After a recent purchase on a NAS drive and setting it all up, I've rekindled my interest of my home network.....

I've had a quick butchers at the Netgear website and see how much the N series has to offer 10-15 x 's better ?

Anyone got anything to say about this N series Good, bad or Ugly.

I'd like that little extra reach/speed

I need the following:

1 x Router (ADSL)
2 x PCI cards
1 x PCMCIA card

I had heard that some of the earlier hardware was quite hit and miss..... but that was last year some time...... have things moved on ?

Cheers

Phil

 

Ethernet over power has come on loads over the last year.

 

Well...faster router won't give you greater speeds. Almost any router will give you enough speed. Slowest 54 mbps routers will handle any 10 mbps optical line. It won't be anny difference in speeds because of router unless you have range issues.

You should test your router (ask in the shop if you can buy router, test it and exchange for a different one if it doesn't work properly). It also helps if you connect your old router with a new one in a "bridge" configuration. It means that your new router will act as router, your old router will act as an access point that boosts received signal and sends it forward. It takes some setting up, but in the end it works. If you do this, you should really consider having both routers from the same manufacturer, otherwise you might risk compatibility issues.

 

"boosts received signals and sends it forward"....????

Sorry, I might be missing something... but what the dickens are you going on about?...

If the OP currently has an 802.11g AP and wants to move to 802.11n draft 2 (or similar) it would help if he kept both APs running as APs, one connected to the ADSL and the other running just as a wireless AP (interconnected over ethernet).

The old AP should be configured to be B+G and the new one G+N (or ideally N only) but the important part is that each should have a DIFFERENT SSID and DIFFERENT CHANNEL (of 1, 6 or 12)... so there will be SSIDs "networkBG" and "networkN" for want of different names...

The legacy (B+G) clients can then connect to the B+G AP and B+G network, and the new N clients can connect to the new AP and an unadulterated 802.11n network and hence obtain the fastest possible speeds and best range - without G or B interference.

All interoperation between the two APs is at an IP level, so makes very little difference what manufacturers the actual kit is. However, it's recommended that APs and associated clients use the same manufacturer (so 802.11n AP and 802.11n pc card from same manufacturer).

Belkin N+ gets a good review from PC-Pro and features in their "A List"

DN

 

Thank you gentlemen

I'm clear that upgrading the router will not always assist with the speed coming into my home, but I was hoping to expand the range and LAN speeds.

This would allow me to take fulla advantage of my Nas and anythingelse that I have going on at the time.

My kids are getting older and with games consoles and PC's on it would be good to have a better set up.

I understand that ultimately the bottleneck will be the phone line speed, but currently, my time is spent on the LAN..... (photo editing etc etc)

I'll take a look at the Belkin and the ethernet over power.......... I wanted to move away from cables, but won't rule it out....
Is it the case that as long as there are in the same house they will work ? or if I've had a new extention, (different ring) it maynot work - or is this all old wives tales.....



Cheers

Phil
Phil