Networking & wireless forum: Computer with Wireless N, will N work on a router for g?

If I stayed with my present DSL speed which is DSL Lite through AT&T, their entry level DSL speed, with a new laptop having a wireless N card inside instead of a wireless G card inside are you saying I'll be able to notice a much faster speed while surfing wirelessly on the laptop in another part of the house or are you saying the time that it takes my DSL signal to go from my router to the laptop in another part of the house will be faster? In other words to get a faster DSL speed I'd probably have to upgrade my level of DSL service with AT&T? Thanks for your comments.

If wireless N offers more speed and distance should I be concerned about someone down the street being able to access my high speed service and use it?

Turn on security, but NOT WEP.

No, with WEP security there's little chance your neighbour will be tapping into your internet. You don't need (or want) to start changing the wiring.

As you don't currently need wireless the only thing you need to do to reduce any risk is to have a look at the manual for the router (download a copy from the maker's site) and address the router's user interface via the browser in your desktop machine and in the router settings turn off wireless.

You might as well familiarise yourself with these procedures as, when you get the new laptop, you'll probably have to mess around in the router's settings to get it to work with the laptop's wireless.

You need to use security but not WEP. WEP can be hacked in about 30 seconds. You need to use WPA, either flavor, WPA or WPA2 depending on what your router and/or laptop support.

Neighbor? If you have security turned off, ANYONE can get into your system. If you are running WEP, ANYONE can . . .

Security available is in the router's settings. Look there. Then look at the computer's settings. I can't help any further from here, you have to look.

Wireless only, yes.

Some DSL modems contain a built in wireless router. But if you're connected wired, no worries.

My brother who lives in another state called me earlier tonight to inform me that he had received his laptop which I dropped in January 2008 and damaged and he has decided to buy another one rather than spend the money it would take to fix the other one. He told me to get a few configurations together for a replacement laptop I'd like and send the information to him soon and he'd try to get me another laptop before Christmas.

Should I configure the next laptop to have wireless "g" like the other one had or should I switch to wireless "N"? I've looked at Dell's Inspiron 1525 laptop which comes standard with a Dell wireless "g" card or for less than $50.00 I can upgrade to a Dell wireless "N" card.

Is wireless "N" what everyone's now going with or is "g" still popular? I looked at some Linksys routers for "N" and new models for "g". If I switched from "g" to "N" I would have to make a change in my router I would think. Is Linksys still considered the best router brand to go with or are there other brands out there I should consider? My current Linksys router, a WRT54G is over 2 years old.