High Speed Wireless Router

What is the difference between a Wireless N Broadband Router and Wireless G Broadband Router ?

What is an Access point Router? And what is the 4 Port Switch?

Public Comments

1. Wireless G is older, slow, and gets less range than N and will usually shoot out an A and B signal as well. N is newer, and on average 12 times faster and gets 12 times more range than G, and will usually work with N and G(ab) devices. A 4 port switch takes 1 connection from your router (usual y a router has 4) and turns it into 4 more
2. Wireless N is a new wireless technology that still isn't there but is slowly coming. Soon, most wireless device will be using it, but there's not many that support it yet. But then again, a Wieless N router usually also supports G and B. But yea, N is faster and allows a bigger range. A switch is not a router, It will switch between the ports, whereas a router gives internet connection to all 4 of them. An access point is somehow like a router, but only for wireless. A router allows wire connections or wire+wireless connections. An access point allows wireless connections.
3. In short: N gives you better range and much better bandwidth than G. Most users will not need N's increased speed unless you will be using media sharing or doing other heavy file transfers over wireless. Wireless G is much faster than any broadband connection, so its more than adequate for online use. G's max bandwidth is 54mbps, N could be as high as 200. Also to note, N has not been standardized yet, so hardware you buy now may not work later. It's important to remember that these devices are actually 3 in 1. Access point, switch, and router. Access point allows wireless connections, 4 port switch means there are 4 ports for wired ethernet connections, and router allows you to connect more than 1 computer to your broadband connection.
4. Google - vireless n vs wireless g - there is some videos to watch, a 4 port switch with a modem, when both are manufactured in the same housing as one unit, is called a router. access point means the router is connected to the internet access point, i think.
5. N is the new and upcoming standard that improves on G. (The designations, BTW, refer to IEEE standards 802.11g and 802.11n.) One of the neat things about N is that it's supposed to actually work *with* multipath propagation instead of passively filtering it as previous standards do, by using antenna diversity (see cited source). Without this improvement, multipath is a type of interference. It's caused by parts of a signal going in different directions and reflecting from various surfaces (walls, mountains, etc.) and arriving at a receiver at slightly different times. You might recall, if you've seen analog over-the-air television, how the images tend to "ghost"; ghosting is caused by multipath. Presumably you're trying to decide which one to buy/lease/whatever. The 802.11n router may be more expensive. If so, you should consider your needs. Ask yourself whether you need the more advanced 802.11n technology. Are you just surfing the Web, or will you be playing fast-paced online games? Also, does your laptop (or whatever) have 802.11n-compatible hardware or will you get one that does? And of course, the potentially blazing-fast speed of 802.11n is wasted unless you also have a really fast Internet connection (maximum bandwidth is 600 Mbps, far greater than typical broadband speeds) or you need to shove a huge amount of data around your local network. Did I mention the standard isn't finalized yet? So with current devices, there may be a small danger of not interoperating with later devices that conform to the final version (though apparently it's not expected to be that different from current drafts). I guess it depends on how adventurous you are; I might go for it myself. Most commonly, "switch" refers to a wired-network device that operates at layer 2 (data-link, e.g. Ethernet) by receiving a packet on one of its ports and sending it back out on only the appropriate port. Switches improve on hubs, which are nothing more than multiport signal repeaters, i.e. they broadcast signals to all other ports indiscriminately, allowing packets to collide thus degrading network efficiency. BTW, the devices you're referring to are evidently integrated devices that contain both a broadband router (to connect to your broadband provider) and a wireless access point (which connects wireless devices like laptops to each other and/or a wired network). They don't have to be integrated like that; there are plenty of devices that just do the access point function, which can be used to create wireless networks separate from the Internet, or can be plugged into a wired network.