Cisco subsidiary Linksys (soon to be renamed Cisco) has been shipping draft-n devices for some time. But the router maker itself always maintained that it wouldn't join in the great confusion of non-standard-standards. Linksys, it argued, was for consumers and small businesses who didn't care about standards anyway. The Cisco brand commanded a better corporate citizen.

But now Cisco's patience apparently has run out. The company will happily require its early adopting customers to upgrade all their equipment to the final standard when it is published, or have them risk losing connections or other grievances.