And to arubinst, that's why the dual band airport extreme is so handy
pretty much two routers in one. I have G set up for all the iPhones in the house, and then 5Ghz N for all the notebooks.
I know! Unfortunately, my old airport works so well that I need to find a better excuse to buy a new one
For you and most people, G / N will not matter because they are both faster than your internet speed.
This is true for most people who use the wireless connexion with the sole purpose of using a crappy Internet connexion. On the other hand, 802.1n networks become very interesting if you share resources on your LAN. For example, sharing large video files or streaming HD video from one computer to another.
- What is the main difference between the 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz band?
"Old" WiFi technologies use the 2.4GHz band. This means that you need to share the frequency with 802.11, 802.11b and 802.11g equipment. But also, many other things use the same band. Wireless phones, medical equipment, RF remote controls, Bluetooth... even microwave ovens produce interference on this band!!!
Some wireless phones use the 5GHz band, but it is true that this band is less crowded.
- Is it true that if you have a router with G/N capability, and a G device connects, the entire network drops down to G?
Not entirely true. In the presence of legacy systems, 802.11n uses a mechanism called "protection". What this mechanism does is that it uses some extra control frames that allow older systems to know that the frequency is being used so that coexistence is assured. These extra frames will have to be sent using 802.11g/b modulation and speeds so that those old systems are able to understand them. The overhead produced by these extra (slower) frames is what causes an impact on the throughput.
2.4 is crowed, 5 has less range...
My linksys E2000 has my iPhone on it, and two older laptops with G,
But my laptop here is connected on N @ 150mbps (it only has 2 internal antennas, so no 300mbps), but I will add N gives me zero more range. I am disappointed I still have dead spots in my tiny town house. I want to blame the E2000 for having no external antennas.
I have one desktop with a usb n, that connects at 300mbps, but the range when on 300mbps is lame, and has only 3 bars (out of the 5 in the start bar in windows 7) when 20 feet away...
the range at 150mbps is the same as I had with G.
over all wi-fi N has been disappointing to me in general.
My laptop will drop down to 65mbps at times, but thats when I have it in power saving mode, which the adapter is set to save also.
Actually, I'm quite happy with my N network. I can stream full HD (1080p) videos from a shared disk to my MBP without a hitch. I should also note that I live in a tiny apartment.
The number of antennas plays a very important role in speed AND range. The star of the game here is called MIMO.
Is it a fairly safe bet to assume that working on the 5Ghz band would also need another antenna / radio in the handset?
Indeed, you would need to have another radio and antenna.
Frankly I think 802.11n isn't really required in a smartphone at the moment anyway. It strikes me more as a nice-to-have so if you're running a normal N router (i.e. not dual network) at home you don't drop every device down to g speeds when your iPhone connects up.
Again, speeds do not drop to g thanks to the "protection mechanism".
Wireless sync of video, music and apps would make nice use of 802.11n. Otherwise, it is true that it isn't really required in a smartphone unless you find a 802.11n network that blocs all non-n access (mine for example
)