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View Full Version : Anyone using a 802.11N router yet?



Greg Peterson
06-12-2009, 2:52 PM
I'm switching my ISP from DSL to cable. I tried Clearwire for a couple of months and while there was rarely a problem with the signal, my bit rate was all over the place. Some nights it would be a solid 2 Mbps, while most nights it was doing good to get up into the 500 Kbps range. It seems as if they throttle down the bit rate once the user has exceeded a threshold. We're a DINK household so no endless MP3 downloads. Our use is pretty minimal. I rarely do Youtube or other such online media.

Anyway, switching to cable and making the desktop computers wireless. Current router is just a G class, and NIC's are also G class.

Anyone using a N class router and NIC's? Any observations you care to share?

Frank Trinkle
06-12-2009, 3:20 PM
You're going to see a very substantial speed increase over wireless network using an "N" router and NIC cards.
I have preferred Linksys routers for my Windows computers, but now that I'm virtually 80% Apple Mac's, we use Apple's "N" router with exceptional results.

You can always live with the "G" router and NIC's if you don't have significant speed requirements, but you will definitely see a speed jump with the "N" systems if you choose.

Matt Ellis
06-12-2009, 3:36 PM
you know you're a wood geek when you read a thread title that has the word "router" in it, and think "why didn't he put that in the general wood working section!":p

-matt

Greg Peterson
06-12-2009, 5:16 PM
Frank - Thanks for the feed back. Right now everything is either wired or G spec'd. I'll have everything running in G mode this weekend. Is G mode noticeably slower than cat 5?

Matt - Um, yea, I was talking about the Binford 802.11N Router. Super high RPM and exceptional horsepower to boot. Includes a hardwood network Address table. :D

Frank Trinkle
06-12-2009, 6:23 PM
Cat 5 and G are two different animals. Cat 5 is a designation for the cable that connects to your router, or from your router hard wired to your computers. It has nothing to do with wireless speeds.

But for the record, if you're going to buy wire, buy Cat 5e which is a later spec than just Cat 5. The "G" is wireless speed capability. The "N" designation is a newer protocol that allows faster wireless transmission.

So... WIRE is Cat 5 (or preferable Cat 5e), and WIRELESS is either "G" or "N" specification.

And by the way.... The 802.11n specification is not really "new". Its been available for over two years now....

Greg Peterson
06-12-2009, 7:48 PM
Frank - Sorry I wasn't clear. Purely an academic question as to transfer rates of Cat5 versus G. I'm converting the home network to wireless and was just wondering if wireless would provide the same level of network performance as cat5. Not that it really matters because the limiting factor will be the link on the ISP's side of the modem.

Frank Trinkle
06-12-2009, 9:13 PM
You will always get faster speed with a wired connection.

Having said that, Cat 5 cannot transmit much faster than 100mBits, whereas the newer Cat 5e is the standard for use with the newer 1gBit network capability of recent PC's. This is much more important for internal networking, rather than Wide Area Networking (WAN or Internet), though in the near future, WAN speeds may approach the full capabilities of the wire.

sean m. titmas
06-12-2009, 9:43 PM
hey Frank, what kind of cruel joke is this? i read your title and thought there was a new router out there that i haven't heard off yet and thought i was in for a surprise. boy was i ever surprised.

Tim Morton
06-13-2009, 7:49 AM
I am using an Airport Extreme dual band...not sure i notice the difference web surfing, but it is much faster transferring files. I bought it in order to stream video to my TV, but so far i have not done that yet....

Jim Becker
06-13-2009, 7:34 PM
And by the way.... The 802.11n specification is not really "new". Its been available for over two years now....

It's still a draft specification, however, and changes can still occur that "could" render some hardware unusable when the final specification is approved. It's not expected to be finalized until December 2009 at this point.