802.11g

[Franklinnoble]

I'm going to get a wireless router for home use. I have a few questions I'd like to share with anyone who has any experience:

1. What brand/model do you recommend?

2. I have three PC's that will need to connect. I'd prefer to use PCI wireless adapters (as opposed to USB). Any thoughts on this?

3. I don't live in a big home or anything, but I am going to need this to work through a few layers of drywall. Any issues that I can expect?

Thanks!

[rkmsuf]

I'd suggest a lot of ball bearings and 3 pints of Quaker State...

[VPI97]

Sorry, but I have no answers...I do, however, have a question to add.

4. I've shied away from the wireless route because any signal would have to go up two stories and I haven't had anyone say that they thought a particular brand is all that reliable. Has anyone here seen a model that can handle a requirement like that?

[Franklinnoble]

Originally posted by rkmsuf
I'd suggest a lot of ball bearings and 3 pints of Quaker State...

Just 3 pints?

Can I substitute Vaseline?

[Ksyrup]

It's all in the ball bearings these days...

[rkmsuf]

Make that 10 quarts...

I would have responded sooner but a manure-spreader jacknifed on the Santa Ana. You should see my shoes.

[rjolley]

Franklinmobile:

1) I use a DLink Air-900 router that was on sale for under $40 and a Addtron AWP-100 (I think) PCMCIA card that was pretty cheap as well. The setup works very well...although my Toshiba seems to "lose" the card from time to time after hours of inactivity.
I have heard Linksys and DLink are the way to go. Pretty inexpensive with a good feature set. Also, I haven't seen any problems with mix and matching the cards with the wireless access points.

2) All of the PCI adaprters I've seen are holders for PCMCIA cards.

3) I have my WAP downstairs in the den and I get a solid signal in the family room (1/2 a story away on the other side of the house) and my bedroom (1 story away). Also, my daughter's computer is on the same floor as my bedroom, and it works with the wireless as well.

4) I don't think that will be an issue, but, if you can, you should put the WAP on the middle floor. I would think that would give you best coverage. It may work well from the bottom floor. I've heard the signal travels better up than down, but I can't confirm it.

[Tasan]

2) All of the PCI adaprters I've seen are holders for PCMCIA cards.

There are strictly PCI ones too:

http://shop4.outpost.com/product/3538484/

[rkmsuf]

Originally posted by rjolley
Franklinmobile:

1) I use a DLink Air-900 router that was on sale for under $40 and a Addtron AWP-100 (I think) PCMCIA card that was pretty cheap as well. The setup works very well...although my Toshiba seems to "lose" the card from time to time after hours of inactivity.
I have heard Linksys and DLink are the way to go. Pretty inexpensive with a good feature set. Also, I haven't seen any problems with mix and matching the cards with the wireless access points.

2) All of the PCI adaprters I've seen are holders for PCMCIA cards.

3) I have my WAP downstairs in the den and I get a solid signal in the family room (1/2 a story away on the other side of the house) and my bedroom (1 story away). Also, my daughter's computer is on the same floor as my bedroom, and it works with the wireless as well.

4) I don't think that will be an issue, but, if you can, you should put the WAP on the middle floor. I would think that would give you best coverage. It may work well from the bottom floor. I've heard the signal travels better up than down, but I can't confirm it.

Maybe you need a refresher course...

[Ksyrup]

I like men. I like to be manhandled. I like you.

[rkmsuf]

I'm a shepard...

[rkmsuf]

You and Tommy LaSorda...I hate Tommy LaSorda...

[primelord]

Franklin,

1. I don't have much of a comment on a brand you should use. My wireless AP is made by Symbol. It's more of a commerical grade AP that we used in business installations at my last job. I have however ehard good things about both Dlink and Linksys and you would probably be fine with either one.

2. Again my experience with brans is with Symbol, but I know symbol made both the pci/pcmcia adapters and solid mci cards for desktops. I would assume Dlink or Linksys have a one piece card, but if not I use a pci/pcmcia adapter and pcmcia card in my desktop and it works very well.

3. A few layers of drywall shouldn't be a problem. Your biggest issue will be what else is in the path between your PC and the AP. The RF signals will pass through drywall just fine, but it reflects off metal surfaces and can't pass through solid sheets of water (probably not an issue unless you have a waterfall in your home :)). When the signals reflect off of a metal surface they can collide with other signals causing dead spots in your coverage. You can usually just adjust the location of the AP to avoid that, but if the signal is passing through say the kitchen where the fridge, stove, pots and pans etc are all located it might cause a problem.

4. Two stories should not be an issue. My AP is in the basement and I get coverage on the second floor without any problems. I am not certain why you would think RF signals would travel better up than down, but it doesn't matter :) The omni directional attenas that come withthe AP's create a donut shaped coverage field that should be big enough to cover your two stories. However as rjolley suggested to be sure putting it on the middle floor would still be best.

