If you have really fast home Internet speeds but a slower or outdated wireless router, you might not be taking full advantage of that high-speed connection. Upgrading your wireless router and wireless adapters to newer wireless-n can increase your network's speed, range, and security and also minimize dropped connections. Here's what you need to know about upgrading to wireless-n.
Wireless-n (a.k.a. 802.11n) is the latest (as of December 2010) wireless networking specification that wi-fi devices use to communicate with each other. Compared to older wireless-g (802.11g) and wireless-b (802.11b) specs, wireless-n has several advantages:
Almost 6 times the rated speed -- 300 Mbps versus 54 Mbps for wireless-g or a measly 11 Mbps for wireless-b. Even accounting for slower real world speeds that are about half the rated speed, wireless-n is still several times faster.Greater range -- wireless-n devices can connect with each other as far as 250 feet away -- a 67% increase over the older wi-fi.Better reliability -- wireless-n uses MIMO technology that optimizes the data connection for fewer dropped connections.Newer wireless-n devices also support the latest wireless security standards (WPA2 versus weaker WEP), so upgrading to wireless-n can also strengthen your home network's security.
If your Internet service speed is over 20 Mbps or you transfer a lot of large files between computers or devices on your home network, you'll probably find it much worth the minimal time and expense to upgrade. Faster Internet and quicker transfer speeds mean you'll be able to do more in less time and also access bandwidth-heavy videos and other media.
Other reasons to upgrade include if you want to connect a laptop or computer that's a great distance away from the router, the router you have now only allows unsecure WEP encryption, or you want to improve your network's reliability.
The steps for upgrading to a newer and faster wireless network are the same for general wireless network setup. You connect the router to your cable/DSL modem and access the router's administration webpage from your laptop wired to the router. You'll also connect wireless devices to your new network the same way you set up a wi-fi connection.
The main difference for a wireless-n network is that each device or computer on the network should have wireless-n adapters, in order to take advantage of the greater performance (although wireless-n is backwards compatible, the network can be slowed down by older network cards). If you have a lot of devices to upgrade or some can't be upgraded to wireless-n, you can get a dual-band wireless-n router which will set up one network for the older devices and the faster data connection for wireless-n devices. (For help choosing a router, About's Guide to Wireless/Networking has a nice selection of 802.11n wireless routers.)
More: How to Set up a Wireless Network | How to Connect to a Wireless Network
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