Author: Eric Geier
Like every other technology, Wi-Fi is constantly evolving. You buy the latest-and-greatest networking gear, and in a few years its considered old and slow. The alphabet soup of wireless standards has expanded from a, b, g to now include nplus y for enterprises. The signals are faster, stronger and more secure.
While upgrading the brains of your networking gearthe firmware and driversprovides many of these enhancements, you usually have to replace your equipment to take advantage of most new features and technologies. For instance, you must buy new hardware to take advantage of the emerging standard, 802.11n (or Draft N now), which offers increased range, faster data rates, and better performance.
TrendNet markets the 300Mbps Wireless Easy-N-Upgrader (TEW-637AP) as an easy way to upgrade your wireless network to the wireless N standard, without having to throw out your existing gear.
Why buy the upgrader instead of replacing the wireless router? This is a good question. Most people probably just swap their router out with a new one. However, as the following bullets discuss, there are advantages to keeping your router and just adding the Wireless Easy-N-Upgraderanother access point (AP): * Easier installation: You get to keep your router in place and with the same settings. This is a bigger deal if you have changed advanced settings, such as port forwarding, or if your Internet connection requires manual configuration. * Larger coverage area: If you place both the existing router and the upgrader correctly, you can get even more coverage out of your network. Remember, that would involve running an Ethernet cable from the router to the upgrader thats located where the coverage boundaries of each overlap a bit. * Retain support for old adapters: Though 802.11n is supposed to work with 802.11b/g, you still might find some older wireless adapters cant connect to n routersthis might improve with the finalized standard. Keeping your wireless b or g router powered on ensures you wont lose connectivity from any of your computers.
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