I have a question regarding 802.11g/n

So I have a really old laptop capable of going 802.11g. Now I've used a Cat 6 cable to connect the laptop to an Airport Express capable of outputting signals to 802.11n. Will the Airport express output to 802.11n? or would it downgrade to 802.11n due to the network hardware within the laptop which is not capable of doing gigabit data...

Please advise.

7/22/2012 4:52:29 PM

i thought 802.11g maxes at 100ish Mbps...

[Edited on July 22, 2012 at 4:56 PM. Reason : ss]

7/22/2012 4:55:27 PM

You're right it does, but I've never seen it push past a certain point to reach anywhere near those speeds, but if you get a router that can push to those speeds with a Cat 6 cable, I'm thinking you can reach high speeds that are still below the 100 Mbps...

Am I wrong here or is what I'm saying making sense theoretically?

The idea is so that the entire network isn't bogged down to 802.11g because we all know that if one device mixes with the network, the entire network goes below to the common denominator. In this case, in my house, it's 802.11g.

I'm trying to make it all read at 802.11n, thus, the theoretical upgrade.

[Edited on July 22, 2012 at 5:11 PM. Reason : ss]

7/22/2012 5:09:18 PM

11g BURSTS at a max of 54mbps but you'll be lucky to sustain 20-25mbps. you can wire your laptop to the airport and basically use it as a wireless bridge, but it depends on what the airport is connecting to (and how it's connecting) as to whether you will get more throughput

7/22/2012 5:18:11 PM

The router is acting as a wireless bridge extending the signal of the network. Using the Cat 6 cable, the wireless bridge is hardwired to the 802.11g laptop. I am seeing the network moving faster but not sure if it's because everything is reading at 802.11n or if it's because I stumbled on something else. Would an 802.11g still cause problems if the wireless is turned off on the laptop and hard wired to a wireless router acting as a bridge?

7/22/2012 5:25:02 PM

Quote :

"Would an 802.11g still cause problems if the wireless is turned off on the laptop and hard wired to a wireless router acting as a bridge?"

How in the hell would it? If you have wi-fi turned off, it's not going to connect wirelessly to your router. That's sort of the entire point behind turning it off, no?

If I'm reading this thread correctly, you did something that you thought would increase the speed of your network, and it DID increase the speed of your network, so now you're asking us if it worked?

7/22/2012 6:03:44 PM

The first time I saw mention of the :carlface: meme, I thought It was a clown on Apocalypse.


-

Quote :

"So I have a really old laptop capable of going 802.11g. Now I've used a Cat 6 cable to connect the laptop to an Airport Express capable of outputting signals to 802.11n. Will the Airport express output to 802.11n? "

You didn't state which version of airport express you have. Is it the older 802.11n one with one 10/100 ethernet port or the newer one with two?

you didn't state what the wireless interface of the airport express was connecting to-- gonna assume an existing wireless router connected to a cable modem.

If it's the former, plugging into the ethernet port essentially turns the thing into a wireless to ethernet bridge, and your data flow looks like

[laptop]---ethernet---[airport express]----802.11n----[wireless router]---[cable modem]

So if there are no other 802.11g devices connecting to your wireless network, then you may see some improved speed over connecting via your 802.11g laptop interface.

Quote :

"or would it downgrade to 802.11n due to the network hardware within the laptop which is not capable of doing gigabit data..."

what the hell are you even asking? that question makes no sense at all.


oh and please read this:

http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html



[Edited on July 22, 2012 at 6:43 PM. Reason : .]

7/22/2012 6:31:51 PM

I apologize for the crudeness of language.

Yes, I meant would it downgrade to 802.11g (not 802.11n).

Quote :

"[laptop]---ethernet---[airport express]----802.11n----[wireless router]---[cable modem]"

This is a correct representation of what I've attempted to describe. The Airport Express is not the newer dual band. It is the the previous single banded generation.

As for the wireless extension, should I go 2.4 ghz or 5 ghz

7/22/2012 7:23:02 PM

5ghz isn't terribly useful without line of sight the wavelength is only like 5.5cm or ~2"

7/22/2012 7:34:40 PM

HOLY SHIT THAT WORKED!!!

HUGE jump from ~35 kb/s download to 600+ kb/s sustained!

$99 upgrade for your computer's connection!

Nice!

Thanks all for the advice!

7/22/2012 8:51:36 PM

if that change made you go from ~35 kb/s download to 600+ kb/s, then you had/have some other problem that you've worked around.

7/22/2012 9:34:28 PM

Quote :

"HOLY SHIT THAT WORKED!!! HUGE jump from ~35 kb/s download to 600+ kb/s sustained! $99 upgrade for your computer's connection! Nice! Thanks all for the advice! "

If you had to buy the airport express in order to do this, wouldn't it have been easier and cheaper to go buy a 802.11n USB adapter? Turn off the internal wireless card in your laptop, use this, done. You can get a dual-band one for $50-ish.

7/22/2012 10:07:36 PM

@BobbyDigital, I can't say what it was except that I made the change that I did and it worked for this laptop.

@richthofen, thanks, that'll come in handy if I need to upgrade any other laptops.

7/23/2012 12:38:37 PM