, and people don't get any unrealistic impressions about the security of their connections.

      So I run a WISP which is built upon the latter model, in Washington DC. If someone wardrives and snoops some internet for an hour, fine! pleas don't attack the network itself, but feel free to surf the web :)

      -David Barak
      • So I run a WISP which is built upon the latter model, in Washington DC.

        Have you considered doing both? Then, any teenager who is persistent enough to crack the security should feel free to surf the web.

    • Re:Security? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by mhore ( 582354 ) on Tuesday June 17, 2003 @04:01PM (#6226270)
      So what percent of them have WEP disabled and SSID-broadcast enabled by default? Can I now wardrive to find 120% more open APs? Ironically, Microsoft branded routers are some of the few that do have WEP enabled out of the box.

      This is something I've been wondering ... I just don't know the answer. At home, I enabled WEP and disabled SSID-broadcast. I don't have much faith in WEP, but it's better than nothing, right? Anyway, with SSID-broadcast off, is my WLAN essentially invisible? Or could somebody "see" the packets still, and know something was there?

      Mike.

      • Re:Security? (Score:5, Informative)

        by pantherace ( 165052 ) on Tuesday June 17, 2003 @04:32PM (#6226553)
        Disabling SSID essentially only means that 100% listeners can't see it if someone isn't using it. However if someone is, then they can. SSID and WEP really have some big security holes. IPsec is very good compared to it. For SSID, if someone sees you (re)connect once it's lost, and can lead to breaking wep quite easily.

  • Rhyming headlines (Score:4, Funny)

    by donutz ( 195717 ) on Tuesday June 17, 2003 @03:57PM (#6226227) Homepage Journal
    Equipment Shipments?

    What other rhyming headlines can we expect?

    Stouter Routers available soon
    Software Can Plan your WLAN
    Take a look at this notebook?

    Name your suggestions!
  • I wonder just how much the proliferation of this technology, and that of the broadband Internet which makes it usefull for the household market, has been catalysed by free music's presence...

  • Details here .. (Score:5, Funny)

    by vivek7006 ( 585218 ) on Tuesday June 17, 2003 @03:59PM (#6226244) Homepage
    "Worldwide shipments of wireless local-area network equipment increased by 120 percent in 2002 from a year ago."

    RIAA has attributed this increase to an increasing sharing of music by *thieves* on the internet. SCO is claiming that the increase in the sale of wireless LAN equipment is primarily due to linux. Ans since linux has SCO's IP, SCO is planning to sue all the manufactures of wireless LAN.

  • Innovators pay the price of leadership (Score:5, Interesting)

    by BWJones ( 18351 ) on Tuesday June 17, 2003 @03:59PM (#6226250) Homepage Journal
    Boy, given that Apple was shipping wireless on their computers back in 1999, it is interesting to see that they don't seem to be represented here. It could be due to a small market share I suppose, but Apple has paid the price for leadership again and again by innovating and then everyone else jumping on board.

    • It could be due to a small market share I suppose

      ya think?

    • Re:Innovators pay the price of leadership (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward
      And given that wireless capabilities were avialable to PC users LONG BEFORE mac shipped with it built in what was your point? Oh right, as usual jobs clones have none, they just like to hear themselves talk.

    • Apple is just too small a player in wireless (Score:5, Informative)

      by sjbe ( 173966 ) on Tuesday June 17, 2003 @04:11PM (#6226388)
      It could be due to a small market share I suppose, but Apple has paid the price for leadership again and again by innovating and then everyone else jumping on board.

      Not really. Remember Apple only has a small (5%) market share in computers to begin with and their wireless gear generally is only sold to people who have Macs. And not everyone who has a Mac uses the wireless so the population is even smaller. It's not really surprising they wouldn't be near the top given how popular 802.11b has become.

      Plus Apple doesn't make their own wireless gear. They OEM it from others. Lucent at one point (still?) was the maker of some of their stuff if I recall. They were innovative in using it but they never really were the technology innovators here. They were just smart enough to realize that it was useful ahead of almost everyone else.

