We evaluated the two major variations of 802.11 wireless LAN technology--frequency hopping (FH) and direct sequence (DS)--both of which are based on spread-spectrum radio transmission in the unlicensed 2.4-GHz band. The DS products provided slightly higher throughput and range, as well as better overall interoperability. (The latter is likely a result of all products being based on radio chipsets from either Lucent Technologies or Harris Semiconductor.) Aironet Wireless Communications clearly had the most feature-rich and mature DS product offerings, followed by InTalk, which provided innovative features at a low cost.

Although interoperability is still a bit tenuous, and single-station performance is about 10 percent to 20 percent lower on average than DS, we were impressed by the FH products we tested. FH offers superior protection from interference and better overall performance when you need to support numerous machines in limited physical space. FH products are also somewhat more feature-rich and easier to install when multiple access points are required. Symbol Technologies' Spectrum24 and Proxim's 8404 RangeLAN802 802.11 PC Card won our Editor's Choice awards.

To achieve broader market acceptance, vendors need to improve performance and reduce prices. A new 11-Mbps IEEE DS standard is expected this year, and Aironet has already released a prestandard product that it claims can be field-upgraded to the final standard.