Wireless Routers

General & Message Board technical help.

Moderator: Officers

Post Reply
kelci
Officer
Posts: 283
Joined: Wed May 17, 2006 11:04 am
Location: Wisconsin

Wireless Routers

Post by kelci » Tue May 08, 2007 1:35 pm

Ok, when we move in mid-June (hopefully), we will be needing to get a wireless router.

The router will be on the main floor, and our computers will be either in the room right above it, or it will be in a room on the 2nd floor, but one room farther away (say 20-25 feet from the router).

Any comments or suggestions on routers that would work well in this case, or maybe more importantly, are there any brands/types that we should avoid when we go shopping for one?

We have never had a wireless network before since I simply have more faith in wires, however, we don't have a choice, it will have to be wireless, at least for a few months.
Phinneas
Officer
Posts: 617
Joined: Mon Oct 13, 2003 11:25 pm
Location: Detroit, MI (Home of Superbowl XL)
Contact:

Post by Phinneas » Fri May 11, 2007 8:55 pm

I have been using a Linksys Wireless-G Router that broadcasts at 2.4 GHz and it seems to give me great coverage around the house. Definately make sure to secure your connections with appropriate keys etc ... the more secure the better ... most routers come with appropriate instructions for this.

I would recommend not getting a router that only supports the B format, but at least G and only N if it seems affordable. In terms of data transmission bandwith, it goes B then G then N and all of them are backward compatible with lesser versions. Just be sure that you get adapeters that match the speed to which you would like to connect to your router with. Again I recommend getting a router and wireless adapters that support at least G.

I would look into Linksys or Netgear routers/adapters initially. Just my 2 cents!

Phin
Phinneas ~ Lord Protector ~ The Walkers of Vazaelle ~ My Magelo
Image
kelci
Officer
Posts: 283
Joined: Wed May 17, 2006 11:04 am
Location: Wisconsin

Post by kelci » Sun May 13, 2007 8:19 pm

Thanks, Phin.
User avatar
Shiloch Veneficus
Administrator
Posts: 653
Joined: Thu Dec 06, 2001 10:00 pm

Post by Shiloch Veneficus » Mon May 21, 2007 6:48 pm

Just out of curiosity, how many wireless clients are you going to have total? what kind of a budget are you operating on?

Phin's advice is sound.
Gildawen
Officer
Posts: 621
Joined: Sat Sep 04, 2004 12:07 am
Location: US Pacific Coast

Post by Gildawen » Mon May 21, 2007 9:13 pm

Yea, don't get lazy on setting up the security.
kelci
Officer
Posts: 283
Joined: Wed May 17, 2006 11:04 am
Location: Wisconsin

Post by kelci » Tue May 22, 2007 3:06 pm

This is a home network. We are temporarily living in the upstairs of my folk's house as their's is being built, and then we are expanding into the entire house.

My stepmom (my dad can't even turn one on :shock: ), currently has a DSL line running into the house.

My tentative plan is that the router will stay down in their office (where her comp is currently and where are our comps will go eventually), and that Cutie's and my computers will be in the room above the office. I plan to get wireless definitely for Cutie's and mine, and debating on letting the kids' computer have internet access. Another option is to buy a card for the laptop, but that system isn't powerful enough to run EQ, so not sure what the point would be.

So, pretty sure I am going the route of buying two wireless cards and running stepmom's comp directly to the wireless router. When we move down into the office, I will switch out one of our wireless cards into the kids' comp (since it would be in the office at that point where we can watch it) and wire one of our comps into the router.

So, couple of questions:

1. They live out in the countryside, how much do I worry about security at that point other then the usual firewall? Yeah, I slack on security mainly because I tend to lose my notes on passwords, etc.

2. I have been eyeing up a Linksys WRT54G Router with the appropriate cards. Now the question is: should I go with the Speedbooster verision of the router? It claims 35% increase in performance, but I am wondering if it is worth the additional cost (basically doubles the cost of the router).

3. Budget is whatever it needs to be to get good performance playing EQ.
bandin
Member
Posts: 41
Joined: Sat Sep 09, 2006 12:59 am
Location: Houston

Post by bandin » Tue May 22, 2007 4:05 pm

Ok, first of all:
kelci wrote:My stepmom (my dad can't even turn one on :shock: )
This is just too easy. Are you a setup guy for your day job? Out of respect for your poor dad, I'll leave that alone.

Second, unless you're streaming video from a media PC to a TV or something, you don't need anything above 802.11b. i.e. don't worry about speedboost or whatever the kids are calling it these days. 802.11g (54 Mbits/sec, what the router you mentioned has) is more than sufficient. Ultimately there's some other bottleneck in the internet that's slowing down data more than your wireless network.

If you're transferring large amounts (MBytes) of data within your network regularly, then you should be using wires anyway. I used a b router (11 Mbits/sec max) for at least 2 years and it didn't affect game play at all. If you decide you may want to do that cool streaming data to the home theater or stereo at some later point, I would say buy a new router at that time. I'm sure there will be something much better than today's speed enhancements in a year, and they'll cost about the same as they do today. Better yet, remodel and install sturctural wiring!! P (could you do my house too?)

The security thing probably isn't a priority out in the country, but it is pretty simple to set up. Set the password to your EQ password. At least that's one you don't have to change all the time.
Bandin

These Linux guys never cease to amuse. Here is the timeout message from ftp:

421 Timeout - try typing a little faster next time
kelci
Officer
Posts: 283
Joined: Wed May 17, 2006 11:04 am
Location: Wisconsin

Post by kelci » Wed May 23, 2007 8:25 am

Wow talk about untintentional oopsies :oops: . The less I know of my dad's "mad skillz" the happier I am.

Thanks for the heads up on the speed thing, B. When we move downstairs we may very well go back to the router we currently have, so I wasn't keen on spending a lot of money on a wireless router if we were only using it for a few months.
User avatar
Shiloch Veneficus
Administrator
Posts: 653
Joined: Thu Dec 06, 2001 10:00 pm

Post by Shiloch Veneficus » Wed May 23, 2007 8:34 pm

Bandin is right about the 802.11b and not needing much security if you're not in close quarters with other homes.

The only recommendation I would make based on your info is to go ahead and buy 802.11g equipment, especially if you have other devices in the home that use the 2.4 GHz band (i.e. portable phones, RF remotes, etc.), as sometimes interference from those devices and/or other things like microwaves and TV sets can sometimes bounce your signal around that would interrupt gameplay. 802.11g is not that much more expensive than b, and it has greater signal intensity and range (in addition to higher bandwidth).
kelci
Officer
Posts: 283
Joined: Wed May 17, 2006 11:04 am
Location: Wisconsin

Post by kelci » Thu May 24, 2007 9:07 am

Thanks for the advice.

Our computers are used about 90% of the time for EQ, hence my primary worry that EQ wouldn't be affected by this change. I think I will buy the hardware this weekend, and test it before we move.
Elyhim
Member
Posts: 278
Joined: Tue Jun 11, 2002 4:00 pm
Location: Mars Hotel

Re: Wireless Routers

Post by Elyhim » Sun Sep 09, 2007 7:46 pm

If you use G and have B also being used it will slow the G down.
Post Reply