I'm looking at getting 100mbps cable from Charter. I ordered a NP9150 from XoticPC recently, and I have a WRT160N wireless router. Should I consider upgrading the wireless card from stock? I don't mind installing it myself, if needed.
What sort of router/connection will I need to notice a benefit from an upgraded wireless card?
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A card that has room for three antennas so that you can get speeds up to 450 Mbps, same with the router and make sure it does both 2.4 and 5 Ghz.
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You could do with a better router than the one you have.
It's hard to get real-life speeds of 100mbps via Wi-Fi so you should indeed consider a 450mbps router like a Linksys E4200v1 or a Netgear WNDR4000/4500 -
Thank you for the suggestion, you two.
What are the benefits of the dual band router?
Another thing: if I upgrade from the stock to a wireless card with 3 antennas, do I have to buy/install antennas myself, or are the extra wires just attached somewhere in the chassis? -
You'll have to attach them (antennas) yourself.
As for the router WNR3500L is a good router overall but similar to Asus RT-N16 which is nearly incidental hardware-wise it's not famous for neither wireless range nor throughput so my recommendations stands- either a good 450mbps router (on 5GHz band) or at least a very good 300mbps one (like WNDR3700 v2) -
How much of a difference will there be from a WNDR3700 and a WNDR4000 or Linksys E4200?
Sorry for all of the questions. I'm a little new to the higher end of networking. -
Using smallnetbuilder data for reference in good signal conditions (close to the router) 450mbps one should give you 80-85mbps of rel-life transfer (up to 100mbps for a Linksys EA3500) while with 300mbps good routers should give you 75-80mbps.
If it doesn't seem like much of a difference- it isn't but that's how it works.
In case you thought of buying a 802,11ac router with a theoretical speed of 1300mbps- don't- it's barely any faster than 450mbps at this point, -
That is an extremely helpful website. Thank you!
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Actually, i can hit a pretty solid 100mbps LAN to WAN on my E3000, but my wireless environment is pretty close to ideal on 5GHz, not that much distance between the router and the computer, plus the band is deserted so YMMV. Also note that that is for network transfers (computer -> router -> computer rather than modem -> router -> computer), i don't think it makes a difference though. I'd go for a 450mbps router as a precaution and if your wireless environment ends up being pretty good, then.
Screenshot of data transfer over wireless on my network:
Should I look into another wireless card?
Discussion in 'Networking and Wireless' started by gkrules, May 23, 2012.