Is it worth it to get a wireless-N router at this time?

[mada726]

I currently have a Linksys WRT54G v6 router in my house (that router is a Wireless-G router). We have three desktops and four laptops in our house.

My laptops consists of the the following models:

Toshiba Satellite A100-OFH
Lenovo Thinkpad T60
Compaq Presario V6150NR
Compaq Presario CQ50-215CA


Desktop-wise:

eMachines T2862 (upgraded with a different motherboard)
custom-built AMD Athlox 64 x2 desktop PC by Canada Computers
IBM NetVista 6648-TAF


All desktops and laptops are running Windows XP with the exception of the Compaq Presario CQ50-215CA, which is running Windows Vista Home Premium edition.

I share my high-speed cable internet connection and we often share some files between the systems. For the eMachines T2862, the motherboard was recently replaced with a BIOSTAR P4M900-M4 motherboard and I kept the same processor CPU, but I added 1GB of DDR2 memory to the system.

There are some Wireless G USB adapters for the eMachines and the IBM NetVista desktops and the rest of my laptops all have wireless in them.

Recently, I want to watch some movies/TV shows on my living room and I want to watch the movies from my AMD desktop into the eMachines desktop, which is hooked up to a 50" Samsung Plasma HDTV.

I heard that to get the best experience, I may need to upgrade the wireless router. Any suggestions?

[Hairball]

I just replaced my N router with a refurbished Linksys G router.

I got a bunch of problems with my N, I seem to get worse wireless speeds on N compared to G. But it was a draft N from 2 years ago.

You won't get any theoretical benefit though if you do not have N adapters, so you will have to get new ones to get N speeds.

I guess if you have to get N, it's probably best to get one of those dual band ones that broadcasts G at 2.4 GHz, and N at 5 Ghz. I have a single band one, so maybe that's why the performance isn't that great.

Personally I'll wait til the finalized specification N routers/adapters come out before experimenting again.

[DaLurker]

I've found that you need Wireless N in order to stream seamlessly even average bit rate videos let alone HD.

What you can always do is keep your Wireless G router and add a Wireless N router. Then upgrade your computers to N wireless cards as necessary.

I currently have a Linksys WRT54G v6 router in my house (that router is a Wireless-G router). We have three desktops and four laptops in our house.

My laptops consists of the the following models:

Toshiba Satellite A100-OFH
Lenovo Thinkpad T60
Compaq Presario V6150NR
Compaq Presario CQ50-215CA


Desktop-wise:

eMachines T2862 (upgraded with a different motherboard)
custom-built AMD Athlox 64 x2 desktop PC by Canada Computers
IBM NetVista 6648-TAF


All desktops and laptops are running Windows XP with the exception of the Compaq Presario CQ50-215CA, which is running Windows Vista Home Premium edition.

I share my high-speed cable internet connection and we often share some files between the systems. For the eMachines T2862, the motherboard was recently replaced with a BIOSTAR P4M900-M4 motherboard and I kept the same processor CPU, but I added 1GB of DDR2 memory to the system.

There are some Wireless G USB adapters for the eMachines and the IBM NetVista desktops and the rest of my laptops all have wireless in them.

Recently, I want to watch some movies/TV shows on my living room and I want to watch the movies from my AMD desktop into the eMachines desktop, which is hooked up to a 50" Samsung Plasma HDTV.

I heard that to get the best experience, I may need to upgrade the wireless router. Any suggestions?

[RAINMAN0]

I'd wait. The wireless N spec has recently been approved so I'd wait to get an actual wireless N router instead of these draft ones. Plus, as I hear, the new spec requires the routers to be faster then most of the current N routers but the last part may not be entirely true but I'd still wait to get an actual, not draft N router.

[Gee]

Because the N specifications is not ratified, you would need to use one vendor to get the advertised speeds

If you get a Linksys Router, you will need to get new wireless cards for all your notebooks. Otherwise you will only get G speeds.

You might as well just keep what you have.

[ItemFinder]

Because the N specifications is not ratified, you would need to use one vendor to get the advertised speeds

If you get a Linksys Router, you will need to get new wireless cards for all your notebooks. Otherwise you will only get G speeds.

You might as well just keep what you have.

Get your facts straight. N has already been ratified.
http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS183099+11-Sep-2009+BW20090911

[M-e-X-x]

I've found that you need Wireless N in order to stream seamlessly even average bit rate videos let alone HD.

You must have crappy wireless G equipment. I can stream movies no problem via wireless G to laptop hooked up to VGA out to a data projector.

