30 mbps Comcast internet with WRT54G?

Long story short we just upgraded our home internet, the internet will require a new modem because it's much faster than what we currently have, we will be doing that on Monday. But my big question is will my current router (Linksys WRT54G) even be able to handle those speeds or will I need to go out and buy a new N router to get the full speed out of it?

 

Theoretical maximum of wireless G is 54Mbps, therefore it should be able to handle it, but in practice I found the speeds to be much slower (I have the same router); at least when transferring files in the internal network over wireless to wireless.

But most likely your internet speed will not reach 30Mbps either, that is the advertised speed, in most cases you hardly get that speed. Mainly due to bandwidth limitations at the other end (web servers you connect to). I have a 100Mbps connection but I have never gone above 40 (40 was reached for a very small time only once); mostly it hovers in the range of 10 ~ 20, rarely goes over 20.

Therefore I think you'll be fine. Test your new connection with WRT54 before you buy a new router. When testing compare the wireless speed vs wired speed and see if Wireless is significantly slower.

 

Remember with comcrap you share your available bandwidth in a "pool" with your neighbors/block. If one or a lot of them are using a lot of bandwidth then the rest (you) dont have much for themselves. If no one is using it though, you can get the full pool. That said, it is unlikely that many websites would give you the full 30mb/sec even if you had it available to you from comcast. So you should not notice a difference.

 

Alrighty, I'm pretty pumped to have the additional speed! This is going to be a lot faster than what I have now.

 

Going off what nizzy said, I'm sure you've heard of the new craptastic policies being set forth by Comcast. Basically if the neighborhood pipe is being hosed (while your neighbors are using it) and you're the jerk thats causing the clog (15mins burst time) then they'll put you on a lower quality connection (reduced speed). Oh, and theres also a 250 GB monthly cap which I'm sure you're aware of. Man, how I wish FIOS was available in my area.

Anyway, I'm gonna have to recommend an N router. I'm using a WHR-HP-G54 flashed with dd-wrt and I've never been able to reach wire speed, even when I'm standing like 10 feet away. I think it's worth the investment, especially if you don't want to be inconvenienced by having to plug in when you do some heavy downloading.

 

250 gb is a ridiculous amount but a limit is a limit I supposed. All the "unlimited" services probably have some maximum that you would hit before they do something about your connection anyway.