Thinkpads Forum

Hi,

Just got a wireless n router (Belkin N1), and while it does the job, its not really worth upgrading if you have a wireless G router. My old router was a netgear super G (108 mbps) and performed just as well. I suppose the N would be better if there was network attached storage...But I dont have any.

Im sure alot of you knew this already, but just a heads up for anyone getting a new thinkpad and wanting to upgrade their router.


Paul

well if you have a G card then of-course there's no benefit. The benefit is if you have a N router and an N card in your laptop that work together to give you 300Mbps speeds. Surfing the internet wont get faster because even .11B is faster than most home internet speeds.

Hi, I should have explained myself better.

The super g was in my old desktop (Super g router and PCI card)

After gettin a thinkpad with wireless N i got the wireless n router.

With the mathched wireless n setup, it is no better (for brosing and downloading files) than the super G.

You should be aware that for the Intel card to bond two channels in an urban setting you'll most likely need a wireless router that supports 5.8 GHz and most simply don't. The Intel 4965 does not bond two channels at 2.4 GHz. when there is another 2.4 GHz access point in the area.

as i said earlier, surfing the internet wont be faster because the internet you have is probably (if you're lucky) 10Mbps or even 20Mbps (FIOS). 802.11G is already 54Mbps so that's more than fast enough and is therefore limited by your internet connection speed, not the router. Super G at 108Mbps is not gonna make it go any faster and neither will 802.11N at 300Mbps.

SHoTTa35 wrote:802.11G is already 54Mbps so that's more than fast enough and is therefore limited by your internet connection speed

An ADSL2+ or HFC cable connection running faster than ~16Mbps will certainly supply data faster from the ISP servers than a 802.11g wireless link at the domestic end can usually carry it.

54Mbps is the maximum raw wirless link speed, not the actual data transfer throughput capacity.

Cheers,

Bill B.

well my point was even tho 54Mbps was theoretical, the actual speeds still range from 20 - 31Mbps depending on local conditions. 20Mbps is actually on the low side for most routers and even with N in the 2.4Ghz space, it still would be of almost no benefit if he lives in an area where there's lots of interference. An A or N router in the 5Ghz range would offer more speed than a N router. I'm looking to go all A on my equipment since i have an A\G card in my laptop anyways.

theinquirer has an interesting article about speed in a/b/g/n.