    • Don't you mean "Apple purchasers have paid twice the price for leadership again and again"

      I sure wish I could modify my settings to never again see Apple-weenies prostelizing about their choice in computers. They, as a collective group irritate the piss out of me.

      Come to market at the wrong time, and it's still the wrong time. Even if it is ahead of everybody else.
    • I paid $30 for a WLAN router and $20 for a wireless card a few weeks ago. Apple's Airport goes for $199 and the cards are $80-$100. Now, yes, the latest Airport goes to 802.11g, but, since you can't seem to get an 802.11b Airport anymore (at least directly from apple), so you're paying $199 whether you need 802.11g or not.

      Apple has paid the price for making their users pay their prices.

      • Given the lack of feature comparison between your $30 WLAN router $20 wireless card, and Apple goods, you'll allow me to further the logic (?) and consider the amount of labor involved.

        What you may or may not save in hardware, can easily be washed away in time. Finding an approriate set of drivers, etc. It all adds up, and as usual, easily overlooked. Not much benefit when those costs are factored in.

        Airport time to setup? Since the software is in the OS...insert card...cable to VDSL box..switch on...
        • Considering that there are no drivers needed for a router, and the SMC card came with drivers that installed fine on my laptop, your argument makes a nice bit of FUD, but doesn't work that way in real life. Nice try, though.

          As far as I can tell from the Apple site, there are no feature differences between my equipment and Apple's, except that my router will also run a LAN over ethernet as well as a WLAN.

  • Running cat-5 sucks...

  • In other news..... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by acidrain69 ( 632468 ) on Tuesday June 17, 2003 @04:00PM (#6226262) Journal
    Production of 2003 Volkswagon Beetles is up infinity% from last year! Incredible!

    Wireless is new. Since it didn't flop, of course they are going to manufacture more. Who cares if there was twice as much manufactured as last year? WHY IS THIS NEWSWORTHY??

    • Re:In other news..... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by GreyPoopon ( 411036 ) <gpoopon@gm[ ].com ['ail' in gap]> on Tuesday June 17, 2003 @04:11PM (#6226380)
      WHY IS THIS NEWSWORTHY??

      Because in an economy where technology has been struggling until recently, it's nice to see increased demand and spending for something, even if it was widely expected. Plus, seeing Linksys rise to the top was a bit interesting, as well as the blurb on Cisco buying Linksys. Also, I appreciated the list of other "top" vendors, as it gives me some to compare in the coming months. And finally, everybody was complaining about the hourly SCO updates. /. editors had to put something else in. :-)

    • Maybe wireless is really cool. I like being able to go to a park and still check what the weather is going to be like. I like sharing my broadband connection with the neighbors. The more wifi becomes mainstream. The more money will be spent on improving the technology. I don't like cables.
    • It seems that production of 2002 Volkswagon Beetls is down inifity% to a year-long low of zero cars. If production continues at this rate, production will become negative, and in one year there will be NO MORE 2002 VOLKSWAGON BEETLES on the planet! If I owned one, I'd sell it a soon as possible before it self-destructs!

      In 2 years, we expect to ship the non-existant cars to other planets to create a negative quantity of 2002 BEETLES on our planet. This trend will continue, and 10 years, 90% of human effort

  • have a look at Nortel (Score:5, Informative)

    by SubtleNuance ( 184325 ) on Tuesday June 17, 2003 @04:00PM (#6226266) Journal
    Nortel [nortel.com] has some really good product: here [nortelnetworks.com], their VOIP handsets/desktop phones [nortelnetworks.com] and software-based-voip-phones [nortelnetworks.com] are *very* cool... coupled with a 802.11x AP, it is VERY COOL. Ipaq + 802.11x CF Nic + Nortel Software == wirless phone in your office.

  • It's HERE! (Score:1, Offtopic)

    by nightsweat ( 604367 )
    OMG, the tech recovery is here! It's here! I want more money! I want more vacation! I want perks!!!

