During the past few years a faster wireless standard is being implemeted in laptops, some netbooks and all Apple wireless products.

Wireless N, or “draft N”, reaches speeds up to 6 times that of wireless g. When the wireless systems were first introduced wireless a at 11mbps was considered reaonably fast for the emerging technology.

Wireless g brought the speed up to 56mbps. At that time the amount of data flowing was not nearly what it is today.

The Draft N speeds are up to 300mbps.

Most computers bought in the past two to three years, especially laptops and the new netbooks can br configured for N. Apple portable products are already configured with this technogy.

Now it’s time to replace a router or get one for the first time. Some issues my clients have faced revolve around having two technologies present such as G on the older machines and N on the newer models.

On some routers they require operating on the slower speed for all
computers in a mixed environment for compatibility or just N leaving the older computers unable to use the router.

Some manufacturers have advertised their routers as dual band, but they are not running simultaneously.

In order for each band -G or N- to work, the router must be capable of simultaneously sending both signals so that each user can pick up the highest speed signal.

So, if you are in the market to replace a router in a mixed G or N environment, make sure that the router will broadcast both bands simultaneously.