To those who have an existing B/G router and are looking to buy an N router, a word of advise. Run your new N router ONLY in Wireless N mode because by default, the router will drop wireless transmission rates to the speed of the slowest device on the network i.e. if you have 2 wireless devices (e.g. laptops) and one is B/G with another one running N/B/G, then buying a wireless N router and retiring the B/G router will not be useful because your Wireless N will now work at B/G speeds as the older B/G device will slow the router and entire wireless network down to its speeds.
[B]BUT there is an option[/B] (which I spent the last 3 days on to fix, and now have it working). You dont need to retire the B/G router at all and use it dedicated for your B/G network. You can achieve this by doing the following but ensure you are connecting to both routers by cable (not wireless) when doing this configuration.
First, reset the Wireless N router to factory defaults and then Setup the N router STRICTLY as a Wireless N device. Set this device IP as 192.168.1.1 and ensure that the DHCP Server IP range on the new N router is set to anything between 192.168.1.100 - 192.168.1.150 (as an example).
Unplug your Computer from the N router and connect to the B/G Router. Reset to factory defaults, then set the device IP to 192.168.1.5 - you can replace "5" with any other number between 2 - 255 but which does NOT fall between 100 - 150 (inclusive). This is because your N router is assigning IP addresses between 100 - 150, to the devices connecting to the router and you dont want your Wireless B/G router obtaining a matching IP to one already assign and causing conflicts on the network.
[IMG]http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/images/stories/wireless/howto_router_to_ap/ap_admin_500.jpg[/IMG]
After setting the B/G device IP, disable this routers DHCP server as above (you already have an ACTIVE DHCP Server working on the N router and dont need a second one for more unnecessary conflicts). Hit Save. Now go into your B/G routers "Wireless Tab" settings and ensure its mode is set to "AP" (Access Point).
once that is done, save, disconnect the router and reboot it.
Now plug a cable into any one of the ethernet ports on the back (not into the WAN/Internet Port) and plug the other end into any one of the ethernet ports on the N router.
[IMG]http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/images/stories/wireless/howto_router_to_ap/router_to_ap.jpg[/IMG]
Connect your old B/G Device wirelessly to the router and it should take you right away to the internet.
This was easy to setup but the reason it took me 3 days was because there was a problem on my wife's laptop that would not let me maintain ANY security level i.e. WEP/WPA/WPA2 and it would automatically default to WPA-SPK (or some setting like that) no matter which one I selected. I dont know how I figured it out but I just disabled the wireless security setting on the B/G router, enabled MAC based access/filtering, disabled the SSID broadcast on the router and voila, it works.
I can now transfer at speeds close to 12 megabytes/sec wirelessly using dedicated N and STILL connect my wifes B/G notebook to the old router.
Here is a link that I used to get some help (more screenshots included)
[url]http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/30338/228/[/url]