Going to get wireless network setup, need help on a good one, and is 22mbps needed

Going to get wireless network setup, need help on a good one, and is 22mbps needed

Is 11mbps good enough or would I need 22mbps. I want this to be good for a while. Need some ideas on which pci wireless card to get, and which router. And anything else I would need. Help would be appreciated. Need pretty cheap stuff too.

Depends on what your doing. The extra speed will always be good. and it's not like the equipment is any more expensive. Hehe. Think of it as overclocking your wireless connection.

So I need 22mbps, now what is the best, cheap pci card for it? And I hear linksys routers were good, do I also need an access point?

802.11g is the only way to go- its 54mb. You can also do 802.11a- but its expensive and not as compatable.
Wireless router (or access point- not both) and a reciever. I reccomend the usb versions- that way you can use them on other computers or a laptop (if you have one or are getting one in the future)

So a usb plug type ethernet adapter? Ok sounds good. Now where is a good place to find a cheap 802.11g router and receivers? Newegg, do they have the best price on this kind of stuff.

nealric said:

802.11g is the only way to go- its 54mb. You can also do 802.11a- but its expensive and not as compatable.
Wireless router (or access point- not both) and a reciever. I reccomend the usb versions- that way you can use them on other computers or a laptop (if you have one or are getting one in the future)

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I am alittle confused here. Are you recommending a 54Mb/s wireless solution, using USB? By USB I presume you mean USB1.1 running at 12Mb/s? Can you provide some links to USB 802.11g products? I haven't been able to find any. I'm just curious as to whether it is possible to run a 54Mb/s bandwidth on a 12Mb bus using compression or something. My own knowledge tells me that it is not.

I think you would need a USB2.0 compatible 802.11g product in order to make use of the 54Mb/s, since USB2.0 runs at 480Mb/s.

I read somewhere that wireless usb adapter would only work at 12mb/s so I guess maybe their are usb 2.0 ethernet adapters out already or they are coming out. I will try to find some.

lol- didnt think about the usb speeds. (not an issue with my 802.11b)
Frankly, I think that 802.11b is plenty fast. Definetly wont limit internet- so unless you are wanting to do big file transfers often- muight as well do b.

I totally agree nealric. I too run a 802.11b network and find 11Mb/s more than sufficient. The only reason I would consider going for something faster would be to future-proof for the onslaught of high bandwidth media delivered through webservices.

Well I use a 10/100 regular hub now and I have slow downs when I get a bunch of people playing on games linked at my house. I will have 4-6 people playing thorugh my hub at my house on 4-6 differnet computers and I have slow down. I think it would be really bad with only 11mb per second.

Well, in part, is what you have a hub or a switch. And I'm again going to side with the b guys. It's sufficient. And if you get the D-Link air plus equipment all the way around, you can get 22mbs instead of just 11.

I have a 10/100 switch. When I use a 10, the games have way to much lag to play. So I had to upgrade to a 100.

I wouldn't do 802.11g quite yet, unless you enjoy having bleeding edge technology. I've read a couple reports on the latest 802.11g-type equipment, and they aren't all that rosy. The definitive 802.11g spec isn't finalized yet, so there are a few different 802.11g type standards. Buffalo and Dlink use 54g, Linksys uses Wireless G, and I haven't found out what Netgear and Belkin plan on using. From what I've read, these bleeding edge devices operate smoothly only when using all same brand equipment, and without using 802.11b devices simultaneousliy. Go figure. And, none that I've seen so far guarantee real 802.11g spec firmware when it becomes available. Hmm... Linksys claims that their equipment is compatible with 54g stuff, as verified by www.54g.org, but I can't find 54g.org. nslookup fails to find a DNS entry for it. Go figure.

Aside from that, in theory, 802.11g operates in the same frequencies as 802.11b (2.4GHz), so technically you should be able to get similar range, but it is spec'ed to 54mbps. It is also claimed to be backwards compatible to 802.11b networks if a g network isn't available. 802.11a is also 54mbps, but operates above 5 GHz. A will have much less range, but higher theoretical bandwidth if the signal is adequate.

In real world experience, I've seen problems with mixing brands of equipment, less range in some applications than you would think is acceptable, and difficulty in setup sometimes.

I would wait a few months for better 802.11g equipment than what they have now. But it's your call.

-ben

Thank. I am going to wait. Make sure they get it straight first, and hope they come down in price a little.