Dual band router - which 1? advice?

Tea_Bag

im considering getting UPC's 100mb BB into the house, and i realise that anything that runs on wireless G will cripple the network to G spec, so im thinking of disabling the Thomson router and putting in a dual band 2.4/5ghz router in, just want advice as to which make/model?

It'll be running 4 laptops, 2 xbox's, 2 PS3's, 2 PC's and a few mobile phones.

also, would any old PCI/USB wireless card that is N spec be able to use the 5ghz band, or do i have to get a special wireless card for my PC? any advice as to which 1 on this too?

thanks.

Voodu Child

Just be aware that there is a difference between a dual-band and dual-radio router.

A dual band router can run on either the 2.4GHz or 5GHz band, but not both. So if you have 2.4GHz devices connecting, then obviously the router will switch to 2.4GHz and all your 5GHz devices will have to switch to 2.4GHz if they want to stay connected.

A dual radio router can run at 2.4GHz and 5GHz simultaneously. But they are more expensive. You'll see them advertised as dual-radio or simultaneous dual-band.

Also, even in that case (dual radio) you're still likely to have 802.11n devices that only operate on the 2.4GHz band. So they will have to share the 2.4GHz band with 802.11g devices, and hence it will be running in mixed mode, so you still have the disadvantages of that.

Its definitely not the case that every 802.11n dongle or PCI card can operate on the 5GHz band. Only the higher end stuff. So check the specs before buying.

Tea_Bag

Thanks!

Its sounds like a lot of hassel, money and infrastructure is needed to get 100mb/s wirelessly.

i guess homeplugs is what i should be looking for?

PogMoThoin

Run cables where possible, cat5 will do gigabit.

user1842

Tea_Bag wrote: »

Thanks!

Its sounds like a lot of hassel, money and infrastructure is needed to get 100mb/s wirelessly.

i guess homeplugs is what i should be looking for?

Gigabit Homeplugs and switches are the only way to go to get the full speed.

Thats if you cant run cables.

Tea_Bag

yea i can do cable to the xboxs/ps3/server PC, but everything else will need wireless or homeplugs. are homeplugs any good at 100mbps?

ive seen the 200mbps ones, they're going to be the minimum though (i guess) seeing as they only do 100up/100down and need to take some overhead off that?

PogMoThoin

In reality homeplugs don't give much better speeds than wireless

user1842

Tea_Bag wrote: »

yea i can do cable to the xboxs/ps3/server PC, but everything else will need wireless or homeplugs. are homeplugs any good at 100mbps?

ive seen the 200mbps ones, they're going to be the minimum though (i guess) seeing as they only do 100up/100down and need to take some overhead off that?

Homeplugs never give the quoted speed. 200MB might do you though as you might get 100MB through put. Test it first, you can always exchange it for a gigabit homeplug

Voodu Child

Tea_Bag wrote: »

ive seen the 200mbps ones, they're going to be the minimum though (i guess) seeing as they only do 100up/100down and need to take some overhead off that?

The 200Mbps homeplugs are 100Mbps up/down with maybe 30-50% efficiency. So if you got 50Mbps of useable throughput you'd be doing well.

And there's so-called 500Mbps ones nowadays which are effectively 250 up/down with similar kinds of efficiency. Although it is early days for them so there's only a handful of reviews to go by. Should be models from most brands later in the year.

Tea_Bag

hard to test it if im buying online though
ive seen them once in PC world and i forget the price, but lets says for arguments sake that it was "ludicrously expensive".

user1842

Tea_Bag wrote: »

hard to test it if im buying online though
ive seen them once in PC world and i forget the price, but lets says for arguments sake that it was "ludicrously expensive".

Argos has a 14 day money back guarantee. You can test it get a refund and buy it cheaper online

Overheal

Tea_Bag wrote: »

Thanks!

Its sounds like a lot of hassel, money and infrastructure is needed to get 100mb/s wirelessly.

