wireless-b or -g

Hello. Just recently my Belkin 4 port has been crapping out. been dropping the connection. after a 5 year, 40$ investment i think its time to upgrade. right now my current setup is

roadrunner cable ---> belkin router ---> win32 box
then i have ----------belkin router----> cat5 in ---> cat5 out ---> 5 port switch --> about 5 gentoo linux boxes

just bought a presario 1200 lappy for about $150. snagged a wireless-b adaptor for 10$ and a regular ethernet for 12$ both including shipping prices. Not too bad. nevermind the hardware though

here is my connection

:::.. Download Stats ..:::
Connection is:: 4871 Kbps about 4.87 Mbps (tested with 2992 k
Download Speed is:: 595 kB/s
Tested From:: http://testmy.net (Server 2)
Test Time:: 2006/04/20 - 10:44pm
Bottom Line:: 85X faster than 56K 1MB Download in 1.72 sec
Tested from a 2992 kB file and took 5.031 seconds to complete
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.0.2) Gecko/20060308 Firefox/1.5.0.2
Diagnosis: Looks Great : 6.24 % faster than the average for host (rr.com)
Validation Link:: http://testmy.net/stats/id-V2FNDZYPU



anyway, that being said and reading about the different wireless routers this question comes into play

Do i go with a Wireless-B or Wireless-G router / adaptor system.

I have a couple computers id like to have wired and one lappy wireless.

Based on those connection speeds and the current routers on the market, what do i get. Im thinking linksys wireless routers. Which one though. Thanks!!!!!

The Linksys AP are great value for money at the moment. Go for one with two antennas as the diversity gives better performance. You will need to decide if you want one which is a straight access point or one that includes a router and a 4 port switch. They are just about all 802.11g mode now but the problem with having the laptop with 802.11b card in it is that it will drag the whole network down as 802.11b and 802.11g will not work well in the same space so the AP will always drop down to 802.11b to stop problems. If the other computers use 802.11g you would be best to ditch the cheap card and get a 802.11g and the whole network will work allot faster.

Good luck

Dale

well see my main concern is the router/switch. the only thing i have on wireless is an old presario1200. does the switch do 11M/sec or is that just the wireless. and my lappy isnt transfering to anyone else. does 30$ shipped from tiger direct sound good for one of these?




Linksys W11S4PC11 Wireless 802.11b Network Kit - 30$ shipped
ill sell the 10$ card i got for 30 and make 20 on it

Or if i get a wireless g system can some one find me a good one?

The switch will still work at 100Mbps, just the wireless will be effected. I see the router/switch you are looking at is 802.11b so it would be all 11Mbps anyway. I had a look at Tiger direct and they had the WRT54G at a good price, it would be a better choice if you want to future proof your network.

All the best

Dale

802.11b WiFi routers, on Comcast or similar fast connections, are a big no no.

See my blog post about it.

Turns out most of the 802.11b routers have only an 10 Mbps router port, where the 802.11g I tested (and have now) has an 100 Mbps router port.

Was killing me trying to figure out why I couldn't get the speed.

__________________
Eric A. Duncan

Unfortunately the CPU and memory capacity of virtually all SOHO routers still limits the maximum routing throughput of these devices to something around 25Mbps. True 100Mbps throughput routers are still considerably more expensive.

__________________
Jeremy

Marlborough WiFi Project

Yeah. I think that's what I ran into with the old old OLD version 1.0 of the 802.11b router I used to have. Not only being 10Mbps, but also very slow.

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Eric A. Duncan