Should I go wireless N?

Ok, so I currently have a Wireless-G router and I need to get wireless from the basement to my room upstairs. (No I can't simply move my router to the middle floor)

So, I was thinking I should swap out that Wireless-G router with a Wireless-N router so that the signal can reach upstairs. (I do have a Wireless-N card in my notebook) But, it may be cheaper just to extend my current Wireless-G router.

So, my question is this, Will the wireless-N router give me better performance over the Wireless-G router? I was reading somewhere that internet browsing speeds, are equal between the two. But what about gaming? I plan on playing Age of Conan, so having a great internet connection is almost a need. I know that Wireless-G has a max of 54mbps, whereas Wireless-N can get about 108mbps. But does this mean that I would get better performance while gaming? Would it be better performance over just extending my Wireless-G?

 

N will definitely give you a higher throughput among the computers in your home network, however if you are far away from the router, your link will dynamically downgrade to G, most likely.

In the other hands buying a N router with extended range coverage feature you might get be able to get 100Mbps and higher.

Now keep in mind that no matter how fast is your speed within your home network components, your bottleneck is the ISP connection, which means it won't change much to get a N router as Internet is concerned.

 

Yes but what exactly does the increase in Mbps do? lower latency in games? faster browsing? Faster downloads?

 

Behind the router, at your home network it will speed up the communication among the computers, which is good if you play games with other computers at "home"

Playing games with internet won't change much, and latency is ISP network dependent.

Nope, it won't help you to surf faster or download faster.

 

So... basically its pretty much useless to me as far as performance goes? I really don't communicate with other computers on my network. So extending my Wireless-G is the way to go! Thank you for saving me a bunch of money.

 

No problem.

 

dreon

I don't know if it will help, but here's a setup I did in an apartment complex.

The guy was living on the 2nd floor of an apartment complex. His g/f was on the 3rd, when she wasn't w/ him

They didn't both want to pay for cable/internet. He had a G router and was trying pickup the signal on his g/f desktop on the 3rd floor. They were on opposites sides of the building-she was not right above him. The G card they had in the desktop could not pick up his network.

So I told him we'd try an N router. I setup a DIR 655 and set it to broadcast on G/N w/ wpa2. She picked up his network on G and it was a strong signal.

It probably didn't have to travel as far as yours would, or go thru as many walls and floors. Plus it was newer construction, so the signal went farther.

You might try an N router and if it doesn't reach, just take it back.