However if it must be on the bottom floor and you are having problems getting coverage you can buy directional attenas that boost the power and focus the coverage to the area you need. A simple patch antenna would probably do the trick, but you could always go with a Yagi or something if you wanted to be certain. The Yagi antenna's we used to use could cover over a mile with a clear line of sight. :)

[BishopMVP]

This is the sort of setup used at my house (Linksys wireless) but it seems to have some problems (I'm at college most of the time, so I don't have much experience with it.) A situation like the following occurs occasionally. The wireless connection is saying it has an excellent connection (11mb/s fwiw) but IE (or AIM/anything else that tries to connect to the internet) can't connec. Is this a problem with the computer, the wireless box or something else? Any ideas? Thanks in advance, and sorry I can't help you out much Franklin.

[primelord]

Originally posted by BishopMVP
This is the sort of setup used at my house (Linksys wireless) but it seems to have some problems (I'm at college most of the time, so I don't have much experience with it.) A situation like the following occurs occasionally. The wireless connection is saying it has an excellent connection (11mb/s fwiw) but IE (or AIM/anything else that tries to connect to the internet) can't connec. Is this a problem with the computer, the wireless box or something else? Any ideas? Thanks in advance, and sorry I can't help you out much Franklin.

I am assuming you are using DHCP to push out IP addresses from the AP to your PC. It's possible that you lost the signal at some point momentarily and your DHCP address got lost.

When that happens try coming to the command prompt and typing ipconfig /renew

Once you pull a new IP you should be fine.

[BishopMVP]

Thanks, it's working again now, but I'll try that the next time it stops.

[Wasabiak]

Here's my setup at home..........

Netgear WGR614, hard wired to my pc w/ cable modem
Linksys PCI wireless adapter in wife's pc (WMP54G)
My laptop has a Belkin wireless PCMCIA card (F5D6020)
I got the 802.11b card for the laptop because is was so inexpensive. We use the network a lot for file transfers, gaming, and we even share our printer/scanner through the network. Zero problems with any of the above, so i don't think brand is an issue.

[Buzzbee]

Have had good success with DLink router and Netgear wireless card. FWIW.

[lynchjm24]

Why don't you two go to the gym and pump each other?-

[yabanci]

Here's what I have:

Netgear MR814 wirless router
Negear MA401 PCMCIA card
Netgrear MA101 USB wireless adapter

There are two computers hard wired to the router, one notebook using the PCMCIA card, and a desktop using the USB wireless adapter.

Everything worked perfectly out of the box and I've had no problems whatsoever since then.

[jefflackey]

I just installed D-link equipment. I have a desktop machine next to the cable modem upstairs which I have hardwired to the router, and a notebook which goes everywhere in the house and another desktop downstairs.

The wireless router is their "extreme-G" DI-624 - it's won a lot of awards and "best of"s in reviews. It uses a technology which increases the speed over regular 802.11g. Note that g probably isn't needed unless you're going to move a lot of big files around. But the range of this sucker is pretty huge, and the speed is very good.

The notebook card is their extreme-G DWL-G650; the PCI adapter is their Extreme G DWL-G520.

They currently have some rebates on their website, and if you order over a certain amount they're throwing in a pretty nice MP3 player. Web site is www.dlink.com

FWIW, I'm replacing a Netgear router that was great for a year, but just went flaky in the last couple of weeks. Would have cost more to fix than replace (and it was a great excuse to go wireless. ;) )

[Franklinnoble]

Originally posted by jefflackey
I just installed D-link equipment. I have a desktop machine next to the cable modem upstairs which I have hardwired to the router, and a notebook which goes everywhere in the house and another desktop downstairs.

The wireless router is their "extreme-G" DI-624 - it's won a lot of awards and "best of"s in reviews. It uses a technology which increases the speed over regular 802.11g. Note that g probably isn't needed unless you're going to move a lot of big files around. But the range of this sucker is pretty huge, and the speed is very good.

The notebook card is their extreme-G DWL-G650; the PCI adapter is their Extreme G DWL-G520.

They currently have some rebates on their website, and if you order over a certain amount they're throwing in a pretty nice MP3 player. Web site is www.dlink.com

FWIW, I'm replacing a Netgear router that was great for a year, but just went flaky in the last couple of weeks. Would have cost more to fix than replace (and it was a great excuse to go wireless. ;) )

Just a follow-up: I went ahead and bought the d-link gear (router and two PCI cards). I'm pretty happy with it. I get pretty good signal strength at both computers, and I was able to successfully play Civ3 on the lan (3 players) for about 4 hours without any problems. ;)

[Leonidas]

I'm using NetgearWGR614 for RoadRunner and it works fine. I'd stay away from the USB if you can. I know people who said it's flaky. Goes in and out and doesn't consistantly keep the data flow up to speed. I've never lost connection with this setup. One warning though, my cell phone fades in and out when I'm at my computer with it on.