On Wed, Jun 17, 2009 at 9:46 PM, Arnel Tuazon<[email protected]> wrote: > Quick question: Which is better (more stable) an original Airport card > (802.11b) or a PCI wireless card that is 802.11n ?
IMO that's a question that can't really be answered as asked. I don't believe the "stability" of a connection has much to do with whether the protocol used is 802.11b or n. I wouldn't approach the question of what adapter to use this way. In no particular order some of the questions I'd ask are ... * How many devices would be using your wireless network initially? Would they all be capable of using 802.11n or only some of them? If only some, what protocols could the other devices use? * What's your best guess as to how your wireless network will change with time? That is, what new stuff do you think you might get that you'd want to also include in your network? * What sort of distances and what sort of signal barriers are you expecting your wireless network to work over. Would there be interference from other devices such as cordless phones, other people's wireless nets, et cetera? * What would you use the network for? It can range from just surfing the net via a web browser to trying to streaming 1080p HD video to trying to move large files routinely via wireless. > I know the "n" is WAY faster, but I'm thinking of stability in terms of > dropped connections, problems re-connecting, etc. 802.11n can be noticeably faster than 802.11b. But if you don't think things through ahead of time you might not realize the potential the marketeering types allege in their cryptic ad bites. That said, 802.11b is pretty well dead at this point in time and I wouldn't advise anyone to go that route unless they had very compelling reasons to do so. Or equivalently, compelling reasons why they would NOT want to go with 802.11n. The fact that you would be using an 802.11n capable router makes me wonder why on earth you'd stick with "b". But I really don't know your context and doing so may very well make sense for you. Which flavor of Airport Extreme base station would you be using? The original version which I believe can only use either 2.4GHz or the 5GHz band, but not both bands simultaneously? Or the newer, Early 2009 flavor which apparently can use both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands simultaneously? (Not sure just what "simultaneously" means in this context, but it sure sounds neat, doesn't it? I wonder if it actually is neat or just more marketeer-speak. ;-) -irrational john --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed Low End Mac's G3-5 List, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list?hl=en Low End Mac RSS feed at feed://lowendmac.com/feed.xml -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
