[deathandtaxes]

I have a new Core 2 Duo Macbook Pro so I'm tempted to get the Airport Express hub for the greater range and speed. But I have two older computers with 802.11g cards on the network. I read that having these could slow down access for the 802.11n machine. Is this a problem?

[mduell]

Here's how I understand it with mixed 802.11 b and g networks:
Say you have 3 clients, 2 b and 1 g. Each gets one third of the network's time. So the b clients each get 11Mbps/3, or 3.66Mbps, and the g client gets 54Mbps/3, or 18Mbps. So in aggregate you get to use 25.3Mbps out of a potential 54Mbps.

I have a hunch, but I haven't confirmed that n will work the same way. Your n client will get 200Mbps (600/3), and each g client will get 18Mbps (54/3), so you're only able to use 236Mbps out of the potential 600Mbps.

Keep in mind that all of those speeds are in theory/on paper, and in reality you're going to get less than half that.