Cheap Draft 11n in Disguise: Linksys WRT110 RangePlus Wireless Router Reviewed

[thiggins]

The Linksys WRT110 seems to be a wireless router in search of a problem.

 

[Chip]

Is WRT110 better on G than G-only routers?

I'm not knowledgeable enough to tell from your review: does the WRT110 connect to G adapters faster and farther than a G-only router? Also, does a typical N router connect to G adapters faster and farther than a G-only router?

 

[thiggins]

Draft 11n routers offer no speed advantage over 802.11g products. They might provide slightly better range if they replace a very old 802.11g router with early 11g radio technology.

 

[Unregistered]

Does WRT110 offer broader compatiblity with N clients?

I'm still trying to justify the 110's existence. Your testing showed that the 110 paired with its recommended client performs worse than N routers paired with their recommended clients...but is the WRT110 perhaps more forgiving than N routers when used with non-recommended N clients?

Reason I ask all this is that I'm ready to buy my first wireless router. All I want to do is surf the Web with my company laptop, which only has a G adapter...company won't upgrade laptops for at least a year, and I'll have no control over what brand or type of wireless adapter I'll get with a new laptop. For my situation now, any G router would probably be fine. The WRT110 is actually cheaper right now than a WRT54G2, so I'm inclined to go that way (the 110 is certainly no worse than a 54G2, right?). But for $10 more, I could get a D-Link DIR-625 N router...maybe a little more future-proof...but for my situation, buying the 625 may be a waste of $10.

 

[thiggins]

Trying to "future proof" at this point is kind of foolish. When the spec is finally released at the end of 2009, there will be another generation of routers available. You'll probably want to buy one of those since you'll have a long wait for firmware upgrades to bring any current products up to the released spec.

If all you want to do is web surf with a notebook that has an 11g adapter, most any wireless router will do. I would just buy an inexpensive 11g router and not worry about "future proofing".