New to wireless spec me a router/modem

[Slade2]

Ok, having recently built my new system I am in need of a wireless network.

I am fairly new to this whole wireless thing and I am not sure I really trust it so I have some questions. Currently I have the 20mbit service from virgin and use the bundled cable modem, my speeds are quite good infact I rarly get below 19mbit no matter what time of day and I am keen to keep these kind of speeds on my main machine. So first question. If I buy a new modem/router i assume I can connect my primary machine to the modem via eternet like normal and still enjoy the speeds I am getting now? The plan is to only really use the wireless network when I want to stream some content or watch BBC i player from the network connected devices I have around the house. so using the primary machine is it possible to turn off the wireless part of the modem as and when I need to as like i said I`m not keen on leaving it on all the time.

Is there a device on the market that will do this and that also perhaps has a USB socket that I can use to connect my external drive to since I might want to have it on but turn off the main machine and still be able to steam in the other room from the router?

I have some DVDs and movies and stuff on the external drive some are 1080p movies. Is wireless fast enough to steam 1080p over it yet? I did hear something about duel band routers?

Thanks

 

[Skidilliplop]

That's a lot of questions, hopefully I can answer most of them.

Firstly, yes you can turn the wireless on and off as you please from a web interface on the router. However provided it's secured using WPA2 with AES then you've little to fear from leaving it on.

Yes you can connect your main machine to it with a normal ethernet cable and the speeds will remain much the same - you're on cable in which case you'll keep the current modem and plug the router into it.

Wireless is fast enough to stream some HD stuff but it will depend on how far away you are from the router/ how good the signal strength is and what encoding (if any) there is on the stream. 802.11n is the fastest wifi flavour at the moment and operates at either 150 or 300mbit depending on hardware.

USB drive is tougher as there are probably routers that will do file sharing off USB storage but this will limit your options considerably. You might be better off in this instance to buy a simple NAS enclosure and pop the drive into that. Most consumer NAS boxes come with media streaming features out of the box.

I think that's everything answered?

Edit: forgot the bit about Dual band.

pretty much any routers that support 802.11n are dual band, because wifi N can operate at 2.4GHz (for backwards compatability with 802.11g devices) or 5GHz. There are also Dual Radio routers that can run both frequency bands at the same time giving the best of both worlds. But these are a lot more expensive than the Dual Band ones, and for what you want, it's not really something that makes a huge difference to you.