AboutScottgem Expertise Most general questions on LANs, especially home networks. Some admin and design issue.
Experience I've been an IT Professional for more then 16 years. I've accumulated a larege store of knowledge that allows me to answer a wide variety of IT related questions.
Question QUESTION: Scottgem: I wanted to see if I could ditch my $50/mo. land line phone. I got a wifi-enabled phone from T-Mobile & (for $10/mo) can call for free anytime I'm on a wifi network. My 802.11b router works fine at home with our three laptops--good range & good signal strength. The phone (samsung Katalyst) however, often drops calls in the house. By trial & error, I believe I've got the router in the best central location for the whole house A Geek at Best Buy suggested I upgrade my router to an "n", which I did ($80), but the range & signal strength is no better (& maybe worse?). I've been trying to understand the issue by Googling & one thing puzzles me: if it's true that speed is limited by my ISP (around 3Mbits), then my "b" router (11 Mbit/s) is more than adequate, right? Why should I spend $80 for no improvement? Are there other advantages for "n" that warrant the $? Do you have any other suggestions for being able to make wifi calls w/o their being dropped?
Thanks,
Ray
ANSWER: 802.11n gives you greater range and speed. The speed is from the broadband modem to the device and vice versa. Yes, if your broadband connection is slower than your LAN connection, that extra speed around the network is not as important, but since it has to contend with other network traffic it will improve performance.
Hope this helps
Scott<>
I don't understand what you meant by unavailable. You can't expect immediate answers all the time. Also what didn't I answer?
Scott<>
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QUESTION: By "unavailable," I meant that right after I got your answer, I tried to ask a follow up question, but "the system" said something like "This expert is not available for questions; go to xxx to chose another expert." So, I had to start over with another expert, who gave me an answer and then was available for a follow up question. If "the system" had allowed me to ask you a follow up question, I would not have minded any delay, even a couple of days--it was just that I wasn't even allowed to follow up w/ you at all. When you sent me "I don't understand what you meant...what didn't I answer?", I tried immediately to respond & explain, but again, "the system" said "this expert is not available..." Only today would the system allow me to communicate with you again. What wasn't answered--& what I would have pursued in any allowed follow up--would have been possible solutions to my problem of dropped calls. I appreciate your first timely response & am sorry the system wouldn't allow a follow up question. I am sorry for the misunderstanding.
Answer I'm sorry! I don't know why the system responded that way. I'll have to find out what went wrong.
as for the dropped calls. Have you talked with your carrier? Its most likely a problem with the handset you are using.
