Wireless networking has evolved rapidly over the past few years, when it first came out hardware was very expensive and for the most part unreliable, speeds were poor and security was a big issue, this has all changed now of course and wireless networks are expanding and playing a bigger part in home and corporate networks around the world.

For those who are considering implementing a wireless network it is important for you to realise the differences between them (apart from the obvious of course!) so let’s take a look:

Convenience – Wireless networks offer huge convenience benefits over standard wired networks. With a wirelessly connected device you can move around and still stay connected providing you are in range. This is great for office users who are frequently moving from office to office and for just about any scenario when you want to be outside or are not sat close to the nearest switch. Wireless connectivity offers a huge freedom that a wired network will never be able to do.

Performance and speed – Whilst wireless technology has had some huge advancements with the latest wireless N suite it is still nowhere near capable of gigabit speeds that can be found in wired networks. The biggest issue with wireless speed is fluctuation and the fact that the speed you get will depend a lot on your distance between the nearest access point and whatever happens to be in between the wireless device and the access point itself. This is a factor that will always be present with wireless networking. With a wired network you will always get the speed that the wire is capable of (providing there is no flaw in the cable) and the speed you get today will be the speed you get tomorrow and the day after and so on.

Whilst wireless N is theoretically capable of 300mbps it is unlikely we will see these kinds of speeds for a long time! In fact it is safe to assume that 100mbps is the maximum throughput you are likely to see, and this is under perfect working conditions (i.e. perfect line of sight and very good range to the access point). The other problem is that an upgrade from wireless G to wireless N can be expensive, especially in a large distributed wireless network.

Security – Probably the biggest issue with wireless networking is the security aspect. By default if no encryption is used your wireless network would be exposed to absolutely anybody who is in range. These means that a hacker could intercept all the traffic travelling between you and the wireless router or access point. Stepping up from this you have WEP encryption which is extremely unsecure and can be comprised with relative ease and freely available software. Luckily WPA and WPA/2 address these issues an offer a more robust security algorithm. With a strong pass phrase you can ensure that hackers are going to have a very tough time breaking into your network.

With wired networks this kind of concern isn’t applicable and security issues will stem from how well your network equipment is physically secured and from the kind of protection you are using that will stop external intruders (firewall, access-lists etc)

Reliability – If setup correctly a wireless network can be very reliable, however for a large one there are many factors to consider and the whole process can get very expensive. Without proper consideration for the environment that it will operate it and the conditions, wireless networks can be very unreliable. Signals can fluctuate and speeds can drop, in worst case scenarios you can experience frequent disconnections that can be very annoying. Wired networks on the other hand will very rarely give you any problems, under normal conditions the cables will last a very long time and the switches (if from a reputable manufacture) will last many many years.

Linksys are probably the biggest manufacture of home broadband routers, after all they are a sub division of Cisco who are the largest networking hardware supplier in the world. With some amazing technology and expertise behind them Linksys have developed some exceptionally good home broadband routers that include the latest ‘N’ technology to provide outstanding output and wireless range.

Here are three of the best Linksys broadband routers that are available on the market today.

Linksys E3000 Wireless N broadband router – The E3000 uses dual band wireless N technology and offers exceptional range with the use of very strong internal antennas. I managed speeds of over 100mbps internally and video streaming over the wireless network was very smooth indeed. Due to the dual band technology you can have your wireless network running at the same speeds you would get on a 10/100 wired network.

The E3000 also comes with a whole boat load of features. For starters you get a USB port on the router itself that allows you to connect up a USB hard drive or pen drive to then share files over the network quickly and easily. The four Ethernet ports all run at Gigabit speeds and give your wired devices very fast transfer speeds.

The security features are standard and you can use WPA/2 for maximum home protection, with a decent size passphrase this will make your network practically impossible to break into. Not only that but the E3000 has a built in SPI firewall to protect from the outside internet. Another nice little feature is the ability to allow users access to the internet but not to your shared files within the network. This creates a seperate virtual network where users authenticate with a username and password and can only access the internet.

Click here to view the Linksys E3000 on Amazon.com!

Linksys WRT610N broadband router - Similar to the E3000 the WRT610N offers the same dual band technology. In the tests I did with this I found that the signal was stronger and extended further, which could be to do with the fact that it houses three powerful internal antennas.

Some of the features offered are the built in SPI firewall and the ability for the ‘one touch connect’ button to pair your wireless devices up faster than normal. The Ethernet ports run at gigabit speeds allowing for lightning fast transfer rates between wired clients.

