Wireless adapter compatibility

[demonbrawn]

My old Linksys router is now a piece of crap. It's out of warranty so support wants to charge me out the wazoo to replace it. No. I'm going to try out a new Belkin N+ wireless router I've heard good things about. Question is, are wireless adapters compatible with other brands? I have a Linksys wireless adapter, so I'm not sure if it will work with the Belkin router.

 

[Mussels]

yes, you can mix and match brands.


The only things you need to match is speed

(802.11b/g/N)

and security

(WEP 64/128 / WPA / WPA 2 / WPA 1/2 PSK)

if they dont match, you'll have to drop to the highest common denominator (aka, slower speed/weaker security)

 

[Deleted member 6693]

+1 for Mussels

You could also use MAC address filtering, alone (not much security - but fast)

I live in the county-side...only a few people live here, and none of them have
technical skilles....so I use MAC filtering only with the N standard.....fast enough for streaming movies

 

[demonbrawn]

Thanks. My Linksys adapter is wireless G, so I will need to buy a new one that's wireless N?

 

[hat]

Only if you plan on having a N network. My network is on G and it's fast enough.

 

[Black Hades]

I own & use a Belkin N+ router. I wouldn't recommend it for internet speeds above 50Mbit, also there's no QoS on the wired side of the router. On the other hand it has Gbit Lan.

Had issues with some aetheros based usb wireless dongles. I dont know why but simply using them put a lot of stress on the router's hardware (as a result slowing down the whole network, especially the WAN throughput)

If your internet speed is lower than 50Mbit this router is the best that you can find at a decent price as far as I know.

Tip:
For wireless you could set it up with WPA 1 PSK and have a nice cryptic password. The router supports push button configuration so you don't really need to remember the password. Not with windows 7 at least... instead of entering password you just press the button for 3 seconds on your router and the router automatically configures all needed things on the PC's.

Why WPA 1? it's not as hardware intensive as WPA 2 and is exceptionally safe if you have a complex password.

 

[Deleted member 6693]

I can recommend a D-Link DIR-655 - has QoS and is one of the best N wireless routers there is for home use.

And yes ... to run in N mode, both the router and the network cards has to
be N standard
(N=300 MBit)(G=54 MBit)(B=11 MBit) The speeds are theoretical - in real world they are smaller!

 

[Black Hades]

I second the D-Link DIR-655, a bit more expensive than the Belkin N+, better throughput. Of course if the Belkin satisfies your requirements no need to pay extra...

 

[demonbrawn]

So far, everything seems to be working just fine. My old Linksys wireless G adapter is connecting just fine to the Belkin router. I really like it so far. Easier setup than my previous Linksys router was I think, and the network storage option runs much faster than I thought. Thanks for the input guys.

 

[wiak]

Only if you plan on having a N network. My network is on G and it's fast enough.

hehe your missing out, i get like 10 MB/s transfer over my 11n network on 2.4ghz
where i only get 2.5M MB/s max on 11G cards

if you have devices with 11n then get a 11n router if you only got 11g clients use a 11g router
if you buy anything new NOW get 11n