Info about wireless LAN?

JackKelly

Im soon going to be getting broadband in my house (finally) so i wanted to network my PC (in my room, upstairs) to the pc with the broadband coming in (downstairs). I was orignally going to do it normally, with wires etc, but that is proving to messy as the rooms are at opposite corners of the house! So i started thinking about wireless LAN. How much (if any) slower are wireless connections?I want to use broadband so i dont want lagging. Also, how expensive are they? Mainly, are they worth it?
thanks

fatherdougalmag

The easiest thing to do is get a broadband wireless router. Get 802.11g if you can afford it. Just plug the broadband into the router and get wireless adapters for your PC's. Also get jiggy with the likes of AdAware and some kind of firewall (Kerio or ZoneAlarm). Mind you, had a quick glance at XP SP2 today and it seems to be pretty on the ball.

Furthermore, check out how wireless networks work ...

MrPinK

Originally posted by TimAy
How much (if any) slower are wireless connections?I want to use broadband so i dont want lagging.

Wireless runs at 11Mbps or 54Mbps, compared to wired networks which run at 10, 100 or 1000Mbps. Much faster than your broadband anyway, so it won't lag your connection.

fatherdougalmag

That's true. Keep in mind that the wireless 11MB is half-duplex. It's more like 5MB TX and RX. Then, depending on your environment, you might get 'Low' or 'Good' signal strength which might further degrade connections. Still well over 512k or whatever you're being provided with.

dwayneburke

Is the "G" protocol worth paying extra for!!

fatherdougalmag

Well if you're into future-proofing it'd be worth it. Especially if you want to get into the home networking arena seriously (e.g. streaming video and audio around the home as well as entertaining surfers). Then again, 'g' prices will probably drop in the near future so you're probably best of waiting. If you can survive with 'b' then just buy 'b'. Sniff it and see.

dwayneburke

I am thinking of getting the whole internet media experience when the whole situation settles down....have a netgear 824 "b" solution for now but need a few extra ethernet bridges for xbox /printers etc and wondering which to invest in b or g!!

JackKelly

cool, thanks so far
basically i need:

One of these

and

two of these

Basically a router and two NIC cards?

I know how to do networks by wire , but when it comes to wireless, its all over my head.

How secure are they?
I have no idea of the quality of the choices above, can anyone recommend any good products

Also, i presume if its a broadband router, there won't be a network?as in, i wont be able to swap files between the two computers etc?

MrPinK

Basically a router and two NIC cards?

Nearly all wireless routers and access points will have an ethernet connection. If you stick it beside one of your PC's you can connect that PC by cable, so you'll need one less wireless NIC.

How secure are they?

The original security for 802.11b (WEP) has been broken for a long time. Anyone who collects a few hours worth of packets can immediately crack your security key. A lot of vendors brought out their own improved version but they'd be product specific and not part of the actual protocol. WEP was broken long before 802.11g appeared though, so I can only assume they came up with something a lot better for that, but I'm not too familiar with it.

Also, i presume if its a broadband router, there won't be a network?

As well as a router, it will also be an access point. This is the wireless version of a hub. Setting up a LAN on the PC's will be identical to a wired network.

JackKelly

ok i think iv sorted this out!

so the broadband comes in through the modem, and stick it into the router. From there i can connect the nearest PC by crossover and for the other PC, i buy a wireless NIC.Then, its a wireless LAN, along with broadband sharing.(As long as i buy a Acesspoint/route) so i can swap files between PC's aswell.


How will the speed be affected by spliting the connection. Obviously if it is being used at the same time it will be less, but when only one of the PC's is using the net, does it work at the full 512 (or whatever the speed runs at)

One more thing, will i have to set up a Download Monitor on both PC's if i want to see my limit?

Last Last thing, can anyone recommend any routers, as i cant tell if the one's im looking at are overkill! The price range seems to be around €100.I guess i want 802.11g?

p.s. as a matter of intrest, say i hook up 3 PC's altogether, 2 by cable, one wireless, would the connection be fast enough (I guess im looking at 54mbps) to support small network games.e.g. Three player Call of Duty?

Thanks for all the help so far

[EDIT]totally forgot to ask, im i right in saying that they have built in firewalls or something?So i dont have to buy a software firewall?

suppafly

so the broadband comes in through the modem, and stick it into the router. From there i can connect the nearest PC by crossover and for the other PC, i buy a wireless NIC.Then, its a wireless LAN, along with broadband sharing.(As long as i buy a Acesspoint/route) so i can swap files between PC's aswell.

