Wireless Speed Question

I have Comcast Internet coming to my desktop and am considering getting a wireless router so I can experience faster speeds on an older laptop. The laptop has wireless 802.11g. My question is what would my maximum speed available to the laptop and what router would be best to provide that speed?

 

Max of what 802.11g offers is 20mbps of real throughput. If you far from the router it's going to be less than that. To gets any higher you need 802.11n.

There's no point in buying b/g router these days so go for "n"-one it's going to be future proof. I would recommend a TP-Link TL-WR1043ND or a Netgear WNR3500L for $50 and $70 respectively.
There are decent routers that are a bit cheaper than $50 but it's not necessarily worth saving these few bucks.

 

i had also comcast and a laptop with only wireless G. i was using it with an older dlink dir-655 that i got a couple of years ago, and regularly (not always) got 54 Mbps. i would agree though that it doesn't make much sense these days to get a router with only B/G (e.g., i moved on to a new laptop recently that's got an N adapter).

 

I have a wireless g card in my laptop and I bought a Wireless 300N(300Mbps) USB adapter for about $19.00,,You can get a N-Wireless router and N-USB Adapter,,Theres 150N,,,,300N,,,ect wireless combo,,I have used this wireless adapter with Cisco 150N wireless router,connect speed 150Mbps,works well, faster downloads, ect than G. Oh,,forgot to mention had it for years,,not one problem ,,you can connect the wireless router to comcast modem,,I did this for a neighbor,,hardwired one computer,wireless the other,,,,

Cheers
3Fees

 

also be careful of any/all potential interference in the 2.4 and 5.8 gz bands. All it takes is one microwave oven running in the neighborhood to muck up your wireless.........

 

That or a cheap cordless phone. Personally, i use the 5GHz band whenever i can, less chance of interference. It helps that i'm the only one on a 5GHz network in the whole neighborhood too .

 

So, if I understand what 3fees is saying, I can purchase a N wireless adapter for the laptop and a N wireless router through the comcast modem, I will then get speeds up to 150 Mbps even though I have a G card in my laptop??

 

You should enable the N adapter and disable the G card in your laptop if you want to have N speeds.

Your laptop could default to G speeds if you leave both cards enabled at the same time. It depends on what the laptop chooses as the default wireless device.