wireless n or not

Is it worth paying $50 more for it vs the Dell card? I noticed most of the better PC's at the local Circuit City seem to come with wireless n now.

 

the n wireless card offers backwards compatibility..
so lets say u bring ur laptop around.. if u were to have the standard a/g card.. and the hotspot is using a wireless n router..
you wouldn't be able to connect..
with the n card, you have no worries..

pay the 50 dollars and you won't have to worry about it

 

regular dell one works fine for B and G

 

The question, in my mind, is how fast wireless N gets adopted. A lot of places are already rigged up for a/g, and it works great for them. For that matter, it helps them manage bandwidth a little better since they aren't going to have a large number of people sucking up 100+ Mbs per person. Coupled with the cost of making the switch in the first place, and it can be a good guess that it won't get speedily adopted. I'd say 1 1/2, 2 years down the road you'll see it in a decent percentage of hotspots, but for the immediate future, you're safe with sticking with a regular wireless card.

 

Duckk, your reply hit the nail right on the head.

I recently bought a new notebook and decided getting wireless N at this time was a waste of money. By the time everyone out there is up to snuff with wireless N, I'll be ready to buy a newer replacement for my current notebook.

My decision was also made based on reading this:

http://www.macfora.com/forum/showthread.php?t=15570

As did a reading of a recent issue of Consumer Reports, which found that the speed of wireless N is not yet all that it's cracked up to be (my paraphrasing of their words).

 

It's really up to you. On one hand, you won't be needing N for a while (at least in 90+% of applications), so you can save your money. On the other hand, why not? You spend $50 bucks and now have an N-capable card. The downside to that is possible compatibility issues with various new N-routers until everything is worked out.

I would get a G card for the time being, put the 50 dollars in the bank and when the time is right upgrade. It's relatively easy to switch wireless cards and they are not that expensive.

 

This isn't true, by the way. N routers will step down to G or B for wireless cards that don't support N. The only practical difference is that an N card will get you better range when used with an N router.

 

buy an express card upgrade later on down the road

 

well just think about it this way, how fast was your internet 2 years ago and how fast is it now?
for me at least 2 years ago I was on a 10mbit, and now I'm still on a 10mbit. 30,40,50 mbit connections are still way out of my price range. Somehow I don't see a magical jump in connection speed or price.

 

I read that this sucks for everyone else on the network cause it steps down the whole network's speed... is this true for newer routers?

 

I don't know, but if that is true, then N will be even more useless, since most publicly-accessible routers will be stepped down most of the time for a long time to come.