Speedbooster worth the extra money?

I'm going out tomorrow to buy a Linksys wireless-G router. I'll be
choosing between the plain one and the one with the so-called
Speedbooster option. This will be used in a four room apartment. Is the
extra speed afforded by the "Speedbooster" option worth the extra $30?

Thanks.

John

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
>extra speed afforded by the "Speedbooster" option worth the extra $30?

Not unless all your clients also have the (proprietary) SpeedBooster
option as well. I'd just stick with plain vanilla 802.11g until
"Real-N" comes out an supplants all the "pre-N" stuff the vendors are
trying to foist on us. [Yeah, some pre-N stuff can increase the range
of even G clients, but I'm not convinced it's worthwhile.]

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:

>I'm going out tomorrow to buy a Linksys wireless-G router. I'll be
>choosing between the plain one and the one with the so-called
>Speedbooster option. This will be used in a four room apartment. Is the
>extra speed afforded by the "Speedbooster" option worth the extra $30?

Your DSL or cable model connection is the bottleneck. Unless you are doing large
file transfers within your apartment, you'll never see any speed increase. Range
is another matter, but if that isn't an issue, go with the cheapest option...

PS - Buying a longer range until when you don't need it just increases the
number of people you are potentially contending with for a limited number of
frequencies.

On Tue, 27 Dec 2005 20:45:26 -0700, "Clark W. Griswold, Jr." <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
>
>>I'm going out tomorrow to buy a Linksys wireless-G router. I'll be
>>choosing between the plain one and the one with the so-called
>>Speedbooster option. This will be used in a four room apartment. Is the
>>extra speed afforded by the "Speedbooster" option worth the extra $30?
>
>Your DSL or cable model connection is the bottleneck. Unless you are doing large
>file transfers within your apartment, you'll never see any speed increase. Range
>is another matter, but if that isn't an issue, go with the cheapest option...
>
>PS - Buying a longer range until when you don't need it just increases the
>number of people you are potentially contending with for a limited number of
>frequencies.

To the OP:

If you're going to use VNC between your laptop and desktop, you might find
better performance with the Speedbooster.

CB

(E-Mail Removed) hath wroth:

>I'm going out tomorrow to buy a Linksys wireless-G router. I'll be
>choosing between the plain one and the one with the so-called
>Speedbooster option. This will be used in a four room apartment. Is the
>extra speed afforded by the "Speedbooster" option worth the extra $30?

Probably not. It's difficult to maintain a 108Mbit/sec connection
past about 10-15ft. The best you can do through a wall or two is
perhaps 54Mbits/sec. The extra speed is only useful for LAN side
computer to computer communications as in file transfers and games.

However, the WRT54GS has twice the flash memory and twice the RAM as
the WRT54G. (The exception is the WRT54GS v4 which has the same
memory as the WRT54G). This doesn't buy you anything unless you want
to install alternative firmware, such as:
http://www.dd-wrt.com
(which I recommend). Check the feature list and see if there's
anything you need or want. If you decide to get a WRT54G, do *NOT*
buy the v5 hardware model as it's a bug pile and cannot be used with
alternative firmware. It can be recongized by the serial number
starting with CDFBxxxx.

--
Jeff Liebermann (E-Mail Removed)
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

> Your DSL or cable model connection is the bottleneck. Unless you are doing large
> file transfers within your apartment, you'll never see any speed increase. Range

Not necessarily. If his wireless connection speed drops back moderately
or significantly, then the wireless connection could be the bottleneck.

Mine certainly is.

David.

Thanks so much for your help. My friend is a very low tech person. I
don't know what "alternative firmware" would bring to her table. You
say you recommend it. What are the advantages of alternative firmware
vs the Linksys firmware?

Thanks again.

John

Thanks for the good advice. My friend is low tech, so keeping it simple
probably works best. Think I'll get her the plain vanilla 802.11g as
you suggest.

Thanks again.

Thanks for your help. Your comments make sense to me.

"dejola" <(E-Mail Removed)> hath wroth:

>Thanks so much for your help. My friend is a very low tech person. I
>don't know what "alternative firmware" would bring to her table. You
>say you recommend it. What are the advantages of alternative firmware
>vs the Linksys firmware?

More features. See:

http://www.linksysinfo.org/modules.p...howpage&pid=31

http://wrt-wiki.bsr-clan.de/index.ph...9#Feature_List
If your friend is a basic wireless user, then many of the features
added by alternative firmware will not be very useful. Some requires
substantial expertise to utilize. Perhaps something more basic would
be more useful. In any case, I suspect that unless she moves files
around her LAN or is into running gaming parties, the higher speeds
offered by Speedboost will not be very useful. Definately buy
something with 802.11g, but stay away from the proprietary
enhancements.

--
Jeff Liebermann (E-Mail Removed)
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558