[twump]

ok last year i went through all the trouble of networking my property using cat5e. I have 150ft underground run from the garage to the guest house where the dsl modem and a hub currently are. I have about another 100ft or so run going from the guest house to my moms office in the main house.


she just bought a laptop and I'm really not wanting to run cables to every room so she can have net whereever she is so i'm thinking wireless. but unfortunately i haven't kept up on whats good whats bad, wireless standards etc..

my current network consists of 3 computers with 2 hubs between them. its running at 10mb but i'm going to try to fix that and run it at 100mb when i have time. i'd like the wireless section of the network to be as fast as the wired section.


now onto some ?'s


how reliable are modern wireless routers? in about a month or so the rain is going to start here and it will be pretty bad til about next april. what are the chances of getting dropped due to weather?

how far is the average maximum distance of routers/wireless cards?

what features/standards should i look for in a wirelss router and wireless nics.

what are the top brands? i prefer NOT to use linksys

as far as new hardware will i only need a router + a nic for each computer or are there some other small things i need?


um.. i think thats all for now.

thanks
twump

[Beast Of Blight]

Just drop a cable underground from your main splice and run it to where your mom is the most, then plug into that a WAP there, so you don't have to worry about distance since the WAP will be in the structure shes in most.


and I think the average distance is around 300 feet, however this depends greatly on walls, the material in the walls, the thickness of the walls, line of sight, ect ect ect ect.

[Graphic67]

You will not find any single access point wireless solution that will cover the sort of distances you are talking about. You will do best to have the combination of wired and wireless. Keep any desktop/tower machines on the wired network, but add wireless for the laptop(s).

First, your 10Mbps speed limit on the network can be traced to one component: the hub attached to the DSL modem. Take that hub out of the system and replace it with a basic (non-wireless) router / switch combination. The router will also handle the DSL logon for your whole network. D-link and SMC have good consumer parts. Replace the second hub with a switch. A hub will slow all ports down to match the speed of the slowest connection which is your DSL modem at 10Mbps. A switch will allow all trafic at maximum speed even with one slow connection.

As far a wireless goes, add a stand-alone access point to your house switch (when you add it) and you have a choice of slower speed with longer distance and low interference in the "B" standard, or reduced distance and more interference from electronics and the house itself in the faster "A" and "G" standards. In your case, I suggest the slow and stable "B" standard. I use Belkin wireless and have had good luck with them. The distance will vary depending on too many factors to list (placement of access point, constuction of the house, antenna configurations at both ends, etc...).

As far a weather affecting wireless, my "B" system only has problems because of power glitches. My DSL line is more affected by weather than the wireless.

[LawyerLynn]

I've been using a wireless network ever since I got my kids a computer 3 years ago. I just recently upgraded the setup and have NO problems at all. I have cable broadband connection (Comcast) which was up and running within 5 minutes of me calling them and giving them the MAC address of my cable modem (A Linksys model). I plugged the comcast cable into the back of the modem and then ran the CAT5 cable out of the modem into the input plug of a Linksys BEFW1154 wireless router (they stack and the cable is about 2 feet long). I then ran another CAT5 cable from the router to the network connection on the back of my computer and BOOM instant broadband on my main computer. I then ran Windows XP's network configuration wizard and let it choose my connections on the main computer. I plugged a Linksys WUSB11 "instant wireless" network connector into a USB port on my kid's computer and ran XP's network setup wizard again and let it configure itself. rebooted and "BOOM" the kids could wirelesly access the internet and use the printer on my main computer as well as access my shared folders. I installed Norton Personal Firewall and manually configured it for an acceptable range of IP addresses on both computers and presto, not only do we all have internet connetivety, but it is wireless and protected by a firewall with shared folders and a shared printer. The moral is, Wireless is easy!! The new 802.11(g) standard promises a faster throughput (802.11(b) like I use only has 11 Mbps max). However the standard for 802.11(g) is not yet set in stone. If you go with an 802.11(g) setup make absolutely sure that it is fully backward compatible with 802.11(b) setups so you won't have any problems if mom or someone else buys a wireless router, hub, notebook connector, etc. that uses the 802.11(b) standard (I find the 11 Mbps of 802.11(b) is plenty fast for all but the most intense online multiplayer games).
Hope this helps.

