Wireless Networking.

[Ih8canada]

I have a Powerbook G4 and a PC. What product recommendations would you people recommend for a wireless network in my apartment? Thanks

 

[CrackRabbit]

Well for an access point, i would reccomend the Linksys WAP11, my roomate uses one for his laptop it works great!

 

[Adul]

http://www.practicallynetworked.com/

 

[Fiera]

I've got a Netgear AP and nic. with the new firmware it's great.

 

[Cogman]

I have the DWL_120 and a peer to peer network in our house. It works Great. Full speed. Its got my vote.

 

[SteelCityFan]

Personally. I don't think there is too much of a difference between them. You do need to choose between the 8011b (11Mbps) or the 8011a (55Mbps).

You are going to find complaints on all models basically because people expect them to work just as well through walls a they do in the open. In an Apt, you will have no problem using it from anywhere. I get an "Excellant" signal strength anywhere in my apt, and the router is on the corner of the apt, and not centrally located like they obviously reccomend.

I have the Linksys Wireless 4 port router (8011b), and their PCMCIA network card. I ordered it from Dell, and took advantage of a $20 off $200 and a 20% (maybe it was 10%) off coupon code I found on hotdealsclub.com. I think it made both just over $200 at the time (around December I think).

 

[oldfart]

Linksys router for the features and ease of setup. Orinoco nics for the great range. Very nice combo.

 

[John]

Originally posted by: oldfart
Linksys router for the features and ease of setup. Orinoco nics for the great range. Very nice combo.

I agree 100%

 

[oldfart]

I agree 100%

Great minds think alike.

 

[Chumster]

Another vote for the Linksys WAP11 - great features, and easy to setup and use.

Using that AP and a Linksys PCMCIA card, I get an excellent signal in just about any part of the house (including the back porch ).


Chum

 

[slunk]

Linksys AP/Router will be fine. Definitely go with the Orinoco cards too.

 

[hmsrolst]

I got a package deal (from the Hot Deals forum) on an all Orinoco combo, and it works great. I would agree, though, that the setup instructions were very poor, and I had to fiddle with it for about an hour when it should've been straightforward.

 

[XMan]

Question . . . does such a beast exist . . . I guess I would call it a wireless access point, with a broadband router, and a couple of CAT5 jacks? So I could plug say, a DSL modem into the router, a desktop into a CAT5 jack, and then have wireless NICs in my laptops or any additional desktops I add, sharing a DSL connection?

 

[marcio]

Yes, that's what a wireless router is. The Linksys wireless router and SMC Barricade as examples of such. A wireless access point on the other hand only supports the wireless NICs.


I missed this thread the first time around, and I have to disagree with the recommendation of the Linksys NIC. The Linksys NIC is not very good. I unfortunately used one for 1 year on the belief that all wireless NICs are all the same, as it's often said in forums, until my brother-in-law bought one because that's what I had and I said I never had problems with it, and he complained about range and speed. I then bought a Netgear and an IBM (Lucent rebadge) and tested them against our two Linksys NICs (purchased about 1 year apart). I tested them at 3 distances--6ft from the AP, 20ft with furniture in between, and 50ft with a wall and furniture in between--by transferring a 15MB file 3-5 times for each distance/card. I only do an extra 2 transfers if the transfer times varied significantly in the first 3 transfers. The AP is a SMC Barricade. I use the same notebook and the same server for the transfers.

I don't have the exact data on hand, but the IBM (Lucent) had the same throughput in all 3 ranges. Transfer time without WEP was under 30 seconds--all within 1 second of each other. With 64-bit WEP, transfer times increased by a third, to 40 seconds, but they were also consistent in all ranges.

The Netgear had about the same results as the IBM at the two shorter ranges. However, at the longest range, the transfer times were inconsistent. Sometimes it would take the same time as the IBM, others it would take a lot longer (20%-50% more time). I don't believe I got 3 results out of 5 that were within 2 seconds of each other. This is with WEP enabled and disabled.

The Linksis was also consistent only at the two shorter ranges. However, it was slower than the Netgear and the IBM by about 4 seconds with WEP enabled and disabled. Transfer times increased at the 50ft obstructed range. The Netgear, even though inconsistent, at least was able to match the transfer times at the shortest distance a couple of times. The Linksis couldn't. In one of the transfers with WEB disabled, the transfer time was double what it was at the shortest range. The numbers were slightly different for the two Linksys NICs but the result is the same.

 

[oldfart]

Yup. Orinoco nics are the only ones I use. The range is far better than other brands.

 

[visceral]

Do you know of a wireless broadband router that supports a connection from a USB adsl modem? most i've seen only do the ethernet type

 

[MJ99]

Newegg has the following for $99 shipped

Dlink DWL-1000AP Wireless LAN Access Point 11Mbps IEEE 802.11b compliant 11Mbps wireless LAN access point. Operates in 2.4 GHz Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS) for wireless networks in the home or office environment with transparent bridging and roaming capabilities. The DWL-1000AP can be managed remotely via the access point manager software. It also supports WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy), MAC address control and user authentication to ensure a secure network connection. Model#: DWL-1000AP FedEx Saver Shipping $9.00

Not sure how good it is but I have heard good thinks about Dlink.