As a new member, I wanted to say how much I appreciate this resource. Although I have a technical background, I haven't paid much attention to wireless networking developments. I'm pretty much a novice. So here's a novice question:
My b/g router just died. I'm using DSL modem as a router temporarily, but it's pretty awful. So I've been looking at N-class routers. I live in a fairly dense neighborhood with a dozen or so WLAN's and who-knows-how-many 2.4Ghz phones, baby monitors, etc, so I'd like to switch to 5Ghz band. However, I've only been able to find a couple of N-class cards that will fit my laptop (mini-pci), and neither supports 5Ghz.
With my b/g router (set to g only), I was able to drag-and-drop files on my LAN with sustained throughput of about 18Mbs, which I understand is typical. However, the best internet download speeds were around 2Mbs, compared to 5Mbs via Ethernet (limited by ISP). This suggests wireless imposes a 60% overhead hit. So I'm not convinced upgrading to N would provide much benefit on internet downloads. Presumably N has similar overhead as G... I guess that's a question.
I noticed that 802.11a operates at 5Ghz, and has max speed of 54Mbs. Given the amount of traffic on 2.4Ghz, I'm wondering if I wouldn't be better off with a legacy A-class router operating on 5Ghz than a N-class operating on 2.4Ghz. Range is not an issue in my situation. I verified my a/b/g NIC supports 5Ghz (there's a checkbox on the label).
What say you?
My b/g router just died. I'm using DSL modem as a router temporarily, but it's pretty awful. So I've been looking at N-class routers. I live in a fairly dense neighborhood with a dozen or so WLAN's and who-knows-how-many 2.4Ghz phones, baby monitors, etc, so I'd like to switch to 5Ghz band. However, I've only been able to find a couple of N-class cards that will fit my laptop (mini-pci), and neither supports 5Ghz.
With my b/g router (set to g only), I was able to drag-and-drop files on my LAN with sustained throughput of about 18Mbs, which I understand is typical. However, the best internet download speeds were around 2Mbs, compared to 5Mbs via Ethernet (limited by ISP). This suggests wireless imposes a 60% overhead hit. So I'm not convinced upgrading to N would provide much benefit on internet downloads. Presumably N has similar overhead as G... I guess that's a question.
I noticed that 802.11a operates at 5Ghz, and has max speed of 54Mbs. Given the amount of traffic on 2.4Ghz, I'm wondering if I wouldn't be better off with a legacy A-class router operating on 5Ghz than a N-class operating on 2.4Ghz. Range is not an issue in my situation. I verified my a/b/g NIC supports 5Ghz (there's a checkbox on the label).
What say you?
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