  • In related news.... (Score:5, Funny)

    by bflong ( 107195 ) on Tuesday June 17, 2003 @04:02PM (#6226282)
    In related news, Pringles shipments were up by %110.

  • Meanwhile... (Score:4, Funny)

    by macshune ( 628296 ) on Tuesday June 17, 2003 @04:02PM (#6226283) Journal
    Scientists are still trying to figure out how businesses can make money from selling access wi-fi networks.

  • The Future of Wireless (Score:3, Interesting)

    by eniacx ( 615658 ) on Tuesday June 17, 2003 @04:03PM (#6226286)
    If you don't know what a Mesh Network is, you should read up on it. There are some very cool applications.

    You can fly in a helicopter at 300 mph+ and sustain an Internet Connection.
    City governments are also using this technology to deploy cameras around their cities.

    Any kind of technology is always scary when government gets ahold of it. However, I still have some questions about it's security though.

    http://www.meshnetworks.com [meshnetworks.com]

    • Unfortunately, the current implementations don't scale to the size of even the current internet - because they requre every node to know about every other (in case it needs to forward a packet).

      (Routing table explosions were what drove the switch from RIP to BGP in the first place.)

      They'll get there eventually. Meanwhile, imagine them as drops of mercury. When two touch they join. And when two equal-sized drops join, each "atom" (machine) in the big drop needs twice as much table space as it needed in

  • And This Is Important Because... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Nom du Keyboard ( 633989 ) on Tuesday June 17, 2003 @04:03PM (#6226287)
    And this is important to get posted to Slashdot because...?

    a) It's a nice break from SCO stupidity and bashing
    b) It's a nice break from Microsoft stupidity and bashing
    c) There was still a site in the world that hadn't been Slashdotted yet
    d) None of the above
    e) All of the above

  • Interference (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 17, 2003 @04:03PM (#6226290)
    A fellow grad student and I got talking about this at our university's wireless lab ...

    Most current wireless scheme assume sparse usage concentrations. As more and more people start using these devices, interference will increase markedly and reduce performance for all. Just think what would happen if every single person in your appartment or neighbourhood had a wireless network setup? We would see a 15-50% degradation in wireless bandwidth!

    Not to mention other devices operating in the 2.4Ghz unregulated spectrum like microwave ovens and those damn cordless phones!
    • Motion trackers and stuff all seem to operate in the pillaged 2.4GHz zone. Cell fones, and coreless really muck things up... and the EM dynamics of us salty bags of mostly water tend to block 2.4 like a cut-out of tin foil. How good can a dense network mesh of 2.4 be w/ all this other crap? Not to mention that all this packet relaying will give u a ridiculous ping and network congestion.
  • It's a sad state of affairs that Linksys is at the top of the heap...there are plenty of companies that make better products.

    I wish consumers would focus more of quality rather than cost...after all, if they did, we wouldn't have to deal with Wal-Mart anymore!

    • Re:Cost vs. Quality (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Nom du Keyboard ( 633989 ) on Tuesday June 17, 2003 @04:16PM (#6226435)
      Linksys is at the top of the heap...there are plenty of companies that make better products

      My Linksys 802.11b router does everything I need it to do, cheaply and reliably. What more can one ask for in a non-cricical home system?

      focus more of quality rather than cost...after all, if they did, we wouldn't have to deal with Wal-Mart

      Since Wal-Mart doesn't manufacture what it sells, uses their buying power to get lower prices on the same items, and doesn't force you to shop there, I don't understand your rant.

      This message sent out through a Linksys router.

      • Linksys's 802.11g gear is a piece of crap. Its range sucks, and the signal booster is useless. I replaced it with a Netgear WGR614, based on the Intersil Prism GT chipset, and get MUCH MUCH better range and such. A coworker got a Dlink variety, also based on the same chipset, and works equally as well. (Everything was verified with Netstumbler, NetIQ, and various other tests. I tested in both a home and corp environment, with many different brands of APs and client cards)

        Linksys's B only AP were pretty goo

    • Re:Cost vs. Quality (Score:2, Interesting)

      by GreyPoopon ( 411036 )
      I wish consumers would focus more of quality rather than cost...after all, if they did, we wouldn't have to deal with Wal-Mart anymore!

