I’m not a big fan of novelty, and that goes double when we’re talking about technology. That’s an interesting perspective for someone who makes a living by writing about new and interesting IT products and services, but I’ve come by my skepticism the hard way. After all, the people for whom I write — that’s you, gentle reader — are paid to implement technology in an enterprise-computing environment. This means that at the end of the day, technology has to make business sense, or it’s just another money pit.Sure, wireless networking is convenient. Heck, I’m going to file this piece over a wireless link, so I’m anything but a Luddite. But vendors pushing wireless networks are getting ahead of themselves by putting 802.11g hardware on the market even before the 11g draft standard is ratified. As Oliver Rist points out in his review of new 11g gear from D-Link and Linksys, mixing equipment from different vendors is a sketchy proposition at best (see “It’s too early for 11g”). And although 11g equipment is designed to be interoperable with kits built around the older 11b standard, “mixed-mode” really means settling for 11b performance.Maybe 11g will be worthwhile in a year or so, when the standard is finalized and vendors have had time to iron out the wrinkles of accommodating each other’s products. But for now, sticking with 802.11b — or even the ugly-duckling 802.11a — is a better move. If speed is all one is looking for, 11a offers that without the hassles of a lowest-common-denominator “compatibility” mode, though the theoretical range of an 11a access point is admittedly less than that of an 11g AP. If the mere ability to network without wires is called for, 11b gets my nod. Whether using 11a, 11b, or 11g, one should assume that the wireless network is insecure, even when WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) is used. Over the years, I’ve found that the first releases of equipment that appear after the establishment of a standard contain more glitches than anyone should tolerate. Why would 11g be any different? My simple recipe for networking sanity reads: Draft beer, not standards. Life is too short to spend it as a gamma tester. Technology Industry