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I have an older Dlink 802.11b set-up that has served its purpose, but I think that it is limiting my connection speed. At the modem the speed is 3500 kb/s. Checking the speed on the computer it drops to about 1500. I am wondering if a newer "super G" will increase my connection speed much? The router is only about six feet away, so distance isn't a factor for upgrading only speed.
Thanks Glen
IIRC 802.11b setups will give you a 10Mbit/s or so connection, which is perfectly fine. Upgrading to a new standard won't do much for your speed but it will help keep your network a bit more secure.
Max theoretical throughput for 802.11b is 10Mbps (= 1.250MB/s). 802.11g has a max theoretical throughput of 54Mbps (= 6.75MB/s).
If the router is only six feet away, I highly recommend using cable instead. It's quite common that wireless routers come with a few ports for cat5 anyway. Whenever I have the chance, I prefer to go cabled as well. It's faster, provides more bandwidth and much more stable. Most cat5 ports on a router are 100Mbps, almost twice the bandwidth of 802.11g.
There isn't any outlets on the wall by the PC so that is why I needed to go wireless. So would I gain a little by using the G band?
Well, you will have a greater maximum bandwidth avaiable with wireless G. However, the connection speed will be throttled depending on the signal strength between the two devices. If you have a good strong signal between devices, then yes, wireless G should afford you some faster speeds.
I am using a "Draft N" Linksys set up that is indicating between 27 and 108mbs while I am currently sitting on a couch where, previously, we could not even get a reliable connection with our old 802.11B stuff. At this range the speed is noticable better, although this conclusion is totally subjective and non-techy. At close range the speed seems as good as it is on Cat 5, but probably is not as reliable (although we have not had any problems in about 3 weeks of use).
From 6 feet even if you're only getting half of the 10Mbit bandwidth, it's still supposed to be a heck of a lot faster than the fastest consumer broadbands.
Maybe in north america; but, from what I hear, broadband is at another level in europe.Quote:
Originally Posted by FiReSTaRT
I was talking about North America though. To me even 1.5Mbit/s is more than enough. BT's 8Mbit/s would be wasted on me.
Just noticed this post and thought i would share a little secret although not to sure if it works :cry:
http://www.engadget.com/2005/03/22/w...ghz-repeaters/
Fudge me....I'm not exactly non-versed on computers but I could hardly follow a word of what was said in this topic!
Draft N will is generally much better. The range is just better than 802.11b/g because of improvements in radio tech. and phys. transfer rates. Seems to do a much better job in homes with lots of walls and angles, that cause some problems for reception for b/g routers.
The obviuos problem with "pre-n" is due to the lack of an adopted standard, companies implement things differently so it seems to be hit or miss with people and different deployment scenarios. Once things get consistent, I think it will make wireless networks in the home a much better experience.
Just a quick note; depending on where you live even in NA you may see a difference in speeds between 802.11b and g. I have an 8 MBit cable connection at home and it has some thing called "powerboost" by Comcast. I am not sure how PB works, but on my cabled machine I almost had a heart attack the day after they implemented it, and I downloaded IE7 from microsoft at 1280 kbps.
To be fair, you can almost see Redmond from the space needle...:) But I routinely hit 800-900 kbps on downloads, and the my connection's latency has dropped, too.
However, I am using a cabled connection on that computer at 100Mbps. My wife's laptop has a 802.11g in it and gets 54Mbps throughout our apartment, but it is still noticeably slower on large file transfers. Why is this? I really don't know. Looking at the numbers, it shouldn't make a bit of difference, since the connection is capped at 8 Mbps, each computer should easily be able to max out the connection. It just doesn't seem to work that way.
If anyone has a more technical reason, I'd love to hear it :)
Quote:
Originally Posted by LX_Emergency
Well funny how things happen around here. Almost like that game where people are in a circle and whisper something to the person next to them... By the time it gets to post number 12 or so it is a new topic.
Just to clarify things Mr LX, I just wanted to know if my internet connection would improve (faster) if I upgraded to Super G. Range is not a problem.
Thanks Wok!
Glen