Wireless G or N for a Network Printer?

BIG RED · Aug 17, 2012

I'm looking into purchasing a new printer. However, the one I am interested in only has up to wireless G. I'm just looking for some opinions. Do you believe I'd be better off with one that has wireless N?

Zepher · Aug 17, 2012

Depends on your router and other devices you have.
If your router is n or g, and everything else you have is n capable and you hook up a g device, everything will run at g speeds.
Some routers have 2 built in wireless networks so you can run g and n simultaneously.

BIG RED · Aug 17, 2012

you mean such as a dual-band router? because that is the one that we are currently using:

Linksys E3200

the router is capable of running mixed mode, which is what i've had it set to ever since i set it up. I'm happy with the performance i've had with the router, so hopefully that shouldn't be an issue?

Zepher · Aug 17, 2012

That will do it.
Any n devices that are not 5ghz compatible will be on the 2.4ghz network along with that g printer though.

bassfisher6522 · Aug 17, 2012

Personally I just share the printer across the network...for me it's just way more easier. Once I share the printer, then each PC in the network can add that printer and windows does the rest. Then all PC's in the network can print from that printer. The beauty of this set up...again for me... is all my laptops on my network print with this setup wirelessly. There is no need for a wireless printer...works for me very well.

BIG RED · Aug 17, 2012

I'm guessing you're able to do this using Windows Workgroup?

Zepher · Aug 17, 2012

bassfisher6522 said:
Personally I just share the printer across the network...for me it's just way more easier. Once I share the printer, then each PC in the network can add that printer and windows does the rest. Then all PC's in the network can print from that printer. The beauty of this set up...again for me... is all my laptops on my network print with this setup wirelessly. There is no need for a wireless printer...works for me very well.

If you have the printer attached to a machine that is doing the sharing, that computer must be turned on to print.
You didn't say how your printer is attached to your network.

bassfisher6522 · Aug 19, 2012

Zepher said:
bassfisher6522 said:

Personally I just share the printer across the network...for me it's just way more easier. Once I share the printer, then each PC in the network can add that printer and windows does the rest. Then all PC's in the network can print from that printer. The beauty of this set up...again for me... is all my laptops on my network print with this setup wirelessly. There is no need for a wireless printer...works for me very well.

Click to expand...

If you have the printer attached to a machine that is doing the sharing, that computer must be turned on to print.
You didn't say how your printer is attached to your network.

Yes..that is correct...I took that as understood.

pbcopter · Aug 19, 2012

I thought the OP said Wireless printer.
In any case, for just printing, wireless g is fine since, a printer's speed is determined by it's mechanical nature not the connection.

GeneO · Aug 19, 2012

Zepher said:
Depends on your router and other devices you have.
If your router is n or g, and everything else you have is n capable and you hook up a g device, everything will run at g speeds.
Some routers have 2 built in wireless networks so you can run g and n simultaneously.

That is not correct. If you have an N router, you can run a mixed N and G network with G devices and the N devices running at N speed (though not to the G device). Until I got rid of my last G nic, I was running just such a network.

DeaconFrost · Aug 20, 2012

It's much easier to setup if the printer itself is network capable, and not "shared" off of a host PC. Then you potentially have to deal with multiple driver versions, permissions, and keeping that PC on all the time. With a network printer, each computer connects to it directly.

That being said, you won't notice a difference in usage between G and N. Most quality home routers can support both at the same time, so worry about the actual features of the printer and related costs.

BIG RED · Aug 20, 2012

with a router configured for mixed mode, are you saying that both N and G devices would be running at N speeds? i thought it would occur differently. wouldn't it be more likely that the N devices would have to run at G speed then because the G devices would not be capable of running at N speed? i could be incorrect regarding this, since I am not very fresh on my networking standards.

chev65 · Aug 21, 2012

BIG RED said:
with a router configured for mixed mode, are you saying that both N and G devices would be running at N speeds? i thought it would occur differently. wouldn't it be more likely that the N devices would have to run at G speed then because the G devices would not be capable of running at N speed? i could be incorrect regarding this, since I am not very fresh on my networking standards.

This is true, if you are running in mixed mode it will slow down the potential speed of the wireless N devices because it must slow down in order to talk to the wireless G clients.

Max wireless LAN speed in mixed mode will be just 54Mbps, but if you run in 802.11n Only' mode you can achieve 300Mbps. This is a significant increase in wireless LAN speeds.

The problem is that most printers I've seen can only handle wireless G which forces the network to run in the slower mixed mode. For this reason I ended up using Ethernet for my printer.

GeneO · Aug 21, 2012

chev65 said:
BIG RED said:

with a router configured for mixed mode, are you saying that both N and G devices would be running at N speeds? i thought it would occur differently. wouldn't it be more likely that the N devices would have to run at G speed then because the G devices would not be capable of running at N speed? i could be incorrect regarding this, since I am not very fresh on my networking standards.

Click to expand...

This is true, if you are running in mixed mode it will slow down the potential speed of the wireless N devices because it must slow down in order to talk to the wireless G clients.

Max wireless LAN speed in mixed mode will be just 54Mbps, but if you run in 802.11n Only' mode you can achieve 300Mbps. This is a significant increase in wireless LAN speeds.

The problem is that most printers I've seen can only handle wireless G which forces the network to run in the slower mixed mode. For this reason I ended up using Ethernet for my printer.

No, I had a mixed mode and could connect to my router with wireless N speeds on my wireless N computers even though I had a wireless G computer in the network. Maybe it is your router.

DeaconFrost · Aug 21, 2012

GeneO is correct. Mixed mode means exactly what the wording suggests...mixed. N devices run at N speeds, G devices run at G speeds.

Zepher · Aug 21, 2012

It looks like n speeds will drop while the g device is actively using the wireless while in mixed mode.
Since it is a printer, speeds only drop while sending data to the printer.

GeneO · Aug 21, 2012

Zepher said:
It looks like n speeds will drop while the g device is actively using the wireless while in mixed mode.
Since it is a printer, speeds only drop while sending data to the printer.

This is my understanding. The G devices and N devices run at their rated speeds when active, but all devices share a limited amount of bandwidth that is time sliced between them. Just like any device, the G device will use up some of the bandwidth available but it will use a bigger slice of the bandwidth for the same amount of data than an N device because its rate is lower. Therefore, the G device (or N for that matter) will only affect other device's rates when the available bandwidth is nearly saturated by the devices.

Wireless G or N for a Network Printer?

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