Wireless-N - worth the upgrade?

[Ferris Bueller]

I've heard almost nothing about wireless-n technology. I've been using the standard wireless-g router/adapter combo that everyone else uses and I cant find any current tech articles about the relevance of wireless-n. One of my buddies got a N router and adapter and he seems to love it, but hes not technologically inclined, so he couldnt elaborate. So to you techheads out there, whats the skinny, and is it worth my money to upgrade?

If it helps, my current setup is 3 computers and an Xbox360 on one Linksys WRT54G router in a two story block house, all on various wireless G adapters (all linksys except for the 360, which uses the MS-built adapter)

[Tonk]

i think range is the only different factor, because the antenas are 3 wires with a special card.. they are cool looking, but if you arent a mile away from your router, i dont think it matters

[=Sarc=]

It's faster and has better range. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/802.11n

If you're satisfied with what you have, there really isn't any reason to upgrade to it. It's also still in the drafting stage so the final revision of the protocol may be different. The protocol is designed to be backward compatible though. If one computer has bad reception, you can get a wireless N router and adapter for that one computer. The rest can connect to the wireless N router using wireless G.

[Ferris Bueller]

Yeah, reception is my main problem. I dont completely lose connection, but I have poor to weak connection strength most of the time. I also heard something about the fact that a standard wireless g card or even a 10/100 (standard) wired ethernet card cant function at the full capacity that most cable providers offer, but wireless N can because of the MIMO (multi in multi out) technology that it uses. Can anyone confirm this? I'd certainly benefit from it if it aided with lowering my latency.

[Tonk]

it wouldnt lower your latency per say, (at least not anything noticible) but it increases your bandwidth.... more download speed, same amount of time for information to get from server to computer, just more at the same time
and also 10/100 cards are in MBPS not Mbps so unless you- have a 100MBPS cable connection, you wont likely produce a bottle neck any time soon, i have noticed that my cable provider is increasing the bandwidth of my plan, when i first bought it, there was 2 options, 1.5mbps and 3mbps, for 35 and 50 respectivly, about 2 years ago, it went to 3 and 5 mbps respectivly, with the price staying the same, about 6 months ago, it went to 6 and 12 mbps and the price dropped 10 for each... =D i have had the $50 one that is now 40, so if they quadruple the connection speed every 2 years, i have about 8 years before a 10/100 card is a bottleneck, and 4 years till my wireless is bottlenecked

[Bamboo]

What they ^ all said is true, but it might also help if your bad reception is coming from interference from other devices like a microwave and cordless phone and lots of other random things. Your G works at 2.4 GHz, while N works at 5 GHz, so a different spectrum that isn't already saturated.
They also just had the CES show this past week, and they had tons of products touting N. Lots of stuff from Netgear announced the 1st day if I remember correctly. Look at Engadget.com and search for Netgear and it should come up.
Other thing is right now it costs 2-3 times as much to get N hardware as G, but if you are having problems, it might be worth it not to have to mess with the hassle.
Most companies are saying also that there stuff will work with the final N release, when ever they get their act together.

[ScratchMonkey]

Originally Posted by Tonk

it wouldnt lower your latency per say, (at least not anything noticible) but it increases your bandwidth.... more download speed, same amount of time for information to get from server to computer, just more at the same time

Note that this does not improve most games, as games use small packets and need low latency, not high bandwidth. This only helps if your sister is doing big P2P downloads as giving her more bandwidth leaves more pipe available for you to slip your packets through.

and also 10/100 cards are in MBPS not Mbps

Not so. Early Ethernet is 10 megabits over coax. Currently common Ethernet is 100 megabits over unshielded twisted pair (UTP). Top-end Ethernet is gigabit, over more of the pairs, and needs better quality copper and tighter terminations at the connectors (ie. can afford less untwisted length at the crimp). Bleeding edge is 10 gigabit Ethernet. Very expensive right now.

so unless you- have a 100MBPS cable connection, you wont likely produce a bottle neck any time soon

Faster wireless makes transfers between your own PCs faster. Handy for downloading that giant patch once, then copying it to the other PCs in your LAN quickly.

[ShooDaddy]

I bought the wireless-n going from wires, so I can't compare it to anything.

All I can say is that I haven't had any trouble with it, the connections to both other desktops and laptops are fantastic.

I didn't here much about it when I bought it either, just that it was next to experimental lol.

[Snail88]

i just bought a n router and using it with g adapters. I got it since my old g router was crapping out and ill upgrade to n adapters sometime in the future. I can say that it has definately improved my connection though in g. I went from fair to very good so it was a plus for me.