linksys wireless b router?

Question

My question is: What is the main difference between wireless B and wireless G router? Is it just the speed and will it be noticeable? If I can buy a wireless B at good price used is it worth or should I just look for new a new or used G?
I'm currently using Verizon DSL and switching to Road Runner Cable. Having a connectivity problem with Verizon for a year now that they can't seem to solve.
Thanks,
Glen

Answer 1

ok...with out getting into details the MAIN difference between 802.11b and 802.11g is they were designed for two different purposes. 802.11b was designed for corporate environments where there is very little interference in the unlicensed 2.4GHz frequency. 802.11g is designed for the home user where the environment is full of interference from cordless phones, microwaves and now other wireless networks in the vicinity of your home. Which is why is uses the 5GHz band.

now I will give you the low down on bandwidth and networking devices. when a device is advertised as having a maximum bandwidth of 11Mbps (using 802.11b as an example) it can handle traffic at or near that rate. However in the real-world for a home user you will NEVER see data transmitted even remotely close to these speeds. In order for that to occur you would have to be transmitting data at Layer 2 only and you would have to be using an extremely powerful server that can "offer" data to the network at those speeds. A personal computer does not have the processing power (among other things) to transmit data at 11Mbps let alone 54Mbps or 108Mbps. When we test these devices in a lab environment we use various traffic generators (some cost several hundred thousand dollars) and are able to transmit data at wire speed.

Keep this in mind when purchasing equipment, faster is not always better and sometimes it's just newer and more expensive.

Answer 2

The main difference between 80211b and 80211g is speed, though a newer G may have security enhancements too. B goes up to 11 MB, G goes up to 54 MB and they're working on the 80211n which will be much faster. Your Internet connection with DSL or Cable will probably be in the 1 - 3 MB range, so you'll be OK there with a B; but if you use the router to do print or file sharing between two PCs in your home you'll notice a significant difference, since two PCs on a wired network normally exchange data at 100 MB.

The 80211g wireless router I have is selling for about $30 (see link below) and friends told me they only paid $20 elsewhere, so I wouldn't pay more than about $5 for an obsolete B.

Good Luck!

Answer 3

The main difference between a wireless B and a wireless G router, is the transmission speed. wireless B broadcasts at a maximum of 11MBs/s. Wireless G broadcasts at a maximum of 54 MBs/s.

Even with Road-Runner you will not notice a difference between these routers. If you were sharing files between the wireless devices, and wired devices, you would notice the difference.

If you are solely using this for internet connectivity, you will not notice the difference. I have been using a wireless B router for a couple of years, and even with Road-Runners "speed boosts" I have yet to notice a difference in download link speed.

Hope this helped!

Answer 4

The letter designations (B and G) stand for two of the IEEE standards for wireless ethernet -- 802.11b and 802.11g. The current Wikipedia entry gives plenty of details. Since B and G operate in the same frequency range (2.4 gigahertz), creating a router or wireless access point that supports both standards is cheap since both standards can use the same radio and antenna.

Most routers and access points run by default in a compatible mode that allows 802.11b and 802.11g clients, unless you change the router configuration to only allow 802.11g clients. This means if an 802.11b client attempts to attach to your 802.11g router point running in compatible mode, your router will run in 802.11b mode while that client is connected or attempting to connect.

For a company environment, this means any old 802.11b card effectively brings the 802.11g access point down to 802.11b speeds for everyone else. Even if you only allow 802.11g clients, you still may suffer the speed drop if some chucklehead with an 802.11b card keeps trying to AirSnort your wireless network - your router needs to drop to the 802.11b standard, reject the non-compliant client, then go back to 802.11g speed. Repeat until the idiot leaves wireless range.

This explains why you see more-expensive wireless cards and wireless access points and routers that also support 802.11a (as fast as 802.11g, but on a different wavelength) or one of the newer proposed standards like 802.11n.

Answer 5

I'm using a Linksys-G router with Road Runner Cable in Dallas Texas. It is compatible with wireless B or G but I have no idea what that means. It handles our multi-computer home network which is both wireless and hard wired.

I do know that it is lightning fast compared to my old Verizon DSL and I have absolutely no trouble with it.

Model # WRT54GS $69.95 USD
http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?c=L_Product_C2&childpagename=US%2FLayout&cid=1148435315453&pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVisitorWrapper

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Answer 6

Putting away all technical terms, the G router creates a wider range for it's signal. The G is faster, but not that much faster. It would take a B router .05 seconds to load a page while it takes a G .03 seconds.

Answer 7

G is certainly faster (54mbit verses 11), but note that your internet is probably 10mbit, so if you are looking for faster internet, it will probably only be slightly faster with G.