Any NOTICABLE difference between 54Mbps & 108Mbps Wireless modem

tooconfused_2

I am looking to get a wireless router/modem the majority semm to be the 54 Mbps type although they do a 108 Mbps would I notice the difference buying the more expensive 108 version on a 2 Mb ADSL line ?

Omertron

Short answer: No.
Long answer: depends.

The 108Mbps router will have a stronger signal and therefore reach further in your house, important if you have thick walls or are a long way from your router.

Make sure that you buy the wireless card for your pc from the same manufacturer as they currently all use proprietory protocols and you won't get the 108Mbps with other cards.

tigermatt

Because the speed of the wireless connection is higher than your broadband connection then you won't notice a difference in internet speed. You will only notice a difference on other computers (if you have any) on your network, but they need to be using either 108Mbps or 100Mbps wired for you to notice much difference.

codetown

Omertron wrote:

The 108Mbps router will have a stronger signal and therefore reach further in your house, important if you have thick walls or are a long way from your router.

Well that's wrong. The 108 mps do not send a stronger signal over air. They just change modulation, so range should not be affected much.

In general if the two connected devices are both 108MBps, then there will be a considerable (in real terms +20-30%) advantage when you trasnfer files internally from one PC to another, when you do remote control (if you do it) or other desktop sharing exercises (i.e. have full control of every computer from everyone else).

Your speed with the external world (Internet) will be limited by your provider. At present clearly your 108 Mbps router is much theoretically faster than the 8/24 Mbit/s offered by the fastest ISP, so the bottleneck is the ISP.

Given the cost differential is absolutely minimal (or nill in some cases) I would go for a 108Mbps model. In any case it reverts to 54 Mps (or 11 Mbps, or lower as necessary depending on the range) if your network has old legacy (not compliant) nodes in it.