| Why Upgrade? | | | | applications, voice-over-IP conversations, chunky |
| In this age of technological abundance, there is an | | | | downloading, and even videoconferencing. Of |
| increasing need to get the best content in the | | | | course, not every home does all that over their |
| fastest way. However, quality and speed do not | | | | wireless network, but a lot of businesses do, |
| always mix. If you are trying to find out how to | | | | which makes it a worthwhile consideration, |
| speed up your PC and have a wireless network | | | | especially for scalability and mobility purposes. |
| set up for 802.11b/g, though your desktop or | | | | If 802.11n sounds appealing to you, you can start |
| laptop only supports 802.11b, then you may be | | | | with a new wireless router. You can get a pretty |
| well aware of this. That's because on 802.11b, | | | | good one under $50, though if you're looking for a |
| you're only running at 15 Mbps, assuming you | | | | high-end home model, expect to pay much more |
| have a full signal. At that speed, you're barely | | | | than that. Most of these support mixed-mode, |
| ahead of the prehistoric 10 Mbps wired networks. | | | | which means they're backwards-compatible with |
| A desktop or laptop computer that supports | | | | clients that support 802.11b/g. Of course, if your |
| 802.11g wifi can run at 54 Mbps with full signal, | | | | PC is still on an older standard, it will still work, but |
| which is much better than its "b" counterpart, but | | | | only at the speeds that its hardware allows. For |
| in all reality, you'll still probably get less than that. | | | | example, if you upgrade your router to 802.11n |
| At this point, you may still prefer a wired | | | | and your PC only uses 802.11g, then the |
| network of 100 Mbps, especially if you watch a | | | | maximum potential speed you're going to get is |
| lot of full-length HD movies over your wireless | | | | 54Mbps. This "bottleneck" is like being able to drive |
| network. | | | | on only one lane of a six- or possibly even |
| How to Upgrade | | | | twelve-lane highway. |
| If you're curious about how to speed up your PC | | | | To upgrade your desktop or laptop computer and |
| with wireless, the best option to do so currently is | | | | allow it to operate at the speed that your new |
| through an 802.11n wireless network, which | | | | router allows, consider purchasing either a USB |
| typically can get speeds up to 300 Mbps. Despite | | | | drive or desktop PCI card that will support the |
| that giant increase though, newer 802.11n router | | | | new standard. These are all easily available under |
| are even claiming to get up to 600 Mbps. That's | | | | $50 and can easily be found both online and at |
| definitely enough to handle your HD video | | | | retail stores that sell computer-related equipment. |
| streaming, multiplayer gaming, remote access | | | | |