The Wi-Fi Alliance announced last week that it has now certified more than 1,000 products since its testing program began in March 2000.
Products that sport the Alliance's seal of approval are certified to work with each other and provide the performance expected from the 802.11a, b or g standards. This means that users can buy certified 802.11x routers, access points and cards knowing that they should all be compatible.
But while a great many Wi-Fi products have been approved by the Alliance, several hundred did not pass its tests.
"Based on testing of more than 1,000 products over several IEEE 802.11 standards, products that are prepared for Wi-Fi certification testing fail 25 (percent) to 30 percent of the time--or more depending on the technology being tested," said Wi-Fi Alliance managing director Frank Hanzlik.
"Products that do not go through the rigorous testing preparation process have an even higher failure rate. Without Wi-Fi certification, these product failures would have been experienced by the technology consumer," Hanzlik added.
A product that fails Wi-Fi certification can still be launched, though, and a manufacturer could still label its wireless products as "802.11b compatible" even if they only work with its own range of equipment and not with those from another company.
The Wi-Fi Alliance says that certification is becoming increasingly important as the wireless-networking market grows and matures.
"New features and the growing number of additional chipsets make Wi-Fi certification more important than ever to consumers and enterprise IT managers," said Hanzlik.
A list of products certified by the Wi-Fi Alliance can be seen at its Web site.
I purchased an Sd WiFi card made by Sandisk, last December and have been unable to access ANY AP's.
The work WiFi gear is D-Link DWL 900AP+ and a "cisco" AP. I'm using an iPAQ 1940 Pocket PC 2003, and managed "half a handshake" with the Cisco but absolutely zilch with DLink. I am commencing refund action. It's not me, I've had some of the best IT pro's check it out with no result. The responses from Sandisk have been less than helpful, just a vague mention of a software issue to be fixed in 2004! My Laptop runs very well with a DLink card. Check for similar stories on Sandisk problems scattered across the web!