Buying Wireless Router - Some Questions

1. Are Linksys and D-Link the way to go?

2. I plan to purchase a router to use once I purchase a laptop. However, would his wireless router work on my desktop computer? Are there routers that function BOTH as a wireless router and wired router?

3. What are the benefits of Wireless N?

 

1. I have only worked with Linksys and Belkin, and perfer the Linksys part

2. Most if not all wireless routers have atleast for LAN ports for wired routing.

3. Wireless N has greater speeds, and greater range.

 

Yes dlink and linksys are the defacto good routers on the market. I personally own the dlink dir-655 wireless n.

I did not believe in the benifits of the N routers until I bought one. uplink speeds are much higher and sustainable. I get better data rates than my old g router

And yes, it will work with your desktop. Most routers today are also switches, you can hard wire your desktop to the router.

 

My desktop is about 4 years old, do I need to install anything extra to make to work with a wireless-N router? What did you mean by "you can hard wire your desktop to the router."?

 

You will need a wireless N card. That goes without saying. A 4 year old desktop likely has a b or g wireless card, if any at all.

If you simply plan to hardwire your desktop to the wireless router then your standard network card will do just fine.

 

If your desktop pc does NOT have a wireless nic, and has a basic network card in it, you connect any ethernet cable directly to the router.

If it has a wireless card in it, it will work, but it will not connect at N speeds, but can be replaced/upgraded. If your desktop is close to the router, and has a basic ethernet card in it, you are better off using a cable. Cheaper and you will get 100baseT uplink which today is still pretty damn good.

 

When you say 'hardwire' do you mean to simply connect the desktop to the router with an ethernet cable? If I bought a wireless N network card for my desktop, will I be able to run my desktop computer wireless?

These are my desktop computer specs: http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs...51&storeId=10151&langId=-1&productId=11036101

What do I need to use a wireless-N router with it (wireless vs. wired)

Thanks so much!!!

 

From the specs you posted, your desktop already has a built in 10/100 network card. An ethernet cable plugged into the router will work fine for approx $5.00 (depending on the length). You will get a 100mbit connection.

As for wireless N, I cant tell what PCI slots are unoccupied or not. You will have to open the case. If you have free slots then any decent wireless N pci card will do the trick.

 

Sorry to hijack this thread...

My DSL speed is at 768bps...will i see any improvement at all switching to an N router? Currently using a G router.

 

Are wireless-N USB adapters as good as wireless-N PCI cards?

 

maybe in latency but not in throughput. Wireless N is more about better range and intranet traffic. Also, the whole idea is to implement 5Ghz signal to get away from a 2.4Ghz saturated world. I'm sure there's other reasons, but I'm not expert.

No ISP is providing 130mbps (up to 300 mbps under perfect conditions) download speeds heh.

My ISP for instance is 6 mbps, 802.11b would provide enough bandwidth to fully use my internet, let alone G and N.

 

I'm sure they would, although USB has bandwidth caps itself (480mbps), which really shouldn't matter when the max bandwidth on wireless N is 300 mbps. i've heard the 5300 wireless N card has a potential to transfer up to 480mbps, but this is really in an ideal world.

Real world application has shown that you aren't getting this type of bandwidth.

USB or PCI would be fine. But just so you know a cat5 cable hard wired to your pc would be faster (assuming you have a gigabit interface on your router and network card). The only real reason to go wireless is if you don't want to have a cable running to your desktop. For instance, if it was in a room far away from the router.

 

Thanks for the reply. I most likely will just wire my desktop to the wireless-N router. My laptop I will of course use wireless.

It's so hard to find a consensus on the 'best' kind of wireless-n router. I've checked out so many sites and the opinions are always different. For the most part, people tend to agree that D-Link and Linksys are the best, though some people prefer NetGear or Belkin.

 

I know, I'm having the exact same issues. I'll read a few sites on a router praising it, then stumble on a few more stating how terrible the router is.

The information just isn't reliable out there.