EDIT: I forgot to mention, the distance between my kids' computer and the wireless router is about 70 feet and the signal has to travel through 3 walls, at least one of which is full of foil backed foam insulation. The signal strength is not all that good and I'm looking at finding a way to boost the signal to the kids computer to make sure connectivity is constant and always running at top speed. I think the problem relates to the foil backed insulation in the wall though. A laptop I use on occassion has no problem connecting with a strong signal from over 150 feet away on my back porch where it goes through 4 walls, none of which contain the foil backed insulation.

[mbentley]

i would have to go with the suggestion made by graphic. keep all of the workstations on a wired configuration since you already have the cable ran. then find a central location and put a wap in there. you can mount most access points to walls or hide them fairly easily. the reason i don't think you want to go 100% wireless is the fact that the distances you are talking about are pretty extreme when it comes to getting any decent wireless signal. i am talking pretty bad packet loss, losing signal, or weak signal.

before you buy anything, just make a diagram of how you want to set everything up. and i would definitely recommend that you use switches. they are more efficient and the 10/100 switching comes in handy. using a router can also give you a bit of a piece of mind since pretty much all routers have some sort of built in firewall.

i won't be suggesting any hardware as i have all linksys products on my lan (with the exception of the ethernet cards). just as a note, i am using the 802.11g standard and i can get transfer speeds up to about 18.5 megabits per second. i am not sure if that is limited by the old pentium webserver i attempt to send files to or not, but it definitely works for me... if you do not need high bandwidth for file transfers and the connection is mostly just for the internet, i would save my money and get the 802.11b. 802.11a is a good standard since it doesn't run on the 2.4 GHz bandwidth, but it is expensive and isn't that common. 802.11b is your best bet for simple internet connection sharing.

good luck with your project!

[Elephanthead]

yes keep the wire, I use a dlink wireless solution at home, it has a so called turbo mode when both the WAP and the wireless card of dlink brand that claims to be 22mbps, it is faster then my internet connection so I love it. The one access point cover the whole house, but I added a range extender to cover the backyard.

[Beast Of Blight]

Didn't I just basicly say all this in my first post?

[mbentley]

Originally posted by Beast Of Blight
Didn't I just basicly say all this in my first post?

just adding my opinion in supporting your ideas

[Beast Of Blight]

Originally posted by mbentley


just adding my opinion in supporting your ideas

Okie dokie. Heh.

[ashenfang]

Actually, if you can wait a couple months, Motorola will be comming out with a new line of Home Networking products. Very nice I might say. The neat thing about the wireless, is they are implimenting AP's So you can extend your signal from point to point.

Say you want to put your Main AP in the house, then you can use AP's to extend the signal wherever you would like. It also will use WAP security and 802.11g/b

[twump]

thanks for all the info guys.

heres what i'm thinking so far.

i'm going to replace the hub next to the dsl modem with a new wired router. in the office where moms comp is i'm going to add a wireless router which will split off to her desktop and her laptop. the desktop will be connected via wire to the router. in my garage i'm going to keep all the hardware the same.


so in short the dsl will come in to the middle of the network and hit a router one line out of that router will hit the WAP and one line will goto the hub in the garage.

I want the WAP in the house because thats the only area its "needed". as long as she can go as far as the back porch she should be fine.

now I need some quick replies to this part because the sale ends on the 30th which is in 2 days. compusa is having a sale on a wireless card for notebooks and a wireless router. both are 54mbps 802.11b&g compliant.

here is the notebook card
http://www.compusa.com/products/prod...osku&pfp=srch1

here is the WAP router
http://www.compusa.com/products/prod...osku&pfp=srch1

any opinions on these 2 products?


thanks again guys

[LawyerLynn]

[i]

here is the notebook card
http://www.compusa.com/products/prod...osku&pfp=srch1

here is the WAP router
http://www.compusa.com/products/prod...osku&pfp=srch1

any opinions on these 2 products?


thanks again guys [/B]

I don't know specifically about these two products, BUT I do use wired ethernet netgear hubs, routers and switches in my office and have had no problems and found them easy to set up and configure.