Would n APs speed up my mixed g/n network?

[Fraoch]

I have 3 g clients on my network that I cannot change to n for reasons too long to get into here. 2 of these clients communicate constantly, just tiny little bursts of data but at least one a second.

Given this warning about mixing g and n clients:

http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=2506

I was wondering if I'd see a benefit by attaching n APs to these clients and turning off their g radios? These clients can all be operated wired off an AP.

It'd be nice to use Belkin F7D5301s because I see them on sale for $17 right now but it looks like those can't be used as an AP and they have an upright form factor which wouldn't work for one of the clients.

Failing that, ASUS RT-N12/Bs are $35 now - they can act as an AP right out of the box but will also take alternative firmware.

Any suggestions for good, cheap n APs? Speed is not much of a concern, nor is pulling in a good signal (I have an RT-N66U and excellent signal coverage throughout the house). I just want to remove g clients from the network so I can run all n.

Would it be worth it?

 

[thiggins]

N access points provide higher speeds only to N clients. They provide no benefit to G clients unless you have *very* old G APs/routers. The benefit would be primarily through advances in radio and antenna technology.

 

[Fraoch]

According to your article though, wouldn't removing these g clients from the network and switching to an all n network result in a speed benefit for all clients, simply because there are no slower g clients occupying radio time?

One of the clients is a Linksys WRT54G that is being used as an AP. The two others (Logitech Squeezebox Boom music players) have internal cards based on the Atheros AR2413 chipset. The Boom players communicate back to the server at least once a second - little data bursts but constantly there. When playing they require a constant stream of 1 Mbps or more.

 

[thiggins]

Sorry, it wasn't clear from your post that you were considering a rip and replace with N.

The add-don't-replace rule of thumb is most applicable to busy wireless networks with a lot of video streaming activity. In this case, slower clients take more air time and slow down the entire network.

If you have an N network with just a few G clients doing email and web browsing or music streaming like you noted, you probably won't see a performance reduction in a mostly N network.

Note that an access point is not a client. It's an access point, so creates its own network. If you create a separate G network, put it on a different channel (using 1, 6, or 11) and give it its own SSID. This will ensure that G clients connect to the proper network.

 

[Fraoch]

OK, thanks. Sorry for the terminology confusion!