OK here is the deal, I am using a laptop and I have it connected to my wireless router, its an N router and I just discovered the internal wireless card is a B/G and I can only connect at 54.0 Mbps. Well I allowed a friend connect to the same router and he is using a N USB adapter in a desktop and is getting a connection of around 130.0 Mbps. Well I have had this internet going on a year and it never occurred to me I wasn't getting my full potential on internet speed I paid for (think it was a max of 150.0 Mps or so) until my friend connected to it. Needless to say I am aggravated about it and I am planing to acquire a N adapter myself, but all of the sudden I was told that even if I bought one I will still not be able to get over 54.0 Mbps because its a laptop. sounds like BS to me...but I really never dealt with a laptop until this year as I always used a desktop before. (that I no longer have) Thus now my question...If I disable my internal wireless b/g card and install and start using a N adapter will it work to where I can get the speed I paid for from my ISP or am I actually S.O.L. ?
you will get better wireless performance, yes. However I doubt your actual internet connection is anywhere near fast enough for 802.11g to cause a significant loss.
Like Loony said, that is just the speed the router transfers data to your PC. But your internet connection is not likely anywhere near that fast. It will improve your PC to PC transfer speeds on your own computers on your own local network, but your internet connection will still be limited by your ISP, and is well below the maximum that your network cards allow.
I'm on an N network with my laptop, I can reach speeds of around 300 Mbps. But this is only for the local area network. My wide area network (internet) speed is not affected by my router. I would probably be getting the same download speeds at 54 Mbps as I do when Im close to 300 Mbps.
Your Internet speed isn't greater than 54 Mbps. Trust me. There's no need to beef up your LAN speeds if your bottleneck is still your ISP.
802.11g isn't 54mbps either, that's the raw data rate. The actual throughput after accounting for error correction etc is more like 6-7mbps.
Anyway from what I gather (feel free to correct me) neither one of us are gaining better download speed than the other even if we are both showing different transfer rate from the router correct? And if I updated to an N adapter i will gain speed to the router and computer, but not in the effect of speeding up downloads. Bah! I guess I got excited over nothing. anyway thanks for all the info guys at least it cleared up an argument I was having.
It depends on what your actual internet speed is, if it is 10mbit or higher then your friend will get a better speed than you, otherwise there isnt really any difference. On the other points, you are correct.
Bah! I gave myself a headache after figuring all of that out. Anyway thanks again for the info you may lock or allow it to seep further into the depths.
