Require advice on setup small wireless network for house.

[castorsmith145]

Could anybody point me in the right direction please?
I want to be able to use two computers in my house in different rooms to access the internet. I currently have dialup, but will be going broadband latter in the year. What advice could you give me on setting up somesort of wireless connect (eg particular make, and what to do). Thanks

Castor

 

[NoCalAdmin]

get your cable or dsl set up. Buy a simple 4 port wireless router, Linksys ($40) or something. Any machines that can be connected to the wire should be, it'll be inharently faster on the wire always. The other machines can pick up the wireless broadcast from the router.

Tom

 

[haasd0g]

The linksys line is great.
Depending on your demands you could spend a little or alot. Personally, I run wireless G. The wireless router/hub runs about $50 at any best buy or circuit city and supports 4 wired connections as well as the wireless. wireless cards for the computers should run about the same, but you should be able to hardwire at least one machine if its near your broadband connection point (and router spot).
Included software and windows xp make setup pretty simple as long as you can read.
hope this helps!

 

[castorsmith145]

Thanks man for your quick response and your help.

Castor

 

[NoCalAdmin]

you NEED to intially have one machine connected to the router to set it up, but after it has been configured you can disconnect it and have it stand alone.

I set up my buddies house like that. A pad with 4 roommates and four different laptops none who wanted the router in their room.



Tom

 

[paparazi]

Well firstly go wired if you can, despite "the trend" for all things wireless you still can't beat a hard wired system.
It is also cheaper and two PC's can be connected via Ethernet ports using one of your Usb2 ports for your ADSL modem connection.
A lot faster and infinately more secure.

If wired is not an option then I recommend Belkin al the way.
Martin


We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.

 

[cdogg]

castorsmith,
Although a wired ethernet connection is faster, a wireless connection is plenty fast enough for an internet connection. Let's look at it this way. The average high-speed internet connection is somewhere between 1mbps and 3 mbps (megabits per second), but even the slowest wireless interface is 11mbps, so there's plenty of headroom there. Wireless-G is even faster allowing you to connect up to 54mbps, which is about half the speed of standard ethernet.

The biggest advantage of going ethernet instead of wireless is security like paparazi said. Even though you can encrypt wireless using WEP, there are a lot of loopholes that have been exposed with the wireless 802.11 protocol. Some have found how to crack it without touching the WEP layer of the protocol. Trust me, it's pretty vulnerable. However, there are still very few people out there that really understand how to. So as long as you're using WEP, I wouldn't worry about it too much.

If sharing files or streaming video across the network to other PC's is an important thing to you (something you will do quite often), then ethernet would definitely have the advantage. But if that's not a concern, then go wireless, especially if you have a laptop.

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884

 

[Drewsoftware]

The above advice is all good, especially the one from Paparazi: "Well firstly go wired if you can, despite "the trend" for all things wireless you still can't beat a hard wired system. It is also cheaper and two PC's can be connected via Ethernet ports using one of your Usb2 ports for your ADSL modem connection. A lot faster and infinately more secure."

I like someone willing to think against the wireless fad and recognize that at times-- wired is just plain cheaper, faster and better. Someday, everthing will be wireless, and woot! But I just finished doing the same thing in my house. Spent about $100 and 2 hours setting up wireless, was not 100% pleased with the results, then it struck me that duh... $20 worth of ethernet cable and 15 minutes can solve this problem. I installed the wired system in nothing flat and it works flawlessly-- and fast.

One thing to remember is that connecting to the internet might not be all you'll be doing. You may eventually wish to transfer data between machines and in such case wired will be quite a bit faster (unless you're using the high-speed N rather than G wireless classification). And like Paparazi mentioned-- wired is more secure. While wireless can be set up quite secure-- there's still that nagging suspicion that some genius somewhere will figure out how to hack your signal. And as much as people will pbbbt that as paranoia... others will attest to it having already happened.

