Unfortunately for those waiting for this wireless speed breakthrough, the first draft of the standard failed to gain acceptance. That didn't stop equipment vendors from releasing products based on that first draft, much of which didn't work well with Wi-Fi equipment using older standards.

However, Draft 2.0 of the 802.11n standard appeared in February and there are hopes that a final version, which would be very similar to Draft 2.0, will emerge before the end of the year. As with the first draft, products are now available based on that draft and, in theory, those products are interoperable with older equipment. And, better still, the hope is that a simple firmware update will bring products based on Draft 2.0 up to the final standard when it is ratified.

So how good are products based on Draft 2.0? To find out, we examined equipment from Belkin, Cisco-Linksys and Netgear.

Bottom line: The routers and adapters we tested proved that this second coming of 802.11n is indeed a dramatic improvement over existing standards and also over products based on Draft 1.0. None of the products we looked at achieve the standard's originally stated 540Mbit/sec. speed. In fact, these vendors were less grandiose in their claims, claiming their products could achieve speeds in the 270Mbit/sec.-to-300Mbit/sec. range. Even at that, we found that, short of an alignment of the planets or voodoo, these trimmed-backed expectations fell into the range wishful thinking.

However, that doesn’t mean you can’t achieve wireless transfer rates above 100Mbit/sec. And that is quite impressive compared with current standards.

We tested this prestandardised equipment in several ways. Most simply, we tried connectivity between similarly branded clients and routers. Next, we checked their ability to connect to another client of the same brand on an ad hoc basis. To test the range of these products, we also took a client adapter into a far and dimly lit corner where connectivity using products based on 802.11b/g protocols is nearly impossible and tried to stream a video. Last, we tested for interoperability between 802.11n clients and an 802.11g router.

Belkin N1

Belkin has nailed the look to which every router vendor aspires, with a strong visual contrast between the silver base and piano-black top and multicolor LEDs shining through icons inlaid on the black faceplate. It's a pretty good router, too.

Installing the router and the USB and PC Card adapters was quick and painless with the included setup CD. The one anomaly we found was that once the drivers were loaded, the USB adapter worked more reliably using Windows Wireless Wizard than Belkin’s own software. Oddly, the PC Card did not suffer from that inconsistency.

The N1 Wireless Router was the value/performance leader among our three routers, but there are some things you should consider before you run out to buy one. The N1 USB adapter was our worst performer when positioned in our distant black hole of networking when attempting to connect with a legacy 802.11b/g router. We gave up after 20 minutes when trying to transfer a 921MB file.

Things improved dramatically when we used both the Belkin router and adapters from that distance. When we did that, speed ranged between 120Mbit/sec. and 162Mbit/sec., giving it a transfer time of five minutes and 21 seconds for our large file, the fastest of the group in this particular test.

If streaming media is your thing, our test MPEG video played flawlessly between Belkin equipment and displayed no lag time when jumping ahead by a half or two-thirds of the movie's length. Both the USB adapter and PC Card performed equally well.

Bottom line: The Belkin equipment isn't a good choice if you are mixing and matching it with equipment using older Wi-Fi standards. But if all your adapters are from Belkin, its performance was stellar.

Netgear RangeMax Next

The RangeMax Next Router is a white miniskyscraper, devoid of any external antennae, that sits vertically in a cradle. The USB client device is about 40% larger than a credit card and white, like the router.

It took about 20 minutes to install Netgear’s Next Router using the on-screen install guide. There are only four steps involved, but Netgear is meticulous in explaining each and every part of those steps. If you get something wrong, it’s probably because you haven’t followed along closely.

Our only problem with the installation was that the Netgear equipment wanted to see an existing network/Internet connection before it started the router installation, which seemed counterintuitive for a first-time install. The installation process will not continue until you have such a connection, so just connect your computer to your modem to get around it.

Legacy (b/g) notebook clients were all over the map with the RangeMax Next Router, at times abruptly dropping the connection. Typically, they exhibited low signal strength and transfer speeds -- at one point 1Mbit/sec. This was despite Netgear's software allowing a variety of adjustments for possible gear in the “neighborhood.”

Netgear clients behaved better with Netgear’s router, especially the closer they were to the device. In our poor-traffic zone, the transfer rate ranged from 81Mbit/sec. to 108Mbit/sec. Our 921MB sample file flew through the air in seven minutes and three seconds. Streaming MPG files were no problem, and jumping around the video’s timeline produced no real lag. Overall, Netgear's PC Card adapter consistently provided stronger signal levels and faster noted connection speeds than its USB adapter.

Bottom line: Installation was more difficult than it needed to be, it had mixed results with legacy equipment, and transfer speeds weren't quite up to par with the other equipment.

Linksys Wireless-N

This equipment is less notable for its looks -- the router is a simple rectangular box with rows of flashing LEDs on the front panel -- and more notable for the fact that the router has a built-in IPsec virtual private network (VPN). Clearly, Linksys, which is a division of Cisco Systems Inc., is aiming this router at telecommuters and others who must sometimes connect to corporate networks.

This equipment is also notable for its installation, which is far less automatic and far more manual than the other routers. You access the router through a browser using the IP address provided in the guide. Your options at that point are legion, but for the majority of us, it will just be a matter of choosing the security passphrase. It’s the kind of thing an IT geek would not break a sweat over, while the average person will have to stop and think about it for a minute.

Perhaps befitting its business-like target audience, this equipment is more expensive than the other equipment we looked at: The Linksys router will set you back around $200 on the street. For that money, you get more security and a little pop-up box at the lower-right corner of your screen alerting you when you have a 1Gbit/sec connection, which, of course, requires a gigabit port on your PC. In practical terms, it means a 921MB MPG file can be copied from wired gigabit workstation No. 1 to wired gigabit workstation No. 2 in about 25 seconds.

That was via a wired Ethernet connection. Wirelessly, the USB version of Linksys’ adapter logged a solid 54Mbit/sec. to a b/g router for an eight-minute and 15-second transfer time for our 921MB test file from the dark and distant corner of our test area. Linksys matched the same streaming performance we found with the other two brands. Jumps from one end of the video's timeline to the other produced no noticeable lags. Back or forward, even hops into the middle, made no difference.

Bottom line: The Linksys was the overall performance winner, especially when connecting to legacy equipment, although some of its specific test results didn't match that of the Belkin router and adapters.

Last word

Prestandard equipment isn't for everybody. Corporate IT departments, for instance, are unlikely to go anywhere near it until 802.11n is an officially ratified standard, and many individual users will feel the same way. But this equipment, taken as a group, was reliable and, most important, fast.

Among the gear we tested, Linksys is the easy choice if money isn’t a factor. It was consistent, worked well with legacy equipment, has built-in gigabit routing capabilities as well as support for VPNs. Belkin gets the nod for economy and for speed when paired with other Belkin equipment. Although the Netgear equipment has improved remarkably since the last time we looked at its pre-N products, still seems to need a bit more spit and polish -- which is what the Draft 2.0 phase is all about.