What to choose - Wireless 'N' or 'G' Router

Howzit guys

I manage to get sorted with my new adsl account and modem through cybersmart which arrived at my place today yippee

However the modem as you all know is a non branded 4port jobie which you get from cybersmart (ADSL 2+) which i wanna give wireless capabilities by adding on a wireless router ofcourse.

However i am stuck with deciding which router to pair with my modem the two contenders i have in mind is the Linksys WRT54GL or the Linksys WRT120N routers.

I just cant seem to make a choice between the two, ive done some research and found that the WRT54GL is quite a killer router and rated really high, some sites even rate it as the best in its class which is extremely good and what you wanna know and hear/read when buying a router however my biggest draw back i have is its an old unit with obviously older technology that went into developing it.

Now the WRT120N on the other hand is a newer router which supports a newer platform of wireless which i most likely wont use hahahaha its obviously has much newer technology put into its development etc etc which seems like a better buy. Ive also done some research on this router and there seems to be a mixed response on it, a bit of good and a bit of bad, i dont see the bad effecting me that much for the application i would be using the router for in other words in my case the good out ways the bad. Last but not least it looks really good.

And one last thing is i am on a bit of a budget and the WRT120N seems to favour my pocket more hahaha by at least R150 cheaper than the WRT54GL but if the odds lean more towards the WRT54GL i would justify spending the extra money.

Please give me your guys choices on the above wireless router or even any other routers you guys would suggest.

Thanx in advanced

No idea about those particular routers... sorry.

If u are simply arguing N vs G (ignoring other features - hardly what ur looking for but i'll do it anyway).... N will always win in my opinion. I have one of those Wireless N wifi access points from Netgear (the ones that first came out on the in 2007 - running Draft N spec). It is backwards compatible with G, and even though my notebook is on G, it increases the range in a massive way.

shogun said:

It is backwards compatible with G

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yip the one im looking at is also has backward compatibility with G

shogun said:

it increases the range in a massive way.

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this is what i thought would be the case as well

Had you asked this *before* the N standard was ratified - say around a year or two ago, the grand old dame that is the WRT54GL would have won, hands down; it really IS a killer router, specially if you're looking for a compact, easily powered, HIGHLY hackable robust computing platform you want to play silly buggers with. But not as a basic router, not any more. Also, as N-routers go, the WRT120N is far from great ..possibly even good.

Simply put, if you want a GOOD (actually great, but that's another discussion) router that, to me, is very definitely the successor to the throne the WRT54GL has has its entire life, go for the TP-LINK WR1043ND; it's just made of WIN every which way you look at it (well, for the job at hand ..perhaps less so when it comes to remote-control robotic projects!)

thanx for that reply bdt

as far as the wrt120n goes i never said it was great nor good but its a fairly cheap N-Router going for an unbelievable R451.26 hence me looking in its direction

that tp-link is a nice router however a bit to pricey for me at the moment

basically the router will just serve to provide two laptops a wireless connection to the net for more web browsing then actual downloads maybe occasional biggish downloads but nothing major as most of the bigger downloads i wanna run through a Ethernet cable to my desktop machine

There's cheap-yet-good and cheap-and-nasty: frankly, in terms of specs, the 120N falls into the latter category. But hey, it ain't my money and I'm not about to sacrifice a few bucks worth of saving in the now against craptacular 'performance' over the intended lifetime of the device. So, that said, the little brother is the WR941ND wherein you sacrifice gigabit LAN but, and this IS the important bit, keep the properly done (compared with the Linksys) WLAN section.

For less than the Linksys.

And, given that you have to care more about the wireless side than the wired, this is by far the better proposition. But, on balance, the 1043 is the better buy.

bdt said:

Simply put, if you want a GOOD (actually great, but that's another discussion) router that, to me, is very definitely the successor to the throne the WRT54GL has has its entire life, go for the TP-LINK WR1043ND; it's just made of WIN every which way you look at it (well, for the job at hand ..perhaps less so when it comes to remote-control robotic projects!)

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+1 in every way. I have that router and love it. I also have a dead wrt54g (possibly from "playing" with it too much). It's not completely dead but the wifi is so think the radio is burnt out or something. Excellent price on the tp-link compared to anything else (looking at 3k for netgear with same features).

If you think the "ultimate" ones are expensive dbg has quite a few others including G and lite-n (150mbps).

thanks for the reply guys and sharing some light on my decision making

i will go with the advice you guys gave me and opt for the TP-Link WR941ND seems like good, solid and reliable router i hope hehehehe

plus for what you getting its a real bang for your buck

thanx again