wireless routers

[yokosi]

Hi all, I was browsing the Linksys website and came across the Wireless G Broadband Router @ 54 mpbs.  I thought the wireless standard (802.11) is set to 11 mbps only so I was wondering how can it run wireless at 54 mbps or am I just misinformed about the Wireless standards all together?

[query]

802.11b is 11 Mbps.
802.11g is 54 Mbps (so is 802.11a, but it's a higher-frequency, more expensive technology).

[yokosi]

ok, so right now I have the 802.11 B, if I change to the 802.11 G, will it make the downloading and uploading from the other pc's faster to and from the internet or will it be the same?

[query]

The internal network will run faster - but you must replace not only the router, but also the wireless cards with 802.11g (or b/g or a/b/g) cards as well.

11 Mbps is well above what any consumer-level broadband access can give you, so it will make no difference to your Internet connection, which is at most about 10-15% of the bandwidth of 802.11b.

[Carskick]

Even though 802.11b does have a larger bandwidth than most consumer broadbands provide, I have still found that a direct connection to the router goes faster on the internet. I did a test on a site a while ago, and on my direct connection computer, I got 1.6mbs, and on my wireless, I got 1.3mbs. The direct connected was a P2, and the wireless was a K6-2, so I don't think that would have effected it. I wonder if 802.11g would still run closer to a direct connection than 802.11b does.

[query]

Depends - the biggest difference I suspect is if you're running an encrypted connection (which you should be if you're at all concerned about eavesdropping).  That imposes an overhead on the wireless connection regardless of what bandwidth it is.