Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Wireless G versus N

Just curious if anyone has upgraded their B or G wireless setup to the newer N technology? It appears to be faster and achieve further distances.

Right now my HTPC uses a Belkin G adapter and my Qwest DSL G router is upstairs at the other end of the house. For the most part it works pretty good, but at times the signal is weaker and I don't always get 50mbps.

Prices on the N stuff seem to be dropping and was wondering if it would help overall, especially for internet videos/music transfer.

thanks, Randy

I have been using wireless g for my xbox 360 gaming and have not noticed any difference from when I was using a wired connection.

My router is not far from my console though... maybe 50+feet.

my wifi for my denon seems to work great as wireless G as well

I'm not talking about wireless versus wired, I'm talking about wireless "G" versus the new "N" protocol. N is supposed to transmit upto 100mbps versuse the 50mbps of "G", and have a much farther range.

My HTPC is 60ft away in the basement on opposite ends of the house. It works fairly well most of the time, but the "N" may prove to provide faster throughput.

I understood your question, I was just thinking that the new wireless N would be more like a standard wired connection (100mbps)(I guess I didn't really specify that though )

I think it would be benneficial for many uses, I was just stating that the new technology may not be good for gaming.

Same thing for internet streaming...I am not sure if it would make a huge difference. It seems to me the limiting factor would be how fast your computer can get the info from the internet (typically less than 10mbps on a FAST connection.) So I am not sure if the 100mbps would be of much use.

However, I could see the advantages of Wireless N for streaming content stored locally on a computer.

Either way, I am sure that The Wireless N is much better than G.... But you would have to upgrade both your router and access point/wireless device. Not sure if it is worth the extra $$ right now. (at least not for me)

I am using a N router configured to run as BG mixed just for the added distance. It works great. I had tried range extenders and higher gain atennaes, all of which failed to reach the outer corners of my house consistantly. I went to the N router in the hopes of the MIMO technology giving me better coverage and it does exactly as I had hoped.

Ah, 11n... I love and hate it. I'm pretty involved in it so feel free to ping me. (HA! Dumb joke...)

In order for you to take full advantage of 11n (802.11n), you really want to make sure that both ends are 11n (PC and router). Also, if you run in a mixed environment where you have some B and/or G clients, your overall throughput drops to the lowest common denominator. So even if you have an 11n router, if ANY client is 802.11b, your whole wireless network drops to that rate. You can also do what I do. I have an older router run at 802.11g rates, any old clients connect to that. I then run an Apple Extreme at 5 GHz 11n only, so any FAST clients connect to that and don't get bogged down by the older stuff. 5 GHz is also good because your network doesn't get affected by microwaves. The bad thing is that 5 GHz has shorter range than 2.5GHz.

Another way to mix is to also use some powerline Ethernet adapters so you can use your AC wiring to extend your network. For the most part, wired willl ALWAYS be faster than wireless.

But as jake mentioned, you can also use the multiple antennas of 11n routers to take advantage with 11b/g as well. Though you can't take advantage of the > 100Mbps rates.

It's my understanding that in mixed mode you will get true N speeds as long as no other (B or G) is transmitting at the same time as the N system is communicating, once one of the older standards starts transmitting the system then drops to the lowest common denominator.

I am glad you brought up the Ethernet over power lines, I have been thinking of doing this for a couple of the more used PC's in the house. Does it work as well as true cat5/6 wired systems?

I'm running a Belkin N1 and love it. I can get a signal anywhere on my acre property and it's faster than my internet connection (3.0 Gb/S).

Scott

Jason
You are correct. I was referring to running 11n in legacy mode.

I use some Netgear XE104 and 103 devices, rated at 85 Mbps. That's theoretical, you never really get that speed but if your network is only fast ethernet (10/100 Mbps) it's OK. There are units that run up to 200 MBps, which are only useful if you have gigabit ethernet everywhere in your house.