The main differences between this and E3000 are the improvements on range (of which the E3000 already performs very well in!) I also managed slightly faster throughput when transferring files between two wireless devices.

Click here to view the Linksys WRT320N on Amazon.com!

Linksys WRT610N broadband router – Very similar to the E3000 in terms of features as well as the wireless range and speed that it offers. The 610N also offers the same dual band technology that gives optimal wireless N performance.

In speed tests I found the 610N to be slightly better than the E3000 and was able to tranfer at well over 100mbps. Please remember that the maximum speed of wireless N is 300mbps but you will NOT achieve this kind of speed in a home wireless network.

Overall the 610N has a similar price tag and the same features including the SPI firewall, usb mass storage interface and the 4 gigabit ethernet ports.

Click here to view the Linksys WRT610N on Amazon.com!

Nowadays your home network isnt complete without a wireless router. But there are so many out there which one do you choose? Most people will go with a well known vendor and choose one at random but its worthwhile considering a few things before you do the same!

For the average home user the most important parts of wireless networking are security, range and reliability. You want your wireless network to always be up and available, you want to be able access it from the other side of the house and you want to make sure its secure.

To N or not to N, that is the question. – One of the most important considerations for most people is whether to go for a wireless N router or not. Wireless N is the latest IEEE addition to the wireless networking world and it offers speeds of up to 300Mbps with big improvements on range as well. Practically speaking you are unlikely to get speeds of higher than 100Mbps with wireless N but this is still a big improvement on Wireless G which offers 54Mbps (with practical speeds of probably around half that).

So surely with much faster speeds and better range you should go for Wireless N every time right? Well not so fast, wireless N is going to cost you more, but not only that you need to make sure that the wireless adaptors you are using for it are compatible, otherwise your wireless network will just run in wireless G mode and you will never make use of the N, making it completely pointless!

Ask yourself this as well, do you really need those faster speeds? Remember that your internet connection will always be your bottleneck, unless you have a 100Mbps internet connection (very unlikely) then normal web browsing, video streaming and downloading of files from the internet is not going to be any quicker on wireless N than it would be on G. Again, ask yourself is range has ever been an issue? If everywhere in your house gives you at least a good signal then is the improved range going to mean anything to you?

These are things you should ask yourself before shelling out the extra money for wireless N, it will not miraculously speed up your internet connection, remember that! If you frequently transfer big files within your network wirelessly then the upgrade to N will make a difference, but these kinds of scenarios aren’t very common.

Choosing the manufacture - As with everything you should always choose a reputable networking manufacture. In my opinion you should only consider one of the following three – Linksys, Netgear or D-Link. I’m now going to follow up with a brief review of one wireless router from each manufacture.

Linksys WRT160N Wireless N router – One of the much cheaper versions of the wireless N range, in fact I have seen these on amazon.com for around $50, absolute bargain for wireless N technology! The wrt160N is very sleekly designed and uses MIMO (Multiple in multiple out) technology to provide great range and speeds.

In performance testing this little beauty was able to give me over 100mbps between two wireless connected devices which were quite far apart from each other. The security features are more than adequate for home users but at the same time the standard suite of WEP and WPA/2. You also get a very effective SPI firewall that doubles up with the NAT feature to give you a good home security device.

Price: $50

Netgear WNR2000 - Similar features to the Linksys one but with a few extras such as automatic updating router software, parental controls and an energy efficient power supply! All good and well but how about the performance?

Well inter LAN speeds were very good, well over 100mbps and the range is very impressive indeed, I was able to connect with a very good signal strength at over 30 metres away with no direct line of sight. Security wise the WNR2000 is very effective and offers an IDS (Intrusion detection system) firewall that stood up well against many different hack attempts.

Price: $59

D-Link DIR-655 Extreme N – Same N technology as the above two but this time you get Gigabit LAN ports as opposed to the 100mbps standard ones. This can make a big difference if you have wired devices and do a lot of LAN gaming or file transfers.

Not only that but with the DIR-655 you get a nifty little QOS (quality of service) feature that priorities traffic based on certain factors, for example online gaming and Skype calls, stuff that is a bit more critical than just general web browsing. This can come in handy if you have times where many users are connecting to the wireless network. The additional features do come with an additional price tag though.

Price: $80

In summary you can’t go wrong with any of these three routers here and they are probably the best out there for general home and office use. Wireless N doesn’t have to be that expensive as you can see and unless you are on a serious budget it might well be worth considering.