Considering replacing your old Wireless G Router with a Wireless N router?

In this article we'll look at the performance advantages of Wireless N over Wireless G. We'll also discuss several other features that come with many Wireless N routers  which you may find exciting and useful.

Speed And Range

The two obvious advantages over Wireless G are speed and range. The typical Wireless G router tops out at about 54Mbps. This is way faster then the old B standard which maxed out at only 11Mbps but not nearly as fast as an N router. Wireless N routers reach speeds up to 300Mbps. That's almost six times as fast as a G router. Wireless N range is about double that of a wireless G router.

The question is do you really need all this extra performance? Well if you have only one or two people on your home network at a time and each of you do little more then surf the web and print an occasional document the answer is not really. If you are playing games or doing a lot of downloading Wireless G speeds can get a bit cumbersome. If you are streaming HD video throughout your household a wireless G router will quickly become a frustrating bottleneck.

Usage Considerations

Another thing to consider is how many people you expect to use your wireless home network at once. One or two people on a wireless G network is no big deal. If you have 3 or 4 people on at once things may come to a screeching halt very quickly.

Wireless router under 100 dollars use a system of multiple antennas to increase signal strength and increase range. This is called MIMO for Multiple Input Multiple Output. When you combine MIMO with Wireless N's speed and range 3 or 4 people should have more then enough bandwidth and range to surf, download and print effortlessly.

Even more performance is available with routers which are designed for gaming and HD video. These routers have high speed processors and additional memory designed to handle the most demanding games and streaming HD video. Connect one of these high performance routers to your XBox, PlayStation or Bluray player and enjoy intense gaming and HD video streaming in any room of your home.

More Wireless N Features

Another interesting feature of Wireless N is it can operate on a much less crowded frequency band then wireless G. Wireless G's 2.4GHZ frequency band is shared with cordless phones, baby monitors, garage door openers and other wireless routers. This can easily cause interference problems which are hard to pinpoint. Wireless N operates on the 5GHZ frequency band which is more "wide open" then the 2.4GHZ band. Most dual-band wireless routers take advantage of this feature by allowing you to run two networks at the same time. One on the 5GHZ band and the other on the 2.4GHZ band. This ensures your gaming and video streaming activities don't interfere with your day to day web surfing and emailing activities.

Another cool feature many N routers offer is a built in USB port. This USB port can be used to make the contents of most memory sticks and USB hard drives available to all the devices on your wireless network. Some routers further enhance this functionality with a built in media server which can allow you to stream video and music to all your computers.

Disadvantages

Now that you understand all the benefits of purchasing a Wireless N router the only concern you may have is price. The good news is prices have come way down. Every time a manufacturer upgrades a certain model the one that preceded it comes down in price. This is great for people who don't need to have the "latest and greatest" version of everything that hits the market. There are now very good N routers available for little more than the price of a typical G router. The other consideration is compatibility. While N is backward compatible with G you lose the speed and range benefits of N unless you upgrade your wireless adapters to N as well.

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