I was wondering if anyone here uses Wireless-N routers/cards. I hear that they are not that much of an improvement over Wireless-G. Dose anyone here with Wireless-N notice anyone difference between G and N?

IMHO, people buying Pre-N equipment (and it is called Pre-N b/c the standard for 802.11n wireless has not been finalized yet) are being sold equipment that might/might not work with the final standard. they are currently having problems with cross platform (A/B/G and N) working together nicely. Pre-N seems to disconnect and G clients etc.

Manufacturers are telling consumers that Pre-N can be fixed (or revised) with a simple firmware upgrade when the IEEE commitee finalzes the standard. This may not be true and all the Pre-N equipment might be left on it's own as the standard will change.

For safety reasons (on saving your money), I would advise staying away from Wireless N (Pre-N) until the standard is complete.

A nice thing about standards is that there are so many of them to choose from..

"Pre-n" is different from "draft n", although it's implied by the term "draft". "Draft" is the stronger term here. But the draft 1.0 is going to be replaced by draft 2.0 in some time, so even that's going the way of the dodo shortly.

Asus is the only vendor that I'm aware of that's guaranteeing forwards compatibility, and even then with some restrictions.

Others like D-Link are explicitly warning you that your product may not be forwards compatible with the final standard.

A key part of the standard improvement is reduced interference with standard G.

About the only reason it's really faster is because it utilizes a different frequency, one that is not used as much, and therefore has fewer interruptions. Once everyone is on N you'll start seeing a decrease in speed again. It's bandwidth in the air. There's a limit. If you're concerned with speed, use channels 1, 6, or 11 on your wireless G router, and use WPA encryption. If you're really concerned with speed, use a cable. Cables are much faster and won't stop to search for, or drop your connection.

From what I know, N still uses the 2.4GHz band (or 5GHz according to wikipedia) which is/are the bands that were and are used by 802.11a (5GHz) and 802.11b/g (2.4GHz). I believe it is faster because of a different modulation technique and MIMO.

From what I know, N still uses the 2.4GHz band (or 5GHz according to wikipedia) which is/are the bands that were and are used by 802.11a (5GHz) and 802.11b/g (2.4GHz). I believe it is faster because of a different modulation technique and MIMO.

According to Netgear product specs the 802.11n draft runs on 2.4GHz which is why it kills 802.11b/g networks and probably disrupts bluetooth connections also.

N is a gimic basically. From what I have read, it really isn't alot of extra *usable* bandwidth and *barely* any extra range. I honestly don't have sources on tap, but that is my feeling based on what I can recall atm.

IMHO, N is a joke, avoid it. Buy a nice G router and just play the waiting game. If I wanted to dig through my networking notes, I could honestly tell you how N comes up with the significantly higher bandwidth, but its 1am and I am not up for it.

I've been using a Belkin Pre-N router for about a year. Put an N card in a desktop at the other end of the house - significant range and signal boost. Also boosts signal and range on my "g" enabled laptop. I don't have any problems with bluetooth interference with phone sync or headset. Working great for me.

Well lucky for you, since i've heard that it does create a ton of problems for mixed b/g/pre-n environments.

Well I do know that pre-n and draft n have the "stated" speeds but in fact perform in a quite lower level. Also it has a lot of other problems. I would agree with most knowledgable people that n stuff as of now is not really worth it. Probably the earliest i'd get an n-like device is on draft v2. But even then i'd still really think hard if i'd get it.

They are supposed to be working on the interference problem. I don't know how far they are, but *officially* it is beign addressed. Whether, they reduce the range of interruption or eliminate it completely, we can only guess. I wouldn't expect real N stuff until late Q4 08 or Q1 09, but thats a personal expectation.

The reason I bought mine was that I couln't get a consistant signal at the other end of the house and my existing router woulnd't take a bridge. It was cheaper to just buy the pre-N router and a card for the desktop. When I bought mine, things were on sale plus there were rebates so the cost was really decent. It was also one heck of a lot easier than crawling under the house and running CAT5 cables all over the place.

The literature at the time said that it sends out 2 signals and they can arrive at the antennas at different times (or something like that). That was the selling pont for me since things like the refrigerator, furnace, and heavy wall tile all interferred with the signal and made it bounce around.

Right now I'm getting 3.1 Mbps for speed to my laptop so it sure seems to be working allright. Don't think I'd run out and buy new technology just for the sake of having it but if you're in the market and have a few problem areas, Pre-N seems to offer some solutions.