The nuts and bolts of wireless standards
Question:
I was recently at a local computer store looking at wireless routers for my house. We have one already at home that is getting old. The new wireless routers seem to be advertising faster speeds and something called wireless-N. I was wondering what the difference is between older wireless routers and new ones?
Answer:
Before I can answer your speed question I would like to give you some background information on the different types of wireless standards. As of this date there are 3 major standards and there is one standard in the process of becoming standardized. Each standard builds upon the previous one offering faster speeds and further wireless range. These standards are also not compatible with each other. So maybe you have been over at a friend's house that has wireless internet access and your laptop will not see the wireless router thus being unable to connect. This is probably because he/she is using a different standard then your laptop supports. Some laptops support "A", some support "B", some support "G" which is all the standards bundled into one.
The following is a list of the wireless standards that are available in order from past to present. Included is the transfer rate that should be expected from each standard.
802.11a - referred to as "A"
Provides speeds of up to 54Mbps (Mega Bytes Per Second) is usually found on business networks but of higher costs.
802.11b -referred to a "B"
Provides speeds of up to 11Mpbs and the technology is cheaper then A. It is an older standard so if you have an older wireless router it is probably "B" Standard.
802.11g - referred to as "G"
Provides speeds of up to 54Mbps and attempts to combine the best of "A" and "B". All new wireless routers and access points are compatible with G.
802.11n - referred to as "N" or "pre N"
Provides speeds over 100Mbps and offers maximum range. The down side is that it is not yet finalized so products with 802.11n are taking the risk that "IEEE" could change the standard thus making your new wireless router incompatible.
Now that you have some background information we can address your speed question. If you are using your wireless network to transfer files between two computers at your home or business the answer is "YES", moving from a B standard to G will defiantly increase your wireless speed. If you are using your wireless network strictly for internet usage the answer is "NO", most internet connections are around the 3Mbps mark and even the slowest wireless speed is 11Mbps so you can see that your internet will max out before your wireless connection will.
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