Netgear Rangemax 802.11n - Anyone using it?

[bpotter]

I found the experience of 802.11g disappointing, or rather my kids, who are two wooden floors away from the Netgear DG834G router, did. Instead of the promised 54Mb/s it was often only 5-10Mb/s. On the other hand, from an admin point of view I love the DG834G. So I'm considering upgrading to the "RANGEMAX™ NEXT WIRELESS N ADSL 2+ MODEM ROUTER - DG834N" and using WN121T USB adapters at the client end.

Have any Loungers had experience with this kit or similar 802.11n kit from other manufacturers.

Thanks,

[DaveA]

How do you expect to get 54M b/s since most cable companies only provide "Up to 12" M b/s?

Now within your local network, what is the speed range of EACH NIC or wireless card in each machine? I think you are going to find that the bottle neck is at the machine level.

[jimbo320]

If all your puters are g. All you're gonna get is g reception.......

[bpotter]

Ahem, I am talking about LAN performance, not internet performance. And .. I do expect to get 54Mb/s performance when at one end I have a 54Mb/s wireless router and at the other end a 54Mb/s wireless adapter and all that is between them is about 6 metres and 2 wooden floors. After 40 years in the business, even I have gotten around to learning that you can't go faster than the slowest component. So with a 7.6Mb/s broadband connection, I'm not looking for anything better than that on downloading (In fact I'm not looking for anything like that on internet downloading. Around 2-3Mb/s makes me smile and be a happy person).

At present I have an 802.11g router powering 4 wired connections and the other 3 wireless connected systems, have 802.11g adapters. To do anything else would be plainly questionable.

I am considering replacing the router with an 802.11n router and of course at the same time I would replace the adapters with 802.11n adapters. In fact, yes, I did mention that in my original post.

If you have any experience with using 802.11n, did you want to share that with me/us?

Thanks,

Bill

[bpotter]

This is a statement of the obvious. Thanks.

Dol you have any experience with 802.11n ?

[Jezza]

Hi Bill

I was chatting about this at work today and the introduction of 802.11n. The network guys were mentioning they are amused by the term "Draft 802.11n Compliant" that you see in some of the web sites. I am sure you are aware that this means "refers to compliance with IEEE 802.11n draft specification version 1.0 "

I have a feeling that the specification will change as things do. What is good though is this not "yet another upgrade" as most hardware should be 802.11g & b compatible <img src=/S/crossfingers.gif border=0 alt=crossfingers width=17 height=16>

I have a very similar problem to you in my home as I use a laptop and sit about 10 feet from my router but my daughters use the home PC upstairs which has a partition and a brick wall plus the floor to go through and the signal can be quite weak sometimes. I moved the router about 10 feet and it found another few walls to bounce off and I get quite a good signal to it now, so I have found it is not necessarily line of site, but I am sure you know that <img src=/S/grin.gif border=0 alt=grin width=15 height=15>

Back to 802.11n, this may be of interest to other Loungers that newer Wifi products are carrying the logo seen below (note the Draft next to N)
Some of the kit being advertised look pretty good with a massive increase in range far out stripping 802.11g series (or so it promises) but I only have one caveat and this is similar to your point to DaveA <img src=/S/whisper.gif border=0 alt=whisper width=29 height=17>Your comment was a bit harsh I feel, Dave was only trying to help and a very experienced person like you

"You can't go faster than the slowest component" , I just hope my broadband spped keeps up with it, but for internal stuff on the a home/work network, it looks pretty exciting

[jimbo320]

To answer your question. I have a 'N' router but both notebooks are 'G'. The hardware probably won't change but the adapters and drivers will, so when I do upgrade the notebooks I'll be all set. The router broadcasts at 270 but the notebooks only receive at 54......

[peterl]

Side note: N draft 2.0 now out.
http://www.wi-fi.org/80211n-draft2.php
Peter

[dixon757]

Yes, I have a netgear 834 n wireless router. Theoretically, it follows users and focuses its signal on active areas. This was very interesting to me as an amateur radio user with passing familiarity on antenna performance. In practice, while my wireless laptop is only a couple of meters on the other side of a sheetrock wall, I did not observe any significant improvement in signal. Also, it mysteriously loses signal now and then. Rebooting the router seems to be the only effective response, which is a real nuisance. The firmware has been updated, no effect. Often I notice a slowdown, check the wireless indicator, and discover that a I am now connected to a much weaker neighbor's signal. Other networks, office, etc, work much more reliably.