[RAINMAN0]

Get your facts straight. N has already been ratified.
http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS183099+11-Sep-2009+BW20090911

It has been ratified but there are no routers on the market I know of that use the completed spec just yet. That's why I say WAIT. It won't be long now.

[mada726]

in a related situation, my eMachines desktop has a crappy Blanc networks (knockoff brand of Gigafast) wireless-G adapter and often, it loses reception overtime.

Now, I'm considering upgrading my Wireless G (or possibly N adapter) so that way, the reception is constant. Which option is best for me? PCI interface or USB?

Any suggestions?

[pitz]

Yeah, personally, I'm not going 802.11N until there's a good implementation, that's relatively cheap (ie: <$100), and has a solid DD-WRT (OpenWRT, dd-wrt, Tomato) firmware implementation available for it. With a Gig-E interface.

So far, I haven't seen anything that meets such criteria. Unfortunately.

[Gee]

Get your facts straight. N has already been ratified.
http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS183099+11-Sep-2009+BW20090911

Give me a break. That news is still fresh. I doubt the manufacturers have the updates ready for everyone. Regardless, I stand corrected.

In light of this news. You will have to update all your wireless cards to new firmware. Some notebooks don't even include 802.11n

Well at least they finally have a standard

[lead]

a wireless g environment can't support as many clients as well as n wirelessly.In a home networking environment streaming video from a nas server is gonna start choking after 2 clients.

On my my old wireless g If I were lan transfering to my nas and hosting 2 wirelessly it lags on both clients who are streaming video. On the n router with gigabit ports its flawless with 3 streaming and transfering to the nas from the comp simultaneously.

Its fine for internet browsing but n is the way to go for home networking.

[Gee]

PCI interface or USB?

Any suggestions?

Always choose PCI over USB.

[ks_tiwari]

A proper Wireless G networking should be efficient.
(1) Make sure you update your router's firmware to latest
(2) Setup router to communicate only G band not B or not B and G mix.
(3) You can hide your SSID so kids around shouldn't be poking into your router.
(4) Select routers channel to a fix channel may be 10
(5) Replace your 2.4GHz phone buy a Dect 6 Phone or 900MHz phone. Keep router upstair instead basement.
(6) Always use manufacturer software for managing wireless connection instead letting windows to manage. It gives you more stable and dynamic connection.
(7) I prefer USB wireless cause i can move it around with usb extention cable unless you have wired external antenna for PCI card.
(8) Get a good router, if possible use wired connection with one of the computer either connected with TV or computer hosting movie files.
(9) If want to transfer files wirelessly between two computer, you may want to try ad-hoc connection between them with different channel than main wireless internet connection.
(10) upgrade your router with WRT open source firmware if you can...better stability.

[evanx]

Always choose PCI over USB.

+1 I feel PCI is better

[Aske001]

I'm not sure you'll see the benefits you are expecting from a wireless-N router. Keep in mind these limitations:

1. If your clients don't have dual-band receivers, having a dual-band router won't help.
2. If your clients have only a single antenna, then the MIMO feature of your multi-antenna router can only be used to improve signal-to-noise ratio, not speed.
3. If you don't have two free channels to grab in your neighbourhood, then you can't use wireless-N to double the throughput - and if you do, then you are hogging bandwidth from your neighbours (which is why this feature is turned off by default).

[hagbard]

I've found that you need Wireless N in order to stream seamlessly even average bit rate videos let alone HD.

What you can always do is keep your Wireless G router and add a Wireless N router. Then upgrade your computers to N wireless cards as necessary.

How? And if you have one running G and the other N, won't both default to G?

[geeshan]

No, you can have clients using G and N with a wireless N router. You can put the router to mixed mode.

I personally have a G router. But I sell my clients N routers. There is a defanite speed and range increase. Becareful what you buy, if you buy something cheap you will get crap results.

I recommend the D-Link DIR-655 Extreme N!

[Aske001]

New WiFi logos to watch for:

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2009/09/30/wfa_updates_logos/

[GTT1]

No, you can have clients using G and N with a wireless N router. You can put the router to mixed mode.

I personally have a G router. But I sell my clients N routers. There is a defanite speed and range increase. Becareful what you buy, if you buy something cheap you will get crap results.

I recommend the D-Link DIR-655 Extreme N!

Can you give us some reasons why you recommend the DIR 655? I bought this after being recommended it but don't see any noticeable difference in range from it and my old linksys B that I used for years without problem.

I notice better speed with my laptop which has N capable WIFI but thats about it.

Can you do things with the 655 to get better performance range wise?

[bubble.tea]

Get your facts straight. N has already been ratified.
http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS183099+11-Sep-2009+BW20090911

Gosh. I tried reading that article...but all I saw was IEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE


LOLz.