In the last year or so there have been some advancements in wireless routers. The 802.11n has been around since 2007 as a “pre” or “draft” standard and is scheduled to be released as the successor to the 802.11g standard. See here for more Info on 802.11 standard.
802.11n runs on the 5GHz spectrum which is much less crowded than the 802.11g 2.4Ghz specturm. Therefore 802.11n is capable of speeds around 130Mpbs vs 802.11g which is only capable of speeds around 54Mbps.
How does this increase in speed affect me? For the average internet user they do not need a Wireless N router because most peoples home internet connection is only 15Mpbs max. So 802.11g which runs at 54Mpbs is plenty faster than your internet speed so it isn’t usually worth the investment for the average home user to upgrade to N. However, if you are a home user that likes to transfer files to other machine on your network, or to backup your machine using apples Time Machine/Time Capsule, or to stream video/music to another machine on your network 802.11n has a big performance increase vs. the G standard.
A great basic inexpensive 802.11n router is the Linksys WRT160n.
However, if you are really looking for a high performance 802.11n router consider purchasing a dual band router. What is a dual band router? Here is a description from Engadget.
“Let’s come right out with it — you should be running a dual-band 2.4 and 5GHz WiFi network. Why? Because the 2.4GHz spectrum is cluttered with everything from other networks to Bluetooth to cordless phones and microwaves, and all that RF interference slows everything down, making file transfers interminable and HD streaming nearly impossible. On the other hand, 5GHz 802.11n is clean and incredibly fast — we’re talking almost hardwire fast. But you can’t just move up to 5GHz without leaving your phones and other legacy devices behind, so you’ve got to keep 2.4 around as well — which is really easy if you’ve got a simultaneous dual-band router like Apple’s new Airport Extreme or something like the D-Link DIR-825, and only slightly harder if you don’t. And, as luck would have it, Apple just sent us a new AEBS to play with, so we thought we’d show you how to configure both kinds of setups. We promise you’ll thank us.” Read More On Engadget’s Site
My recommendation is to follow Engadget’s advice and purchase an Apple Airport Extreme or a D-Link DIR-825.
Looking for some 802.11n computer adapters for your desktop or laptop computer?