Sniffing 802.11g traffic with 802.11b WiFi Card - possible?

[domi007]

Hey everyone,
The title of the topic kinda says it already, so is it possible to sniff packets from a G network when my card is only B?

I heard lot of rumors about this, but never found a 100% sure answer (some says no, it is not possible, some says it is possible, because G is just an improvement, B and G still uses the same frequency).

Thank you so much,
DOMy

[Sburna]

The short answer is sort of. 802.11g and 802.11b both operate at 2.4GHz, and 802.11g is backwards compatible with 802.11b BUT 802.11b max speed is only 11 Mbps, while 802.11g can transmit at 54 Mbps, so it seems unlikely that you'd be unable to capture all of the transition if your trying to monitor communication from 802.11g o 802.11g.