wireless n with or without antennas

gghartman · 1st September 2009

probably a dumb question here. am all out of linksys wrt54gs which i really liked so thinking about going wireless N now. personally i like the antennas but the linksys n's dont have antennas but the dlink's do.

does it matter having the antennas or not ???

**TonyT** · 2nd September 2009

The new Linksys wifi routers have internal antennas. The advantage of devices with detachable external antennas is that the antennas can be upgraded to achieve a greater range.

gghartman · 2nd September 2009

tony t

have for the most part always used the linksys wireless but like you say with xternal antennas one can always replace with a higher range antenna this way.

so what do you think of the dlink wireless ??? does it compare okay with the linksys N ??? dlink does seem to be less expensive with their N version.

**TonyT** · 2nd September 2009

Unless you have a N wifi adapter in your comp then using a N router won't make any difference at all. Wifi N is backward compatable. Thus, if use a B or G adapter the access point will auto drop down to B or G mode. And even if you have a N adapter, as soon a someone else with a B or G adapter connects the access point will auto drop down to the slower level and stay there until the B or G client disconnects. N mode access points are a waste unless ALL clients use N adapters.

gghartman · 3rd September 2009

tony t

i do understand that but now that i cant get the wrt54gs which has been an incredibly stable wireless router i was trying to find a replacement.

for some reason lately my sister-in-law who is piggy backing on my wireless her signal for some reason has gone down to 1 or 2 bars when it was 3 or 4. she has a new dell vostro so i was looking at the N router for the better distance it says it will give or would i be better off replacing the 2 antennas on my wrt54gs with larger db ones and if so what would you recommend for my wrt54gs device.

again tho what is your opinion of the dlink devices compared to linksys ???

thanks for all youve given me so far......greg

**TonyT** · 3rd September 2009

Radio Shack has a closeout of Gigaware 7db antennas that will fit that router. I have several wrt54g routers. The upgraded antennas stably doubled the range and more.

You may still find these antennas at Radio Shack. I got a couple sets a few months back for less than 10 bucks as they are closeout items.

gghartman · 3rd September 2009

tony t

thanks man i will go to town today and see if radio shack has any left....greg

**Dennis L** · 4th September 2009

Over the past 18 months when replacing devices which communicate whether Lan, Wifi, or cable I keep an eye to the future. Routers have been N-draft and Gigabit Lan capable. External HDD connections have eSata porting. My desktop has eSata. Desktop and 2x notebooks have Gigabit Ethernet. Same notebooks also have N-draft wifi. Two of my external HDD devices have eSata/USB connections. Slowly I'm getting to where I want to be with no real cost difference.