So does the computers that the router is connected to not need a netowrk card?? if so where does it plug into then?

One more thing, will i have to set up a Download Monitor on both PC's if i want to see my limit?

well i guess if u just go to the usage meter that yur ISP provides and then u could see. I'm sure there is probably a way of monitoring how much traffic goes through the router. anyone know?

Last Last thing, can anyone recommend any routers, as i cant tell if the one's im looking at are overkill! The price range seems to be around €100.I guess i want 802.11g?

Well i was recommended my the lads on #tech.ie this (they have it €100 cheaper on elara but i couldn't find the page) cuz i hadn't a clue either. so that what i bought.

BigEejit

The only problem with having a pc as an access point or working in ad-hoc mode for sharing out the broadband with other machines is that it needs to be on ALL the time. Get an access point if at all possible....
From a security standpoint look for WPA ... WEP is crap, (but 152bit wep combined with mac address filtering and DHCP turned off while using non standard address ranges can be enough to put off 99.9% of would be bandwidth/data thieves, the remaining .1% would have to know their shit to get into your network with those settings). But if youve got WPA then with a nice big random "key" youre pretty much sorted. Some newer access points use 2 or more channels to double the bandwidth to 108Mbps, these can be handy or a pain in the arse ..i.e. they may interfere with everything in the house running at 2.4Ghz - like portable phones, video senders or baby monitors.

steve-hosting36

Any specific recommendations BigEejit?

MrPinK

Originally posted by suppafly
So does the computers that the router is connected to not need a netowrk card?? if so where does it plug into then?

Not a wireless network card anyway. Just a normal ethernet one.

JackKelly

hang on a second.if i buy a router/acess point, than the Broadband Line from the modem goes into the router and THAN distributed to the 2 PC's.right?instead of the BB line going into one of the PC's, and than on to another? im still a bit hazy!

[edit]
just thinking, i presume that esat (where im getting the BB) don't care if you split the connetion by a router?

BigEejit

Originally posted by steve-hosting36
Any specific recommendations BigEejit?

I like netgear stuff and for that reason I'd recommend a netgear WGT624 with a WG511T (both on elara, and on elara yet but soon I suppose is the PCI WG311T) they support WPA with latest software/firmware (WGT624 is the access point: €150, the pccard is WG511T and thats €76) .... they do 108mbps with each other, the access point has Stateful Packet Inspection and NAT, I havent looked very closely but it seems very secure (can disable SSID and use MAC address filtering) ....

I thought I read somewhere a while back that this flavour of 108mbps 802.11g can cause other vendors gear to shit the bed ... if you buy this stuff you may be locked into buying netgear until you change standard (to 802.11z if such a thing appears!)

[edit]
I forgot to mention that you'll still need a broadband modem with an ethernet interface to connect to this fella, but any vendors modem that does have one can connect to this baby
[/edit]

suppafly

so i just want to be fully clear on what i need.

this is what i have:

1. I have a 2 pcs, one with and ethernet card, one without.

2. adsl broadband wireless router (this)

so do i just need another ethernet card or do i need 2 wireless network cards??

BigEejit

Originally posted by suppafly
so i just want to be fully clear on what i need.

this is what i have:

1. I have a 2 pcs, one with and ethernet card, one without.

2. adsl broadband wireless router (this)

so do i just need another ethernet card or do i need 2 wireless network cards??

If one is direct connected and youre happy with it then just get one wireless card ... cheap pci wireless nics dont cost much more than wired ones ... only problem is if you are copying files between the two machines ... it can be as slow as ...er ... something really slow with 802.11b ... especially if its not running at full rate....

suppafly

Originally posted by BigEejit
If one is direct connected and youre happy with it then just get one wireless card ... cheap pci wireless nics dont cost much more than wired ones ... only problem is if you are copying files between the two machines ... it can be as slow as ...er ... something really slow with 802.11b ... especially if its not running at full rate....

if i had one direct connected i'd have to have that computer turned on for the others to use the connection wouldn't i? i guess that might not be that bad. I guess it'll depend on how much money i have.
About how fast the transfer speeds would be between the computers, one thing is i would like to have lan games with my brother using the 2 computers so what spec/speed wireless card would i need for that and could u recommend a good one to get??