Lumpish Scholar's Journal: Ask (part of) Slashdot: 802.11b or 802.11g?

Okay, I'm going wireless at home. I really, really want wireless 'net access for my work laptop when I bring it home. It'd be nice for the family laptop, too. Someday I may even make it easier for the Tivo to call home (far easier than running an Ethernet cable from the cable modem to that part of the house).

The question is, should I buy 802.11b gear, or "invest in the future" and go with 802.11g? "g" is faster than "b", but even "b" is faster than my cable modem. I'm not running servers or anything interesting on the home LAN.

Thoughts? Experience?

802.11b

[glh]

I've been running "b" for over a year now on my laptop. It's been great, and can easily handle anything I throw at it. If you don't really have stuff that needs a huge pipe you're probably better off saving the cash (unless you can find one about the same price).

I can't think of anything that I do (even watching video files) that needs more than a few mbit/sec...

Re:802.11b

[Cyberdyne]

I've been running "b" for over a year now on my laptop. It's been great, and can easily handle anything I throw at it. If you don't really have stuff that needs a huge pipe you're probably better off saving the cash (unless you can find one about the same price).

IMO, b is fine - I'm using it right now on this laptop, which had it built-in - but g was cheap enough that I went for that anyway for the access point and the other NIC. Look at the prices on both sets, see how much extra it'll cost for g rather

g is for gullible

[rdewald]

The only reason to run g would be if you plan to print over the wireless network, that is, you have a computer that is connecting to another of *your* computers on which you have a shared printer that you will be using on a *regular basis*...also, if you might be transferring LARGE (read: several gig) files over your network from computer to computer on a regular basis--g will give you a *bit* better performance.

Otherwise, if your reason for doing this is just for the Internet connection, you will not see any difference between b and g (other than what you pay for your equipment). The throughput of Internet traffic is so far below the maximum throughput for b that g offers absolutely no advantage.

Do both..

[TechnoLust]

Netgear and Cisco I know, and I would suspect Linksys and any other big player make wireless cards that are 802.11a/b/g compatible. These are generally not much more than a straight 802.11x card. That way you can get on ANY wireless network you have access to. Some hubs support multiple standards too, but I'd probably just go with an 802.11b, unless, like rdewald mentioned, you are doing printing or file transfer.

b vs. g

[johndiii]

I'm running g at home, and I'm fairly happy with it. Cost was a little over $200 for an access point/router (Linksys WRT54G) and two PC Cards. For your purposes, b would probably be adequate. One caution, though: running the access point in mixed mode (both b and g) noticeably reduces one's signal range something like 2/3 of the range that running b or g alone would give. I know this from personal experience with the WRT54G, and I have been told that it is true of other access points. Second, the adve

Go G

[Boomhauer]

We just moved into a new house and I didn't want to run eth to all the rooms. So for the first time ever, we went entirely wireless. There are still some issues we have to work out but overall it's great. I'm the last "b" on the network and I've got the card to replace mine now, I've just got to get around to doing it. I have to disagree that G isn't worth it though. I regularly choke B playing MP3s off my server while downloading or moving pictures from my machine to my server. It's pretty easy to make t