      Educated consumers do, provided that there isn't a huge difference in cost. If I can pick up Linksys for $99 or pay $299 for a "better" product, I'm going to lean toward the cheaper option. Although, it depends on what I'm looking for.

      BTW, since you're concerned about choosing the quality WLAN, do you know of a good comparative review of wireless products? I may be in

    • I don't see the real problem at all. Linksys and D-Link are two companies I have much respect for, because time after time, they've brought the price down to earth on networking equipment that the casual home user just couldn't justify purchasing before.

      When 100Base-T was still pretty new, network cards often supported it - but home users still ran at 10Base-T because the cost of a hub/router that handled the higher speed was prohibitive. Then Linksys (and D-Link) brought out those cheap 100Base-T router

  • Scary... (Score:5, Funny)

    by clausiam ( 609879 ) on Tuesday June 17, 2003 @04:03PM (#6226294)
    I just finished placing my online order for various Linksys Wireless equipment, then surf over to /. and the top story is "Wireless LAN Equipment Shipments Up...top vendor is Linksys". Man, those internet tracking and market analysis systems are getting too advanced now... :-)

  • This is probably a good time to create a current review of the long distance (>> 300 ft) Wireless solutions that are available in the market.

    Richochet [ricochet.com] is one http://www.ricochet.com/

    and another is Vivato [vivato.net] http://www.vivato.net/

    What are the other ones in the market?

    • Much, MUCH greater than 300 feet. (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Hell, I get my internet from a provider's tower over 4.5 MILES away from my house. I only have a lowly Linksys WET11 802.11b bridge too. Of course I also have a 24db parabolic reflector antenna on a 40 foot pole pointed back to the ISP's antenna, and good clear line-of-site between the two antennas. I generally get 11Mbps to their access point with 70% "signal quality" and 85-90% "signal strength".
    • GPRS... CDMA... many many 2.xG and 3G protocols...
    • Damn! I remember when Ricochet first rolled out in San Jose (as Metricom, I think) back in the early 90s. In 1999, I had a Ricochet modem for my laptop, and it was great -- sending email from Caltrain at the station stops, working from the middle of Golden Gate Park...

      And then, what, just a couple years ago, they went tits up. Poof! They had rolled out infrastructure in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, and were working on spreading all over Los Angeles. They had money trouble and disappeared. And now, th
  • So who are the current market leaders in this field?

    ..so which of these market leaders does the poster work for?

  • Not too hard to believe ... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by SuperDuG ( 134989 ) <[be] [at] [eclec.tk]> on Tuesday June 17, 2003 @04:07PM (#6226344) Homepage Journal
    I know a two years ago that wireless was "too slow" and had "too many bottlenecks" and was "too insecure".

    Well in the last few years two out of the three major issues with wireless have been fixed. Plus now there's more widespread applications for wireless technology is amazing. Cause everything to communicate without drilling holes and running wires and it's all portable.

    Wireless (especially 802.11b) is in major universities, businesses, and homes all across america. It's "the new craze" get broadband and a wireless router along with a laptop and surf the net while outside, in your room, or wherever.

    For what people need networking for wireless usually is it 9 times out of 10 and it is far more acceptable and eye appealing than drilling holes and running wire everywhere. Plus it's cool to have a laptop with no wires surfin the net, still has a cool "wow" factor.

  • Booming (Score:2, Interesting)

    by peripatetic_bum ( 211859 )
    Let's just that wireless requires Big Company infrastructure. Make the Wireless big enough and perhaps it will be decentralized. Make it encrypted and everyone can/will use it.
    Make it so that no one wireless is the chokepoint and you will have redundancy that backbones can only dream about. And All this for FREE!

