question about 802.11b vs. 802.11g performance

getting ready to go wireless for my IBM laptop, I currently have a
consistently fast connection from Cablevision's Optimum online (5000
kbps).

My options: use a Belkin "b" wireless router (model F5D6321-4) that my
girlfriend was given or buy a "g" model.

I'm not going to actually do any networking, I just want to use my
laptop in any room in the house (those poker tournaments can take a
while

I do a fair amount of music/video downloading.

The "free b" good enough or should I buy a "g" ?

802.11b should be more than fast enough for any cable/DSL connection you
have. You should be able to get 5 - 6 Mbps in practice, for a single client
station.

"Jeff Fawcett" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) om...
> getting ready to go wireless for my IBM laptop, I currently have a
> consistently fast connection from Cablevision's Optimum online (5000
> kbps).
>
> My options: use a Belkin "b" wireless router (model F5D6321-4) that my
> girlfriend was given or buy a "g" model.
>
> I'm not going to actually do any networking, I just want to use my
> laptop in any room in the house (those poker tournaments can take a
> while
>
> I do a fair amount of music/video downloading.
>
> The "free b" good enough or should I buy a "g" ?

802.11b will be faster than your internet connection, so it's fine!

Bill Crocker


"Jeff Fawcett" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) om...
> getting ready to go wireless for my IBM laptop, I currently have a
> consistently fast connection from Cablevision's Optimum online (5000
> kbps).
>
> My options: use a Belkin "b" wireless router (model F5D6321-4) that my
> girlfriend was given or buy a "g" model.
>
> I'm not going to actually do any networking, I just want to use my
> laptop in any room in the house (those poker tournaments can take a
> while
>
> I do a fair amount of music/video downloading.
>
> The "free b" good enough or should I buy a "g" ?

On 8 Aug 2004 00:02:05 -0700, (E-Mail Removed) (Jeff Fawcett)
wrote:

>getting ready to go wireless for my IBM laptop, I currently have a
>consistently fast connection from Cablevision's Optimum online (5000
>kbps).

I'm jealous. I only get 1.5Mbits/sec on my SBC DSL connection.
Grumble.

>My options: use a Belkin "b" wireless router (model F5D6321-4) that my
>girlfriend was given or buy a "g" model.

Well, there are multiple overlaping considerations. If you're gonna
go to 802.11g, you should have ALL your hardware be 802.11g with no
802.11b anywhere in sight. That's because 802.11g is polite and slows
down when it hears an 802.11b signal. Mixed systems function, but not
at optimum performance.

With 802.11b, the best you can do at 11Mbits/sec is about 6Mbits/sec
thruput. That's roughly the speed of your cable modem so going faster
isn't going to buy you anything in download performance. However, I
doubt that you'll be able to maintain an 11Mbits/sec association
across the house or in any room other than where the access point is
located. You'll probably fall back to 5.5Mbit/sec data rate, which
will yield a thruput of about 3Mbits/sec.

Switching to 802.11g gives you a different modulation scheme (CCK vs
OFDM) which is allegedly better at dealing with reflections and
multipath. That's partly what messes up the signal and prevents high
speed operation inside a building. So, 802.11g will buy you some
additional reliability that will probably (hopefully) help you
maintain a higher speed connection. Most of the product performance
test on:
http://www.TomsNetworking.com
show that 802.11g will maintain at least 20Mbits/sec through a wall to
the adjoining room. How well you'll do depends on your layout, range,
and interference from neighbors radios.

>I'm not going to actually do any networking, I just want to use my
>laptop in any room in the house (those poker tournaments can take a
>while

Any room is a bit vague. Rule of thumb is something like:
Going thru one wall is no problem.
Two walls will work, but not at top performance.
One wall with aluminium backed insulation won't work at all.
Three walls is a crap shoot and usually doesn't work.
Count floors as if they were walls.

>I do a fair amount of music/video downloading.

Ahem. The politically correct term is "media collector".

>The "free b" good enough or should I buy a "g" ?

I would go with the "g" if you're really demanding the full 6Mbits/sec
download performance over the entire house. However, if you just
wanna play wireless poker (I suggest switching to chess), almost
anything will work because the required bandwidth is very low.


--
Jeff Liebermann (E-Mail Removed)
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 AE6KS 831-336-2558