Introduction

With the amount of misinformation about 802.11b and 802.11g networking, I thought that it was time to write the second article in this Wireless Networking series.

Basically, 802.11b and 802.11g use the same frequencies which is deliberate as 802.11g was designed to be backwards compatible with 802.11b equipment.  The main difference is the maximum radio data rate (or basic data rate) of the two – 802.11b allows for up to 11 Mbps whereas 802.11g increases this to a maximum of 54 Mbps.

Please note that the amount of useful data you are able to transmit across an 802.11b or 802.11g network will never reach this radio data rate if for no other reason that each transmitted packet needs header and other information.  There are also other reasons that will be explained later on.