I really think I'll be going with the WRT600N simply because of the NAS support. I've only seen 4 wirelss n routers that support NAS so far and that's the airport extreme, the WRT350N, WRT600N, and the WRT610N (which isn't available in canada for some reason).

If you're not familiar with NAS, whast it does is allows you to hook up a USB drive or printer and share it on your wireless network so all computers and use it. Very amazing feature if you ask me.

 

wireless-n is not in its final or completed stage yet. companies are still tryin to work out the kinks and make the routers work like they're advertised to.

i was in the same predicament as u guys. from what i've read and the responses from people i've talked to. the "best" draft-n router, out of the box, would probably be the d-link dir-655. if u do happen to go with a linksys draft-n router. i highly recommend u get one that is DD-WRT compatible. the OEM linksys firm ware is complete crap. i went with the linksys wrt350n, and to tell u the truth, DD-WRT saved it from findin a new home...at the junkyard.

wirelessman knows his stuff when it comes to networkin. i have read good and (mostly) bad things about the netgear draft-n products, but i wouldn't completely rid it off my list if he suggested it.

 

I've had the Netgear WNDR3300 Dual Band for three months and, to-date, haven't had a lick of trouble out of it. My wireless networking demands aren't that strenuous, however - both notebooks are generally within 30 feet of where the router is located. I also have the Netgear wireless print-server, and that's worked just fine as well so far.

 

Another vote for Netgear products. Used to use D-Link but had all sorts of issues with them. Ended up spending as much time resetting the D-Link stuff as using it. Went with Netgear about 18 months ago and have had zero problems with them.

aj

 

Hehe so many mix reviews! Maybe I should stick with Linksys, since I've always worked with them.

 

Yup, sorry but that netgear router people are pushing is one of the worse wirelss routers on the market. Reading 10+ reviews all show it as a compelte flop and to avoid.

I'm glad you guys are enjoying your WNDR3300 but there's no way I'm picking one of those up.

I have heard the issue with linksys firmware. It's really hard to tell if the latest firmware update (july/08) by linksys has fixed all the issues with the WRT600N or not. Not a big fan of the DD-WRT firmware as it doesn't fully support the WRT600N router.

 

Hmm..., once again, theory trumps reality, I suppose. Then again, according to theory, neither should the bumblebee be capable of flight and yet, it does. Perhaps the discrepancy lies in the "reviews" you've been reading?

 

I have owned several routers, i even work in networking!!!

Belkin are terrible, they do keep replacing them free of charge though
Lynksys are so far removed from Cisco it is laughable, the linksys i have owned and there have been a few have all had connection problems, when i have talked to tech support they have advised that the router is unable to handle the kinds of traffic i am pushing through it, they suggested i get a CISCO.
So i brought and used a 2621 XM Cisco 2600 series router with an IOS i found appropriate. To connect wirelessly i used the cisco arionet 1600 series access point and a 2950 series switch, bit of over kill but hey ho!!
This worked flawlessly for around 2 years then G and after N were released so i decided not to upgrade it ( noise issue **** those three devices are noisey ) and try once more the consumer market, I had been using a netgear wireless N router ( sorry cant remember the model ) and for 6 months it was awsome, no disconnects no lag, GREAT!!!!!!!!. Then it died 3 weekzs ago, rather than get another i used the opertunity to try some others, so far i have again tried belkin, god still the same. Then i tried several Lynksys, both lag my PS3 like there is no tomorrow and my d/l's are super sucky slow. The latest lynksys i own is the WRT300n-UK, this goes back today!!!!. I will admit defeat and get another netgear, i dont mind chaning it every 6 months, better to have a stable reliable service for six months, than a permenant flacky rubbish service period


So there you have my opinion, you could try D-Link or Buffalo, not tried them too this time round, but unless you want super noise and a big hole in your bank account CISCO is not really an option, i would get any flavour of Netgear

 

Right Lynksys returned, i now have a good ole Netgear range max

Same one as before, a truly sturdy router