The opposite! If you already have wireless capability on the Devices you're good to go. In contrast running what could easilly become a couple hundred feet of Ethernet cable gets expensive; That it is already gigabyte standard helps. N caps out at 150Mbps in a single stream. Enough to support your setup. And like your old router, can be chucked if in 5 years time your ISP upgrades to something much faster.

Plug-in Networking is NOT recommended for many home environments. If you live in a standalone house it's worth considering, but if you live in a semi-detached environment you're also running interference from your neighbor's grid, potentially. It's a system very susceptible to to Ground Noise.

Running a single Cat5e from your Router to your Entertainment center would be easy enough, then just have a cheap 4-port switch behind the TV to hook it all up. I'd still suggest a simultaneous dualband router to compliment it.

Tea_Bag

Thanks Overheal.

yea thats a good idea with the switch.

any recommendations for a good/cheap dual band/dual radio router?

ive to sell this idea to the housemates, and they'll be upset not to see close to the top speeds while DLing things (mostly wirelessly) so i think all ill need is 10m of cat5e, a gigabit 4 or so port switch, 2 PCI dual radio cards, 1 dualband/radio router and **** the laptops with b/g/n.

UPC dont tell you that you're never going to see the speeds wirelessly... isnt N being replaced soon though? IEE is releasing a gigbit wireless mode standard. arg.

ronkmonster

I got the Netgear 3700
http://www.netgear.com/home/products/wirelessrouters/high-performance/WNDR3700.aspx

It was on ibood.ie last month(1 day sale site) for 80. Normally around 150 so a bit pricey.

I'm using it now with the 30mb but with 100mb soon. I just forward everything from upc router to my one.

I've installed dd-wrt (custom software) and it can monitor your bandwidth usage.

Tea_Bag

ronkmonster wrote: »

I got the Netgear 3700
http://www.netgear.com/home/products/wirelessrouters/high-performance/WNDR3700.aspx

It was on ibood.ie last month(1 day sale site) for 80. Normally around 150 so a bit pricey.

I'm using it now with the 30mb but with 100mb soon. I just forward everything from upc router to my one.

I've installed dd-wrt (custom software) and it can monitor your bandwidth usage.

nice find, but from what Voodu says, is that dual band and dual radio or just dual band?
it doesnt clearly say it in the product page....?

ronkmonster

dual radio and band. it has 2.4ghz and 5ghz. 2 separate wireless connections with their own settings and security.

Never really used on stock firmware so can't comment on it, but from reviews it's decent.

From netgear site

• IEEE™ 802.11 b/g/n 2.4 GHz
• IEEE 802.11 a/n 5.0 GHz

With dd-wrt, you can restrict the wireless to certain types. For example, on 2.4ghz I have it set to G and N only. So older adapters not supported but I don't have any so it's grand for me. But you can support older if needed.

Overheal

Tea_Bag wrote: »

UPC dont tell you that you're never going to see the speeds wirelessly... isnt N being replaced soon though? IEE is releasing a gigbit wireless mode standard. arg.

IEE releases plenty of standards and often. It will still take years for the new standard to adopt; they just finally got N to become the new standard, with G all but gone now. New Standard will be that new expensive Premium that nobody can afford and will have no compatible devices to use it with anyway. I've seen plenty of cases where people get expensive N gaming routers for a couple laptops and an ipod touch all with G receivers on them. And look at USB3, its been a standard for 1-2 years and theres hardly any useful application for it yet beside slightly faster external HDDs.

ive to sell this idea to the housemates, and they'll be upset not to see close to the top speeds while DLing things (mostly wirelessly) so i think all ill need is 10m of cat5e, a gigabit 4 or so port switch, 2 PCI dual radio cards, 1 dualband/radio router and **** the laptops with b/g/n.

Well assuming it's their money. If its your **** them, and do something cheaply.

Simultaneous Dualband Routers aren't cheap, but worth it. two top line models are Linksys E4200 and Netgear N750. Both would really knock it out.