There should not be a difference. Before the N standard has been approved, it was known as the "draft" standard. After the standard has been approved in 2009, the draft word has been taken out from the 802.11n and it is officially a wireless 300Mbps protocol.
Well, draft N merely means the router supports the draft of the 802.11n standard that was still being ratified. Such routers may not be fully compatible with other draft N devices. Now that the 802.11n standard has been approved, all draft-N devices should be updated to fully support the final 802.11n standard for full compatibility with other 802.11n devices.
Hi Guys, Thank you both for the clear explanation. My following question is, why does Cisco Linksys, and some of the modem router still uses draft N in their specification? Thanks.
Yeah, new models have different model labelling like E-series and X-series. Eg. E4200, X2000. In fact, they have started using the new naming convention since 2009 if I'm not mistaken. And don't forget, they will also take time to repackage the box too. 1 year is not unreasonable. Linksys has virtually no market in Asian countries as they are 'branded'. So what we can find here is old and obsolete products.
I don't think it's because there's no market. I just think they are using us as a dumping ground for their obsolete products. I can't imagine that Linksys only released the E1000 this year!!! Seriously, that WiFi-N router is 2 years old when they launched it locally. So yes, I'm not surprised to see some routers still using the Draft-N standard.
Well, according to someone who used to work for them, we do not get the premium products because MY is not a high demand market. So you will only see certain range of products, usually very late too. Dumping ground is also another reason. Like the E3000 that I have, it is probably one of the very few units in MY since they never sell it here. But I do see the E4200.
but can the E3000 connect to the internet? It is no good to take here as a dumping ground and it is by no means any cheaper than a TP Link modem. With a TP Link at about RM 138, it is less than half the price of a Linksys modem.....
This is a perfect example why MY has no market. But there's no denying they make solid products, and I have always bought Linksys products even if they are old models and more expensive.
No, the Linksys E3000 is a dedicated WiFi-N router. It is not a modem-router, so it cannot connect to Streamyx. When I said dumping ground, I meant for older products, not poorer quality products. There's a reason why Linksys modems cost more than D-Link or TP-Link products. Just look at the router's capability to handle multiple simultaneous connections, which are very useful for P2P transfers. Better routers can handle more, lousier routers will hang when you hit their connection limit.
Yup, their hardware is better, beefier processor, 2 wireless transceiver to handle both 2.4GHz and 5GHz.
It depends on your usage. Some routers cannot handle the load, and will crash. Some will just reboot by itself. Streaming doesn't really load the router that much. Running P2P software like PPStream, BT will choke it.
It depends on your laptop's wireless card too but if draft 802.11n will provide better range than 802.11g then that in itself will make it worth it. I'm hoping I won't need to change the router for a while.. and new laptops will most certainly have 802.11n wireless cards so not sure if it's worth it to invest in a 802.11g router right now.
The actual hardware in the router should be fine. The "draft" designation just means that the IEEE hadn't finalized the 802.11n standard at the time the equipment was made. They should be able to change this with a firmware update unless the IEEE makes a drastic change to the standard, which will not happen in all likelihood.
Unfortunately, there's wireless-n is not as easy as it seems. Dont expect all your devices to be running 300Mbps speeds. I know my laptop and my work laptop have wireless-n card, and they wont run at 300Mbps speeds. LOL I'm only using wireless-n because they are faster than wireless-g, but definitely not faster than 100Mbps LAN connections.
I am using a USB to mini USB cable to connect to my card. The best I can get is 135 MBps. Now, this is definitely faster than the 100MBps LAN... right? Also, one question, does this connection speed also depend on the cable from the card to the PC? I mean, the shorter, the better and the "MORE expensive" type of USB to mini USB cable, the faster and better.
