New Flat & Broadband, Thoughts On Wireless Equipment?

[GilGrissom]

Hey guys.

Soon I shall be moving from the comforts of the Midlands, UK, to the outskirts of London to work for a company on work placement for a year so I'll be getting myself a flat in the area. I currently have all Netgear equipment at home, an old DG834G v1 and a RangeMax attached to it for range. I can't take these with me as my parents and brother still need them, so I need to get myself some new equipment. Broadband I think I have sorted, but I'm just thinking about possibilities on the hardware front.

Obviously it would make sense, ease and money wise, just to grab another decent Netgear router, they've been great with me before, could probably get a nice draft-N router and unlock N on my iMac. But I keep thinking about getting the new Airport Extreme, as it looks kinda funky.

The USB port on it would be extremely handy, but I would have to get myself an ethernet modem, which isn't too bad, but adds to the cost.

The Airport Extremes are great and all, but I just wonder if they're a little expensive for what I can do with other great brand routers.

What do you guys think? Any secrets inside the Airport worth getting?

I know you will get N unlocked for free if you get the Airport, which will be good, but it's only one machine in a small flat, so speed isn't all that important. (Truth be told I could probably stretch just for a modem and do without wireless...but I don't want a cable on the floor if I decide to move my iMac!)

 

[swiftaw]

The only benefit of having N is sharing files between computers on your network. G speed is faster than your ISP download speed, so using N over G will not speed up your internet experience.

In otherwords, if you only have one computer, you wont get any benefit from using N over G.

 

[StealthRider]

The USB port on it would be extremely handy, but I would have to get myself an ethernet modem, which isn't too bad, but adds to the cost.

Your modem doesn't connect to your router via Ethernet now? What does it use?

 

[GilGrissom]

Your modem doesn't connect to your router via Ethernet now? What does it use?

As per the picture, it's a 2 router setup. The first, a Netgear DG834G is an all in one modem router with wireless, but I've disabled the wireless as it's too weak.

Enter my second router...a Netgear WPN824, just a bog standard wireless router of the early RangeMax branding (for extra distance-the reason I brought it!), no built in modem here. This router just piggy-backs off the main router, all it does is provide wireless, so it's only functioning as a wireless access point, nothing more. Internet, DCHP etc is all done on the main DG834G all in one.

It works well!

Anyhoo...I know what draft-N can do for me in terms of performance and whether or not I'll realistically make use of it (as you say, I won't really!), I guess it was really the chance to buy the Apple router being as I was in the market for a new router, and if anyone knew of any other little titbits of info on the Airport extreme that isn't obvious, or peoples views on whether they feel its still a decent investment for the future, regardless of whether I'll be making full use of "N" immediately or not.