Years ago I set up a 802.11b wireless network at my parents' house for two computers (a desktop and a laptop). Over the years, the hard drives quickly filled up with pictures so I bought a network hard drive that's connected directly to the Linksys wireless router via ethernet and transferred all the photos there. The connection to the network hard drive from either computer is VERY SLOW - at least 10 times slower than my own hard drive connected via firewire at my own home. Would upgrading to a 802.11G or even an 802.11N wireless router increase the speed or is it something else?

 

There's a huge difference in the transfer rate of Firewire and 802.11b or even 802.11g.

Firewire (IEEE 1394) can have a transfer rate of 100, 200 or 400 Mbits/second.

802.11b has a max rate of 11Mbits/s while 802.11g is 54. So, switching to 802.11g will help, it won't compare to Firewire.

 

B is pitiful at transferring files. I would go N if you plan to do a lot of large transfers. Better yet plug in and go gigabit.

 

Is 802.11n finalized?

 

No, but most of the "draft N" stuff is supposed to be field upgradable via firmware update. I believe the stuff they are selling as draft N now will eventually get adopted as the official "N".

 

Yeah anything draft 2.0 is guaranteed to be compatible with the final version not gauranteed on anything earlier draft 1.0.

I thought 802.11b was 54mbps and 802.11a was 11mbps and G was also 54mbps but it worked at the same 2.4ghz frequency as A?

Either way whether wireless B is a theoretical speed of 11 or 54 it still way slower than a wired 400mbps connection.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/802.11

I remember when everyone was excited about "A" until people figured out that the range sucked.

 

Don't forget to get Wireless N adapters for both the laptop and desktop. Upgrading your router won't do you a bit of good unless you update the two computers also.

 

Tell that to my boss. He insists that we need to keep purchasing access points that support 802.11a no matter how many times I tell him that *nobody* connects with a any more.

 

I hope your boss is not the head of IT. His thinking reminds me of a jackass instructor who kept extolling the virtues of 56k modems when DSL first came out and was all the rage.

 

get G or N (even though it's not finalized yet)... if range/signal strenght is an issue you can use aluminum foil to boost your covered area/strenght and hopefully get faster transfer speed.