Using an airport extreme on a network with macs and pcs

[Luis Ortega]

I want to get an airport extreme base station to replace an old Belkin router that I use now.
I have Virgin broadband and I currently connect three MBP laptops and an iphone via wifi and a Mac Pro and an Xbox 360 via ethernet to the Belkin, which is connected to the Virgin modem.
The Mac Pro and one MBP also run Windows 7 using Bootcamp.
I also have an old PC upstairs running windows xp that connects via wifi using a Belkin USB N adapter.
All of this works fine now, but it's a bit slow due to the old router which is only pre-N.
If I get the airport extreme base station, would I be able to connect all of these items and also use the Windows 7 side of my Mac Pro and laptop as well as the Xbox 360 and the windows PC?
Or is the airport going to have issues with the windows and xbox connections on my network?
Thanks for any advice.

 

[flopticalcube]

There will likely be no issues but you won't notice any increase in speed except when communicating between equipment since even 802.11g is faster than most Internet connections. Note that the Airport Extreme only has 3 Ethernet ports.

 

[Luis Ortega]

There will likely be no issues but you won't notice any increase in speed except when communicating between equipment since even 802.11g is faster than most Internet connections. Note that the Airport Extreme only has 3 Ethernet ports.

Thanks, that's a bummer.
Communicating between devices is not important to us.
Would there be any benefit to the distance of the wifi reach or to the gameplay of the xbox for internet games?
Would the dual band add any speed benefit to my setup?
Why do people bother buying N routers that cost more if their internet speed is no better than a G router?

 

[pdjudd]

Would there be any benefit to the distance of the wifi reach or to the gameplay of the xbox for internet games?

As long as you are getting a good signal and it doesn’t exist an area where it will constantly drop off, you will be just fine.

Would the dual band add any speed benefit to my setup?

No, Dual band will do nothing to a normal setup

Why do people bother buying N routers that cost more if their internet speed is no better than a G router?

Inter-network (not via the internet) transfer speeds are faster and the range of the connection tends to be longer.

Wi-fi is only partially about the speed of your internet connection. It is only one aspect of things.