Building a Dual Band Network

[deppeler]

I have a G wireless network at home.
I have a G router and G wireless access point.
I am buying a piece of equipment (media player) that supports wireless N.

My question:
If I was to buy an N wireless router, could I connect the G access point to the N router and run 2 bands, one for the media player 5GHz and the other 2.4GHz for the G laptops/iPhone in the house?
Dual Band routers are very expensive and I thought this would possibly do the same thing....

thanks

 

[thiggins]

Sure. You don't even need to use a 5 GHz band router. You can run two networks in 2.4 GHz. Just set one to use Channel 1,6 or 11 and the other to use a different of these three channels. Set each router to a different SSID (network name).

And the media player will connect to your current router just fine. N is backward compatible with G. I'd just try it out with your current router before buying anything else.

 

[deppeler]

Sure. You don't even need to use a 5 GHz band router. You can run two networks in 2.4 GHz. Just set one to use Channel 1,6 or 11 and the other to use a different of these three channels. Set each router to a different SSID (network name).

And the media player will connect to your current router just fine. N is backward compatible with G. I'd just try it out with your current router before buying anything else.

Hey, thanks for the info.
If I did that and each set of devices had their own router I was thinking that the bandwidth would be increased for the media player and it would run at N speed (N router), the laptops etc would be running at G speed (G Access Point), does that make sense??

Also, would having them both running on 2.4GHz create interference for the other?

 

[thiggins]

Hey, thanks for the info.
If I did that and each set of devices had their own router I was thinking that the bandwidth would be increased for the media player and it would run at N speed (N router), the laptops etc would be running at G speed (G Access Point), does that make sense??

You need an N router to get increased speed from an N device, yes.

Also, would having them both running on 2.4GHz create interference for the other?

Not if they are on different channels as I specified in the previous post.

The 5 GHz band will have fewer users and so less competition for bandwidth. But it has shorter range.

 

[deppeler]

You need an N router to get increased speed from an N device, yes.

Not if they are on different channels as I specified in the previous post.

The 5 GHz band will have fewer users and so less competition for bandwidth. But it has shorter range.

Ok thanks again, I think I will just with a mid-priced N router (around up to $80), and use my G AP, do you have any suggestions for a good N router?

 

[thiggins]

My suggestion is to stick with brand names and buy locally from a store with good return policies.