You already have a G router (rated at 54MBps), all your computers connect wirelessly to the internet without a problem. You don't really know what the G or 54 means, just that the router works fine. Why the fuss about the new Wireless N routers and the 300MBps transfer rate? I've also heard this question multiple times:
Our internet only connects at 6MBps. Why do I need 54MBps (G), or even 300MBps (N)?Let's parse through the jargon, why it is important, and pick out some good N router hardware.
What data transfer rate really means
First, let's understand the transfer rate number. Let's take the G router for an example. What 54MBps indicates is that in the best case scenario, you can transfer at 54 Megabits per second. Do not confuse this with Megabytes (MBs), which is what we usually use in gauging the size of a file. There are 8 bits to a byte, so if you're thinking 54MBps means being able to transfer 54MBs in a second, think again -- you need to convert back to MBs.
Now, you get 54MBps transfer rate in a lab setting, but in a practical setting (when you plug in your router at home and have signals go through walls and such), you may only get 20-25MBps. This converts to a data transfer rate of only about 3MB/s. This is the bandwidth that you have. Still not too bad right?
Actually, if you have multiple computers connected, you have to share that bandwidth. So in reality, if you have two computers connected wirelessly, you would get a transfer rate of only 1.5MB/s for each computer. The more computers you have, the lousier your transfer rate becomes. This will start becoming a problem when you want to transfer large files such as videos between computers, hook up multiple systems including gaming systems like the Xbox 360 or PS3, or have a centralized media server that streams video and data to other computers on the network.
Looking for a good wireless N router
You've read the above and feel like wireless N is worth the upgrade for your network. The next logical question would be: which router should you get? Oh the choices! There are a few noteworthy ones I would recommend. The best rated N router is the D-Link DIR-655.
It excels hands down in speed and features.Close behind is its long lost twin, the TrendNet TEW-633GR.
It has the same exact hardware with different loaded firmware, and is usually cheaper (a plus!). The DIR-655 is slightly faster, but not by much. If you think about it though, you'll probably use both the D-Link and TrendNet side by side, so the slight difference in speed won't matter much.Here are some speed comparison reviews that show the difference:Optimizing your network
When you connect to these routers, you can use wireless B/G/N cards. Keep in mind, if you truly want the best speed performance, you'll want to set the N router to use N mode only and connect with N cards. To get the computers with B/G cards on the network, you can link your G router to the N router and have the B/G cards connect to the G router instead. I'll cover this tutorial in another post!
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