Readers Respond: Do You Need 802.11n Speed or Any Other Benefits of Wireless-N?

For years now, many households have enjoyed networks set up with older 802.11g/b Wi-Fi gear. Some even use aircards and 3G/4G wireless connections to cellular networks for their Internet access. Both of these options may run slower or less reliably than 802.11n. Do you feel compelled to upgrade your router or other wireless equipment to Wireless-N?

2.4 N not that great

In my neighborhood 2.4 wireless rules. So much channel crowding that N speed channel bonding is not going to happen well. N should have never happened on 2.4 band. All of the 2.4 band routers are defaulting to single channel operation anyway due to good neighbor standards. I am basically getting G speeds anyway even if my connect speeds show higher. Its really averaging around 54 to 72 Mbps. At night even lower when stations are more active. Considering my broadband speed is 25mbps. Why do I need more then G speed anyway?

—Guest john s

N is worse, for my needs.

Many of the IP security cameras out there are G, not N, so if you buy an N router thinking that it will improve your security camera performance, think again. Many if not all of the Linksys N routers have a G mode that's actually slower than my WRT54GL wireless G router. I was far better off buying a powerline extender than a new router.

—Guest khentiamentiu

N is the way to go

Guys, just using the internet is not the only thing you could do with a router. You could stream movies, pictures across your devices at home like from a network hard disk to your Smart TV, or from your Phone to your TV or Phone to Laptop. To be able to support high bandwidth transfers you need a N Router. The G network would succumb to death... .

—Guest Bobby

Only good if we had more channels

Only upgraded to new router because my old D-Link "g" router doesn't support the newer PnP / SPI firewall standards. Went to a WD n900 for dual band support and bought an aftermarket Intel Centrino 6300 for my new laptop (which Dell was kind enough to have the required third antenna pre-installed) to get away from the 2.4 band because my neighbourhood was crowded with them. Only problem is I still need at least WEP encryption for DS games. But since this router was certified by the Wi-Fi alliance (although their WPS tech is insecure so I don't get why theyre still allowed to give input on an IEEE standard) I can't have both options speed vs. encryption. I don't get why they allow no encryption but "n" speeds as an option... because that's no worse then WEP.

—Guest 8675309

Yes to N

Went from 1 hour to DL a 10 meg file to 10 minutes for the same file from the same site. For me it worked out good. ...and its is even faster when working in Linux.

—Guest Chofak

N is way better!

For _me_ N has far better throughput reliability, speed, and distance. But it is a tad tricky to setup, you have to tinker with the router AND the CPUs. On a Bellkin (NP600) the best I got was 54mbps in N mode, a limit set by the mfg. Depending on where the client(s) were located, that dropped under 6mbps with intermittent disconnects. I swapped in a Linksys E4200 and saw immediate improvement to 148mbps, and better distance. I found my speed would only go to 148mbps on 2.4GHz, but 284mbps on 5GHz. 5GHz is supposed to give less distance, but my straight-line (through walls and multi-story (4-floors)) was OK, so I put b/g on 2.4GHz only and set N on 5GHz exclusive. Bingo! 284mbps, improved distance, and minimum speed to weakest location over 70mbps. N is rated to 300 so I tweaked some more. the final key was disabling IPv6 on the CPUs adapters, that gave me 300mbps. I don't need or use IPv6 so that's no loss, and great gain!

—Guest FastFreddie

Better range - not

Apparently not......I was told that it would increase the range from the router. My ancient D-Link transmitted as well if not better.

—Guest Doug

N works for me

Just got a Cisco-Linksys N to replace a misbehaving G. Went from a max of 8-12 down to 18-27 on Mediacom.

—Guest wirelesswillie

A take on 2.4 GHz vs 5 GHz

For me 2.4 N is more uniform and compliant with most of the hardware out there. Not much 5 Ghz stuff right now. It also creates a problem if you do not have all 5Ghz hardware. I agree unless you really need more local network speed for video streaming for example. Or use a server for backups. I think people buy the higher priced routers and get little benefit from them. In my house I have Mac's, Roku,PC laptops and phones. All of which get different connect speeds to that same router. Anywhere from 65Mbps to 130Mbps. Wireless is NOT so cut and dried as what speeds you will get compared to wired. Too many limitation from range, obstacles,hardware compatibility and so on create road blocks to speed. Even the routers capacity to handle throughput can be a issue. Such as using higher encryption can cause throughput problems. If the router has a slow CPU. Especially handling multiple devices. people need to realize that the router makers quote maximum possible speeds. Not typical speeds.

—Guest John

New is better (N = G * 2)

There is way too much focus on the actual numbers that are used for advertising. Unfortunately, the marketing side has ruined much of our technology (take wireless 4G for example). But now to get to the point. Verizon only offers a (Wireless-)G router, and to the majority of Americans they won't ever know they are getting screwed over. I have tested the network speeds both with the provided G and a personal (Wireless-)N router. While on Ethernet I get 30 down, on G I get 10 down, and on N I get 20 down. In addition, while the G connection is only seen as fair where my computer is, the N is seen as excellent. So forgetting all the marketing, G is half of what N offers, both in speed and in range.

—Guest Hiddentalnt

Better speed for internal network - NOT

Hello.Why you need better speed with an N router when your ISP give you 12Mbs only?! Sorry, but this is a stupid question ! I did upgrade my router with a N one thinking I'll get better speed for my internal network (wireless). I don't care about Internet speed which is 6Mbs only. I bought Netgear WNR 3500L. Well surprise, this rubbish router will give me max 3MB jut 3m far away from the router.3 MB is 24Mbs which I can handle with my old Linksys router. So where is that 300Mbs?! 300Mbs wont get in 300 years ! All what you'll get will be max 100Mbs with a N router. And say thanks if you get that speed. Netgear tech support doesn't have a clue about to fix It.

—Guest Vlad

Simple math, isn't it?

Easy answer. If the speed your ISP gives you is higher than 54 mbps (unlikely), upgrade to Wireless-n. I have a Wireless n router on the third floor of my house, and I still get bad signal on the first floor. And it says I'm connected at 26mbps while typing this on my laptop on first floor.

—Guest reasonably educated

Consider video streams, gaming, surfing

Really depends on what you want. If you have a high quality video on one computer (server perhaps) and play on another computer (Home Theater PC?) 802.11g will sometimes hiccup in my experience, not with N. If you play games through wireless you will get a lower ping (less delay.) I can even tell the difference when surfing the net, but the difference is instead of taking half a second to load a page it takes maybe .3 seconds. Internet bandwidth is limited to at your internet connection, so big downloads are the same with both. Because of the difference in latency, or ping, your half hour download on G might take 29.5 minutes on N. So if you need that extra 0.1 second to make a headshot on an internet game, absolutely hate waiting 0.1 extra second for a page to load, you want N. If you stream high quality videos and hate the very occasional hiccup you want N. Personally I only upgraded because my old router died. Was it worth the extra bucks? Maybe, and its ready for future

—Guest magneto

Only a small difference [in speed]

... am using a samsung galaxy pop. Little difference. A D-link router under 50... net speed by bank is 512kbps..india bsnl

—Guest Victor

2N or not 2N (update)

Huge difference with a Netgear N600 Modem Router attached... Huge!

—Guest EMy1 C4