802.11g vs 802.11n wireless card

DDA Donn

Hi, can anyone tell me how big the difference is between a 802.11g and a 802.11n wireless card? I'm replacing a broken Dell 10v (which had 802.11n) and the cheapest option I can find is the HP mini 100e for €220 on peats.ie (which has 802.11g) but the only thing I'm concerned about is if the wifi will get a significantly worse signal.

drunkmonkey

That's expensive, not sure who good the laptop is but would you not just get a wireless adapter for about €10 it would do the job, would want to be a very nice laptop to sink €220 into on a part

DDA Donn

Very sorry, I'm replacing the entire laptop, that's the cost of the whole new one.

pdidit

the difference between the two of this is data transfer rate. 802.11g is about 54mbps and 802.11n is about 300mbps. basically if you are planning to watch HD movies across the network, i'd go with the 802.11g

DDA Donn

54mbps will be more that I'll ever use, but I was wondering if there'd a difference in the quality of reception as well.

pdidit

if your router is setup for this. if it's just a normal router it doesn't have this tech on it. unless you brought a special type of router then it won't be on it.

DDA Donn

So I'm unlikely to see a difference then? It's DCU's internet reception that I was worrying about but I doubt they have above standard routers considering some of the computers in the physics lab have only 128 of RAM.

Hijpo

DDA Donn wrote: »

Hi, can anyone tell me how big the difference is between a 802.11g and a 802.11n wireless card? I'm replacing a broken Dell 10v (which had 802.11n) and the cheapest option I can find is the HP mini 100e for €220 on peats.ie (which has 802.11g) but the only thing I'm concerned about is if the wifi will get a significantly worse signal.

N has a faster speed than g. G has a speed of 54Mbps and N has 100+ Mbps depending on how many antennae you use. Both have a range of about 300 feet. Most of the info applys to the WAPs though if you gave us some details on the Access Point your conneting to we could advise you better.

-edit

sorry posted that while all the other replies flew in

DDA Donn

Hijpo wrote: »

N has a faster speed than g. G has a speed of 54Mbps and N has 100+ Mbps depending on how many antennae you use. Both have a range of about 300 feet. Most of the info applys to the WAPs though if you gave us some details on the Access Point your conneting to we could advise you better.

Dublin City University's wireless network is as specific as I know.

Hijpo

DDA Donn wrote: »

Hijpo wrote: »

N has a faster speed than g. G has a speed of 54Mbps and N has 100+ Mbps depending on how many antennae you use. Both have a range of about 300 feet. Most of the info applys to the WAPs though if you gave us some details on the Access Point your conneting to we could advise you better.

Dublin City University's wireless network is as specific as I know.

In terms of reception the 2.4Ghz frequency is busy so it would depend on the channel the admin has the router set at.

DDA Donn

Hijpo wrote: »

In terms of reception the 2.4Ghz frequency is busy so it would depend on the channel the admin has the router set at.

What do you mean by busy? Is there a chance if won't work at all?

Hijpo

DDA Donn wrote: »

Hijpo wrote: »

In terms of reception the 2.4Ghz frequency is busy so it would depend on the channel the admin has the router set at.

What do you mean by busy? Is there a chance if won't work at all?

no no, it will work but th more signals flying around on the 2.4ghz frequency the cloudier the reception so they break it down to channels to avoid interference from cordless phones and baby monitors etc not that there would be any baby monitors in the university....

Edit-

just to tidy it up a bit, if the router is set to use g/n standard then it wouldnt matter which wifi adapter you buy they will both work but N would be faster. But seen as 54Mbps is the most youd use just go with the g. They both use the same.frequency and have the same range so whatever the connection was like before it should be the same.

DDA Donn

Hijpo wrote: »

no no, it will work but th more signals flying around on the 2.4ghz frequency the cloudier the reception so they break it down to channels to avoid interference from cordless phones and baby monitors etc not that there would be any baby monitors in the university....

Edit-

just to tidy it up a bit, if the router is set to use g/n standard then it wouldnt matter which wifi adapter you buy they will both work but N would be faster. But seen as 54Mbps is the most youd use just go with the g. They both use the same.frequency and have the same range so whatever the connection was like before it should be the same.

Thanks a lot for your help!

sqwarez

Well theres just this thing, while N vs G wont make a difference, is very likely the Dell had a much better card because it was N. An Intel G card will probably be faster and get better range than some crappy generic HP N card especially if they're both on G.

I highly recommend upgrading to an Intel card if possible.

And, a note about HPs and Wifi cards, very often there is a whitelist in the BIOS which prevents you from upgrading it yourself in most cases.