11n FUD? How interesting. The manufactures of 11n devices make up the majority of the standards committee. They aren't going to add new hardware requirements to the standard. Finalization is simply a matter of bureaucracy. Meanwhile, have you noticed how all the devices interoperate now? Did you spot the Wi-Fi certifications? It's already a working standard.

Do you honestly expect your AP to stop working with your laptop when they file the final papers? Will the backward compatibility with 11g and 11a disappear? No. And FYI, the final standard standard will work with draft 2.0 too. Your concerns were valid with pre-N equipment, but now it's unfounded.

Actually, they advertise 11n draft 2.0 these days, not pre-11n. There's enough draft 2.0 devices around to choose from. If you keep worrying about future standards, you'll never buy anything.

Wouldn't that be overkill? All 11n devices do MIMO currently - if a future device does not, it won't have a > 200Mbps number on the box. Greenfield is insignificant in practice. You just want to look out for 2.4 and 5 GHz support, or dual radio if you need that. I realize that retailers try to fool people by putting just a giant 11N on the box, but if you read closer you'll see if 5 Ghz, or 11a compatibility, is included.

As far as maintaining a website, most of these products come and go too fast to keep up with. The user could write down model XGY-2000T and find a XGY-2001B when they get to the store. Better to just read the small print on the box.

B and G use the same channels, and 11n can use G or A channels. So, 'NA' is open too. Another advantage of the A channels is that there is less channel overlap and a shorter range. In a small house, 11a will still cover it all, but neighboring houses will become weaker interferers. In a condo situation, 11a is ideal.

My second choice if it's a single user, and only for internet browsing, would be 11b (or 11g limited to 11mbs rate - same thing). It really does seem to work better in practice, although I expected rate adaptation algorithms to find the best rate for my 11g connection, it is not so. 5-7 Mbps should be enough for this user anyway.

Sadly, retailers have been selling us b/g-only for a long time to save a couple of bucks, and nobody seems to care.

"i love how intel is touting how (even though wifi has been tech since the late 90's early 2000's) that they finally got around to making it work over "long" distances."

I love that they chose to make a big deal about a Wi-Fi solution when WiMax was supposed to be here already. Wasn't it this time last year when they were talking about WiMax adapters being standard on laptops? ...and over long distances too?! This the kind of tech that Intel should kill, not promote... if WiMax were really on its way, that is.