Windows 7 - Determine what type wifi to use

ok so i've been spending ALOT of time reading and soaking up information, trying to learn as much as i can about how all this glorious tech stuff works..

my next goal: to be able to determine how to identify which type of wifi i need to use, B/G/ or N

so ive learned a fair bit about the IEEE 802.11 set of standards. From previous threads, i was instructed to make sure i only broadcast for the types of devices i have. i know what router type i have... question is, how do u determine for ur other devices o_O

lol I admit im a total noob at this stuff still.

Um, if you let your router auto handle it you wont have to worry about what your devices are.

You need to make sure they are all on the same channel so they can talk to each other, but a "N" router will auto-negotiate with a "G", or "B" device.

What are you really trying to do specifically?

hmmm well if i knew how to quote from a different thread i would... but this thread was inspired by the conversation within my other thread "Roaming Aggressiveness", where Barman and myself were discussing tips on speeding up your wifi connection.

one of the tips was related to specifying which type to use.

Barman is correct in this statement
With the B/G/N question, only broadcast what you have devices for - if you only have N devices broadcasting the B & G components will be an overhead, that is wasted. similarly if you have only G type devices I would not bother to broadcast the N as this would not be used.

But the slowest part of your connection isnt the devices you have but the connection to the internet.

Even if you were running "B" with some overhead, I am pretty sure your download speed from the ISP is not faster unless you have a very fast broadband connection.

"B" is ~11 Mb, "G" is ~54, and "N" is up to 350 Mb. If your connection is even blazingly fast @ 50 Mb "G" and "N" will be faster.

If you transfer file wirelessly from one computer to another within you home network it would make a difference, but if you dont the bottleneck is still your ISP connection.

Do you know what your ISP is providing you?

Bellsouth

so.... all this talk about "If u only have N devices...." i think that is the target of my focus. I'm trying to get an answer that actually specifies steps to locate that information.... how to determine what type of device my laptop is.... or further, if there is a specified type for any other device apart from the router, and im just reading all this wrong. like i said, i know my router is type N, but the router is only one of the devices.... my laptop is the device im curious to know about.

thank you in advanced

Your computer supports b,g, and "n".

Other devices? I need their mfr's and models to be able to find out.

The important thing when deciding which of B / G / N to use, what kind of devices to use and install, is the range. Images in this post tell you more about the difference.

Kari

thank you that answered my question ... my computer was the only other device that i could think of.... lol the whole reason i brought up the word device is cuz thats what was spoken to me.... as far as i know, im strictly modem/router to laptop... thats all i have... lolz... i just want my wifi connection on my laptop to run better, and thats the only devices that i have using it... so to my knowledge, its the only devices

so if my computer accepts all, and N broadcasts the most distance.... even tho it accepts all, should i still run all type from the router? or should i only broadcast type N from it? if all im running device wise is my laptop.

btw, thank you for being patient with me :P

lol its hard helping us newbs sometimes :P