My personal rule of thumb: wireless where wired isn't possible... but make wired work if at all possible.

If that requires drilling a hole or two or hiding some cable, no biggie for added speed, lowered cost and full peace of mind.





---***--- Drew Software offers highly accurate Personality Evaluation software. Reduce turnover. Improve job satisfaction.

http://Drewsoftware.com

 

[castorsmith145]

Thanks again all those who responsed, you have gave me plenty of food for thought on the issue. Think i'll check out first if it is at all possible to hardwire the pcsfirst before i look about the wireless. Thanks again

Castor

 

[haasd0g]

Im the first one to advise hard wiring. BUT in a home environment wireless can be a godsend. I have 4 hard wired machines in my house w/ the laptop wireless. Its great to carry to the kitchen for recipes or out on the deck for entertainment. Even on my lowly "G" wireless I stream music And video from my other computer with no interruption.

 

[gbaughma]

Personally, I have both.

I have a Linksys 4 port wireless router, PLUS, my PC's and servers are hardwired.

I have 2 laptops with wireless, and the MAC address filter turned on, so nobody can just drive by and get on my wireless network.

I'm very happy with it.



Just my 2¢

"What the captain doesn't realize is that we've secretly exchanged his dilithium crystals for new Folger's Crystals." -- My Sister
--Greg

http://parallel.tzo.com

 

[cdogg]

Drew,
I believe haasd0g and gbaughma emphasized the real reason to have wireless - laptops.

And for those who don't want to fish wire through their drywall, it's also a plus.

While I presented both sides of the issue just like you did, I am not going to ignore that both have their advantages. For ease of use and decent speed, wireless is just fine!


~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884

 

[macten88]

linksys hardware is great but their wireless client software is garbage. My laptop cpu was oscillating from 1-80%. That's not good. I completely uninstalled the linksys software and then manually installed just the driver. The cpu is now where it's supposed to be 1-5%.

 

[Drewsoftware]

Cdogg: In understand your points. I'm not denying that wireless has its place. Just making the point that quite often people think they need wireless when a wired connection would serve the purpose better.

Like I mentioned above, eventually the "wireless" concept will get some real brains behind it and everything will be wireless. The only cables we'll have on a computer will be the power cord. In truth, with technology as we have today, it's really far past time for wireless speakers, wireless printers, wireless external hard drives. One of the big hassles with computer systems today are all the wires sitting behind and around a computer desk. Wireless is definitely the wave of the future.

But as some have aptly pointed out, often wireless software is buggy and performs badly. While wireless is relatively fast, wired is faster... and absolutely secure. So yes, there are places where wireless is needed (notably, when using a laptop at the local coffee shop). But in the office and around home, quite often wired is the far-less-expensive and all-around-better solution. Even when using a laptop with a home-center system, quickly connecting an ethernet cable set specifically for that purpose is often a viable solution. It depends largely on the individual, the logistics and wall composition, and much more. Main point: people tend to get in the mindset of discounting wired as "yesterday" when in fact, it's still often the best method.



-- Drew Software offers highly accurate Personality Evaluation software. Reduce turnover. Improve job satisfaction.

http://Drewsoftware.com

 

[cdogg]

[blue]Just making the point that quite often people think they need wireless when a wired connection would serve the purpose better[/blue]"

Drew,
Sure, I understand that point. There are situations where people forget to consider the cost of using ethernet. However, let's not forget the cost of labor. Even if you do it yourself, you have to ask yourself how much your time is worth to run 100+ or 200+ feet of cable throughout your home. Also, there are not many who can handle that task on their own.

To me, a $60 wireless router and a $30-40 wireless card is more worth my time. Then I would hard-code the card's MAC address into the router's settings (as gbaughma pointed out), only allowing that card to connect. That would stop even an advanced hacker (though there's a slim-to-none chance one would ever be within range of my network).

So security, low cost, and ease could actually support the reason to go wireless. It's easy to advocate either option. That's all I'm sayin'!


~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884