Wireless?

[Crazybob]

What's a decent wireless router for in home. I have a small ranch with no basement, so it don't need to be big. I have been seeing these ones on Compusa and Newegg for about $30 bucks. Trendnet and Dlink. Just not sure if they will do the trick for 6-7 boxes.

[rgathright]

Love my Linksys WRT54G. I use it to manage a network of 8 WIFI computers and get a range of over 200ft through the brickwalls of my home.

[STMahlberg]

What's a decent wireless router for in home. I have a small ranch with no basement, so it don't need to be big. I have been seeing these ones on Compusa and Newegg for about $30 bucks. Trendnet and Dlink. Just not sure if they will do the trick for 6-7 boxes.

I can't speak for the 2 brands you mentioned; however, I use an old Linksys WRT54GS and I have 7 rigs on wireless. The rigs are connected using either a Linksys wireless adapter or the built in cards on the laptops.

They are relatively problem free; the furthest one is approx 50 feet separated by a couple walls but have excellent signal strength. About each week some of them loose connection for some reason and I have to go give them a shake.

The original cost was about $75 for the router and I picked up the adapters for $12 each, they were re-certified from Tiger Direct.

[Spankinmonkee]

Love my Linksys WRT54G. I use it to manage a network of 8 WIFI computers and get a range of over 200ft through the brickwalls of my home.

I agree as it's my router too

[rgathright]

I agree as it's my router too

Since many of your team members use the Linksys WRT54G series router, if you ever have problems, we can mobilize quite a bit of help for you!=D>

[Teratoma]

My first question is to ask whether or not there is anything wrong with your current router? I'm assuming you have a wired router with probably 4 ports, right?

You could just add a wireless access point which would be wired to you current router. I can then service any wireless connections and just forward any traffic to the router. This is what I had done years ago (WAP54G). Later, when I replaced my wired router with a wireless Linksys, I just set it up to use both as access points. I have a large house so I did benefit from this, tho you may not need it with a ranch. I have also done this for my brother-in-law.

An Access Point can cost just as much as a router, but it does provide some flexibility in setting up your home network.

[Slicker]

I've had both Linksys and DLink. Don't use either any more. The wireless was OK, but inbound access was spotty. The Linksys needed to be rebooted every day or two or else it would get stupid and not accept incoming connections (e.g. PPTP, remote desktop, ssh, etc). The DLink was more stable, but also had throughput issues on the inbound side. Given a choice, I'd go with DLink for the low end. I currently run NetGear (now owned by Cisco) and use their 8 port gigabit wireless/firewall/router workgroup version. It works well all the time, but was ten times more expensive.

My father had a Belkin setup in his ranch house and his computer was 20 feet from the router and he would lose his signal all the time. He switched to DLink. Throughput doubled and his connection doesn't drop any more.

Skip the USB sticks by the way if you have a desktop as the PCI cards usually have much better antennas and better throughput which can be a factor depending upon how many walls the signal has to go though (and the angle at which it needs to pass through them).

[Fire$torm]

How come no one has mentioned Netgear? My sister and I each had a WGT624 wired router with integrated WiFi. Netgear has a really easy to use browser interface/GUI. Recently I stopped using mine because we switched to Uverse which uses their Gateway/Router with WiFi. Anyhow Netgear's most recent models have good reviews so they may be worth your consideration.

[STMahlberg]

Sonofawhore!!! (Frisky Dingo reference)

I just lost my wireless router... 7 of my 10 rigs are down. ~X(

[Maxwell]

Sonofawhore!!! (Frisky Dingo reference)

I just lost my wireless router... 7 of my 10 rigs are down. ~X(
Did you check the fridge? ;)

Speaking of losing things, I managed to lose my phone today while I was on it. Bluetooth was on, but it took me 10 minutes to locate the damn thing. It was on the mailbox.

[STMahlberg]

Just ordered a new Linksys WRT54GL 802.11b/g from Newegg (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833124190); it is on sale until 1/31 for $49.99.

[Fire$torm]

Did you check the fridge? ;)

Speaking of losing things, I managed to lose my phone today while I was on it. Bluetooth was on, but it took me 10 minutes to locate the damn thing. It was on the mailbox.
??? Belt Clip ???

[Crazybob]

My first question is to ask whether or not there is anything wrong with your current router? I'm assuming you have a wired router with probably 4 ports, right?

You could just add a wireless access point which would be wired to you current router. I can then service any wireless connections and just forward any traffic to the router. This is what I had done years ago (WAP54G). Later, when I replaced my wired router with a wireless Linksys, I just set it up to use both as access points. I have a large house so I did benefit from this, tho you may not need it with a ranch. I have also done this for my brother-in-law.

An Access Point can cost just as much as a router, but it does provide some flexibility in setting up your home network.

I guess I need to do more reading. I thought that you needed to already have a wi-fi set-up to use an access point. I have 2 of those dang things laying around somewhere. Don't have software though, so I guess once I find them, I'll have to DL whatever from their web-site. What do you need to do to make it secure?

[Teratoma]

The access point should have the normal settings....

enable/disable SSID broadcast
MAC filtering
Wireless security: WEP/WPA

The access point may want to take 192.168.1.1 so you may have to connect it to an isolated hub along with one PC. Change your DHCP scope on the current router to start at a higher IP like 192.168.1.30. This will leave 1-29 as a static range. You can then assign the WAP one of those addresses like .2. You will have to tell the WAP to use the router as the gateway, etc. Do not setup the WAP with DHCP or anything. You just want it to pass through the traffic to the router.

[Crazybob]

Found I have 2 Cisco Aironet 350, Wireless Access Points, but they require a power injector. I can probably pick them up used, but it will cost as much as a new router, so I will probably go that route unless I can find one arounf here somewhere.

[Teratoma]

If you are not going to use those Aironet 350s you should sell them on eBay and fund your next GPU upgrade! ;)

[Fire$torm]

If you are not going to use those Aironet 350s you should sell them on eBay and fund your next GPU upgrade! ;)

+1 \m/ eBay \m/