Airport: G with N?

This is more of a general networking question but I am focused on getting the airport extreme base station. I was told by somebody that if one laptop is running G on a network then the whole thing has to run as G and not N. I have a MBP and would love to run at N, but my dad uses and older laptop and would need to run at G, is there any way to run them simultaneously? will it do it automatically? or is this not possible? I am going to school for networking so I understand all the tech talk, we just haven't covered much wireless. Thanks in advanced.

There are only two benefits to a N router, speed and range. Speed is onky applicable to the transfer speeds between computers on the network as there aren't many ISPs that offer speeds that can't be handled by current G routers. So unless you have another computer with 802.11n or an AppleTV, you won't benefit from the speed improvements as any transfers between yours and your dad's computer will be limited to G speeds.

However, if you are experiencing any dead spots or low signal, both computers will benefit from the increased range. Though to be honest, you could spend less money on a range extender if that's the only benefit you will be deriving from the airport extreme.

thanks Kash and yes i understand that it only affects LAN speed i am looking for more range though that was the main point. also the ability to share a hard drive by connecting it right to the router. which i would also benefit from having the N speed. im just wondering that if i am using it at an N speed and my dad is lets say just browsing online at G speed will it reduce mine to the G speed as well? or can i run at N

Like I said, the speed is only reduced when transferring files between computers with two different speeds. Your Internet speeds are going to remain unaffected because the chances of you having anything faster than a 54Mbps connection are slim to none.

Yea exactly thanks Kash, I guess somebody must have just given me the wrong information. They had me thinking that A,B,G, and N were actually separate routing protocols and the router could only run one at a time. But you cleared that up for me. thanks.