Gaming & Wireless vs. Wired Routing questions

So I am a college student, and my BEFSR41 Linksys router (non-wireless) just died with a solid red diagnostic light on.

I am looking at purchasing a new router.

I set up our home wireless network back at my familie's house with ease.

My question is this:

What is the best router out there for gaming and would it be wired or wireless? The reason I ask is because I was just browsing on my laptop which I am currently leeching off of someone elses network and looking at wireless routers, and they seem to have data rates of up to 108Mbps now which to my understanding would be faster than your conventional 10/100 Cat5 wired connection.

So I guess I am asking would I be better off just getting a new wireless router capable of 108Mbps data rates instead of just being plugged into the router?

Thanks for all of your input.

The research that I recently did for myself led me to believe that the Belkin Wireless Pre-N Router would be my best bet.

The DLink MIMO Wireless SuperG Router is a very good router as it has excellent coverage and is capable of travelling through thick walls.

http://www.dlink.com/products/?sec=0&pid=385

So you're saying that for gaming I can go with wireless now instead of standard wired and see little difference?

With that router, yes.

stay very far away from belkin, unless you want free kit

Please, explain why?

okay, you just started a rant from me

me and my brother have a computer, they were networked directly using crossover cables, his computer had the cable modem. To try and rectify the problem of having to switch his comp on to allow me to connect to the internet. My parents bought a belkin router for xmas, it was a standard 4 port wired belkin router.

So i went about setting it up, i have set up a few LAN's before so this should be a piece of cake, got some ends for the crossover cables (don't remember name, switches it from crossover to standard) and hooked them up with the cables & router.

nothing, dideldy squat. tried for a good part of the day and nothing. My dad, being the 'I know how to fix everything, but can't' rang the support. Got some poor foreign fella, reading prompts off his screen, nothing. Re-rang the second day, more prompts, nothing, suggested we take it back. Took the router back and exchanged it, same problem. Rang again... this time the person on the phone put us through to the manager. he said that because you have had so many problems that we will send you a free 54G Wireless belkin router, as it also has 4 wired ports.

It arrived a week later, connected and it works like a charm, no problems at all.

Boom, we now have 6 pc's at home which need networking, one solution... Wireless! I bought one an actual wireless belkin 54g NIC. To make sure that if anything goes wrong, it isn't the hardwares fault. Oh dear, The other pc is 10 feet away through one wood/plasterboard wall and no signal.

I moved the pc to sit on top of the router, and got a good signal. Moved it 5 feet away, okay signal.

got on the phone, dad complained that 'our business' can't function. 3-4 calls later trying to get them to pull their finger out and they offered to send a wireless access point, we said thanks. 5 days later, nothing, and on that day a UK based manager contacted us. Saying he is sorry for the inconvenience, and we told him the access point hasn't arrived.

within 4 days after than call 2 access points arrive, and one arial extension arrives.

I literally had to put one access point in the middle of the 2 rooms and one on top of the computer to get the signal to jump accross.

after some farting about. It works, but with the router & 2 access points, my radius of wireless is about 20-40 feet... thats over £180 worth of kit at the time.

I bought a linksys NIC for my other comp, no problems whatsoever. even way out of the radius of the wireless and it seems to be coping fine.

good enough excuse?
I say buy from a reputable company to avoid the headaches

Yeah, I'm definitely not a Belkin guy either (although not due to their routers, but their ipod/CompactFlash adapters, slow as a doped up arthritic tortoise on valium)...

But anyways, yeah, go with Linksys

I've bought LinkSys and Micro$oft routers for my own use, and both work quite well, although after 2 years of use, my Micro$oft one is getting a lil tempramental (randomly just going nuts requiring a power-cycle. Sometimes it doesn't happen for a coupla weeks, sometimes it happens a dozen times in a single day).

The LinkSys one has never failed me. I also setup a client's office network (around 30 PCs) using Linksys gear. Works great.

As far as wireless gaming, I've never been too confident, but with 802.11g it's not too bad at all. Just don't try to save a few bucks and get 802.11b.

Even though 802.11b is technically faster than your cablemodem/dsl @ 11mbit, you get lagged up the yinyang. 802.11g (54MBit) is more than capable though.

As far as you seeing 108MBit, put simply (and somebody please correct me if I'm wrong), it's some kind of accelerated 802.11g, which basically uses 54MBit up and 54MBit down (for a 108MBit total), like this one with "SpeedBooster". But, that doesn't mean you'll get that speed. You have to have the appropriate wireless NIC with "Speedbooster" too.

I'm still on 802.11b here at home, so I haven't researched the g and its variations that much. I don't do gaming over the wireless, it's purely so I can keep an eye on the sites from the laptop.

The Linksys routers are developed with CISCO and therefore are a very good brand in their own right. People who I know use them have never had any trouble with them, they set up easily and work superb.

The most annoying comment I get from folk who are setting up wireless networks is that "This router doesn't work with my NIC". Problem is that they are using different manufacturers. Although with cabled networks, this doesnt really make any difference, I have seen multiple times where this is different with wireless. If you go with Linksys, stick to their technologies. Same applies for the other brands like Netgear, DLink etc.

Personally I would go with the DLink router. It is more expensive than the Linksys but it has greater coverage. I have seen this thing go through two victorian thick walls and still reach a further 20 meters without any problems.

As for 108g, it is just a supercharged version of the 54g system as Axe stated. As with all technology, the actual speed you get is determined by other factors such as your distance from the telephone exchange etc.

Thank you Nucleo for the story and Axe for the Suggestion... Now I know that I must stay away from belkins. I wanted to swish my Linksys Wireless Router for a Belkins, good thing you said that, Now I will love my Linksys for ever and ever lol....
Is there any Linksys Wireless router outthere that can go higher that just the 54 mbs rate?

Well, I'm not saying all Belkin hardware is back because one item I was interested in sucks. Just that one important product for me not working the way I'd hoped it would put me off them as a company, heh.

Thanks for all of your replies and comments. Much appreciated.