Buy a g or a n wireless router?

Am looking to purchase my first router for home use. Will be using the network mainly for internet surfing & sharing files. Have a Dell 1505-n card in my laptop. Am now able to buy the Linksys WRT G Speedbooster & adapters for 29.95 each. Most of the n routers with decent reviews, that I have looked at, are much more costly. Don't really want to get a system which is out of date, but on the other hand this G system might be fine for the present. What do you think?

 

I agree. Also it will take a long time before homes will match the N standard speed. G with 54Mbps is more than enough.

 

^^^^^ What???

 

Go with G. If it suits your needs, why bother with anything else? As with other technology, the N prices will be much lower and routers a lot better next year... So might as well hold off until it will benefit you.

 

What, what???????????????????????????

 

I think the '^^^^^ What???' probably means that 54mbps may not suffice with today's home connections, particularly cable. The best you can truly hope for w/ G is about 1/3 of it's rated speed. If you are getting better than 17mbps with your G router, I'd be VERY suprised. That's a true test mind you, not what windows reports in the system tray. You'll have to download something like QCheck from IXIA to test that w/ a wired PC on your internal network.

Anyway...assume you get 17mbps at your best signal spot in the house...as you move away from that, 802.11 will start scaling down...as you drop, you may well drop below a 12mbps, 8mbps, or 5mbps cable modem connection.

N will do alot in getting you around that and easily keeping you above your ISP's connection speed.

Chris

 

That's was my point, why to strugle to get N when the ISP connection is smaller than 54Mbps.

 

Yes, your ISP will for now be well below 54mbps, but actual G speeds are also well below 54mbps and in many cases below a cable ISP connection speed. For example, my cable connection is 12mbps...my old G equipment regularly dropped below that in some areas of my home when the signal got weaker. The best thruput test I ever got, with the best G mimo router out there, was ~17mbps.

So my point was why NOT go the N route. You can get a low end N router like the DLink DIR615 or DIR625 for around $50-$75 and at a minimum double your speed with any N card you have in your laptop. I run a DIR625 with the Intel 4965agn in my laptops and I test out now at 35-40mpbs, so I've over doubled my speed. Nowhere in my house do I drop below my ISPs speed now.

The other advantage you'll gain is file transfers locally on your network...but that is typically not all that important to folks, not something we all do that often.

Chris

 

How far is your computer from the router? It seems strange to me the low weak signal. I'm about 20' from the router and I consistenly get 54Mbps. My wifi nic is the 4965AGN from Intel.

 

I would definitely go for the G router, because as you said, N is pricey, and there isn't much point to it if the isp is below 54Mbps. The only reason you might want it is if you're transferring files wirelessly to a NAT router, or another computer on your network.

 

Yep, that's the common overall concensus.

 

That's what I'm saying, you are not getting 54mbps, not with a G router, windows tells you it's 54mbps, your router might even show 54mbps if it does some reporting on client connections from the browser UI of the router. But, no router tests out at what windows reports or what it's rated at...no wireless router/ap out there will give you it's rated speed. The test-out speed is what matters w/ regard to your ISP connection and if you have an N client card in your laptop, an N router that is draft compliant will produce double the thru-put of a G router.

As far as price, N is not more expensive. If you buy the top of the line, like a dual band unit, yes, you will spend well over $100 or even way more...if you buy a low end N unit, it'll be under $75, about the same price as G.

G is pointless, unless you plan on running some of the aftermarket firmware which doesn't exist for N yet, G is utterly pointless to be considering.

Chris

 

Go w/ G unless you plan on streaming, playing online games or moving large files across you network. Even if you are just streaming audio from the internet G is fast enough, usually.

If you do not get a dual band N router and there is another laptop on your system that is G all connections will run as G. That is my problem now w/ my wife E1505. I have a N nic and a belkin pre-n but will not connect higher than G cuz she is on also.

 

If the router can't test the speed, how would N be any better than G in this perspective? And why do you say that G is pointless????????