What wireless card should I get?

DeaconFrost · 09 Feb 2012

Lemur said:

+1 to Deacon (can't give you more rep until I spread it around some more)

Same...I tried to give you some as well!

Lemur · 09 Feb 2012

Hehe. I'm 8 points away from my first badge. Didn't realize it until recently.

snapjaw · 09 Feb 2012

DeaconFrost said:

Lemur said:

Something else to think about. You can have 300 mbps, but if your ISP has a download speed of 10 mbps, that will be the limiting factor. Of course you can transfer pc to pc wirelessly.

Thank you...was waiting for someone to give the most important bit of information.

The speeds you are worrying about are far more than what your actual connection to the internet is. Any wireless adapter above B will be more than capable of handling whatever your ISP brings to your house.

That's like spending extra money to make sure a car goes from 150 mph to 200 mph, even though speed limits may be 55-65 mph.

Well I have time warner cable but I dont know what speed they offer. All I know is I ran a LAN Speed App off of my laptop and got varying results from 200 - 400 mega bits per second. Ill have to check what speed my ISP is sending but if a N network has a max rate of 300mbps, why would there be wireless adapters that offer 600mbps like this?
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Lemur · 09 Feb 2012

snapjaw said:

... but if a N network has a max rate of 300mbps, why would there be wireless adapters that offer 600mbps like this?

Good question. Once again, your ISP is going to determine your Internet speed. But the Internet it not everything (yes, it's true). If you have an internal network, you can take advantage of faster speeds for wireless file transfer. That's the real advantage of 802.11n.

Lastly, a wireless router/adapter 802.11n claiming 600mbps should be taken with a grain of salt. Sort of like a car claiming 40 miles per gallon. Your not going to actually realize that speed. In the real world, you actually might see 3/4 to 1/2 that speed.

So ... the reality is if you have a d/l speed of 10 mbps, and you do not use your wireless router for internal networks, you are probably just as well off with 802.11g with 54 mpbs. Again, check with your isp for this information.