Linux and 802.11n

[geoffrey mendelson]

I currently have a wired network with 802.11b and 802.11g segments.  
They all share the same IP subnet and work perfectly fine. However  
they are very limited in range and performance.

Currently I do about 5 gigabytes a day of on-line backups (really just  
mirroring to a server in another room) over the wired network, with  
less than 100 megabytes  over the 802.11g network.

The 802.11b network is almost irrelevant, it is occasionally used by  
older laptops which do not support WPA nor 802.11g.

I may soon be in a situation where I will have to abandon the wired  
network and need to get similar performance to a 100mbit ethernet over  
wireless. The range is a single floor 140 square meter apartment where  
an identical one is covered by single 802.11g router.

The computers are a mixture of MacOS, Windows (XP and 7), Linux  
(various flavors of Ubuntu).

Does anyone have any experience with 802.11n devices?

I am looking for recommendations for:

1. A router/access point.  I'd prefer something cheap, but since it is  
going to last a while I can go a little higher in price. It should be  
reliable and not fail (as some of the cheap 802.11g routers) do when  
you try to squeeze data from the 100mbit line into the wifi. :-(

It should also be Linux compatible, e.g. the http support screens need  
to work with FireFox. (some don't, notably the BEZEQ Siemens 802.11g).


2. Internal (PCI) cards and USB sticks. They should have NATIVE Linux  
support, i.e. not using Windows drivers in compatibility mode. Windows  
drivers needed (don't all of them have them?) and MacOS drivers for  
the USB sticks preferred.

3. They need to be available, supported and legal in Israel.

Thanks,

Geoff.


-- 
geoffrey mendelson N3OWJ/4X1GM
Jerusalem Israel geoffreymendelson at gmail.com