  • So really... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by afidel ( 530433 ) on Tuesday June 17, 2003 @04:09PM (#6226364)
    Cisco is 28% of wireless lan revenue since they own Linsys now =) I find it interesting what this says about the overall market, Cisco/Aironet which is the large enterprise leader slipped behind Linksys in revenue even though the typical Cisco/Aironet product costs ~8X what the typical Linksys product does, so small companies and consumers must be outbuying enterprises by around 8X =)

  • Not to be totally off-topic since I am asking a wireless related question...

    What is the state of WPA for Linux (in particular RedHat 9)? Any projects I should look at to be able to use it? I've got a Proxim 802.11b Gold card.

  • Under the 'Cool' tag.

    Or in a press release.

  • The future is not that bright (Score:5, Informative)

    by prostoalex ( 308614 ) on Tuesday June 17, 2003 @04:27PM (#6226518) Homepage Journal
    It is really hard for a newcomer to enter the Wi-Fi market right now. The wireless LAN market suddenly achieved saturation and started experiencing price wars even before it was fully developed and there was an 802.11 hotspot at every house.

    TechKnowledge claims that even though the shipment volumes will grow, the revenues from the wireless LAN sales will decline [yahoo.com], since this market is currently experiencing oversupply.

    However, this is bonanza time for consumers and businesses, here are some quotes from the market report quoted above:

    The average price for a chip that enables connections for an 802.11b wireless LAN (WLAN), also known as Wi-Fi, was $16.06 in 2002, but that price will drop to $6.61 by the end of 2003.

    The price for chips based on the 802.11g standard is also expected to fall this year, from $18 per chip in 2002 to $9.68 by the end of 2003

  • I'm wireless (Score:4, Funny)

    by jabbadabbadoo ( 599681 ) on Tuesday June 17, 2003 @04:30PM (#6226540)
    My geek-wannabie of a neighbour just got WLAN installed. Time to cancel that xDSL subscription.

  • YES! (Score:2)

    by weave ( 48069 )
    More.free.open.access.points.
  • What's the deal with the new WPA standard? Are there any cheap access points that are WPA ready? Will Linux support WPA?

    I have an old orinico residential gateway, and I'd like to upgrade to a faster system, but I want to wait for WPA.
  • It'll give the "tech analysts" something to get excited about besides Oracle v. PeopleSoft and Microsoft v. World.

    Let's all fake them out by posting a whole bunch of comments about warchalking. I got a great laugh out of how the big media reported that one the first time around.

    They were fooled once; they can be fooled again!

    • In 2002, Linksys overtook Cisco Systems as the leading wireless equipment vendor, accounting for 14.1 percent of revenue. Cisco slipped to the No. 2 position with a 13.9 percent market share.

      Buffalo Technology was the No. 3 vendor in market share, followed in order by D-Link and Proxim.

    In war driving about 14,000 access points in the northwest the results are fairly consistent with the numbers the article mentions:

    Popular ESSID's:

    1. linksys 2051 (17.4%)
    2. default 967

    • In war driving about 14,000 access points in the northwest the results are fairly consistent with the numbers the article mentions

      The problem with measuring some companies is that their access points come with unique default SSIDs. One is Proxim Orinoco. The default names on their APs are based on the serial numbers printed on the bottom. BTW, "tsunami" is usually Cisco in my experience.

      • The problem with measuring some companies is that their access points come with unique default SSIDs. One is Proxim Orinoco.

        Quite right. There are also some, like Buffalo, which use the MAC ID as the default ssid. This is a really bad measure of popularity, but even still, I was surprisec how close the results meshed. (I.e. linksys is only off a few percent)
  • I bought 4 wireless routers this year, one each from Microcenter, Amazon, Staples, and Circuit City.

    You want to know why shipments are up? I'll tell you why. It's because these companies are paying people to buy it! With all the rebates, coupons, and specials available the past few months, I am actually making money by buying this stuff!

    Now I just need to figure out what to do with my extra 3 wireless routers. I'm currently thinking "Christmas presents". ;-)

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