which router should i buy?

Forum General Networking : General Gateways, Routers and Firewalls - which router should i buy?

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Im buying a laptop with built in intel pro wireless a/b/g w/ bluetooth. Does the intel wireless pro chipset have a 54Mb/s or 108Mb/s max download rate? Im pretty sure its 54 because if im not mistaken in order to reach 108Mb/s you must have some form of speed booster i.e. "super-g" or speedbooster etc...Im wondering becuase I plan to buy a new wireless router and the 108Mb/s routers can be a bit spendy.

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AFAIK, the various turbo-G techniques are all proprietary, so you would need the same brand of turbo-G adapter as your router to achieve the benefit. So, your built-in is standard 802.11g.

My advice - don't bother with turbo-G, speedbooster-G or whatever marketing name the vendor gives it.

If you need to transfer a large file or do something else where speed makes a difference, connect a wire.

BTW, the "real" data throughput rate for 802.11g, with a strong signal, low noise, and one client is more like 20-25 Mbps, not 54. 802.11g has a lot of overhead that consumes half the available bandwidth. The same holds true for the 108 claims - divide by 2 for your best case scenario. Both of these are considerably slower than your cat5e wire.

But, both are probably considerably faster than your internet connection.

Reply to Iceblue

yeah thats what i have heard, some people have said that on some routers the speed is divided by 4! I have a Dlink DI-624 that i use for a wired connection consisting of 2 computers and and xbox 360 and a ps2 and i havent had any problems with it so i think i will continue to use that for a wireless connection. If it gives me problems then i will switch.

Reply to adamryer
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Quote :

Im buying a laptop with built in intel pro wireless a/b/g w/ bluetooth. Does the intel wireless pro chipset have a 54Mb/s or 108Mb/s max download rate? Im pretty sure its 54 because if im not mistaken in order to reach 108Mb/s you must have some form of speed booster i.e. "super-g" or speedbooster etc...Im wondering becuase I plan to buy a new wireless router and the 108Mb/s routers can be a bit spendy.

It'll be: a/b/g (54/11/54). Just like Iceblue already said, you can expect to get nowhere near 54Mbps with a 54g connection. Oh, it'll connect at 54g and say that it's "Excellent", but the throughput is nowhere close. I've tried a few different routers and found the Buffalo High Power (WHR-HP-54G) to be one that can punch holes through walls like no other. Downside: It's throughput is nothing special. I have also tried the new Netgear RangeMax Next Gigabit w/ cardbus card and the D-Link DIR-655 w/ cardbus card. The Netgear would be fast one moment, then slow to a crawl the next. I ended up keeping the D-Link. Going through three walls, it can maintain 6MBps (Mega bytes, no bits) FTP connection from my Gigabit connected Buffalo LinkStation Pro. I'm very impressed with the D-Link and it's only on the second rev of firmware.

Reply to clintb

Well I have a D-Link that I bougt earlier this year so ill give that a shot. I only need to get a good signal 1 or 2 rooms away from where the router will be. If i dont like it ill buy a newer D-link and give that a shot.

Reply to adamryer
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