HeyAgain

Situation:

Want to share internet connection only. No file sharing.

Computers:

1 PC - Running XP Pro (Main computer)
2 PC - Running 98

Want To Purchase:

1 Wireless Router
2 USB Wireless Adapters

Questions:

What is the difference between 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g?
In terms of cost, how much would it cost for these three products total.
What brands are reliable? (Linksys, D-Link, SMC, or Netgear) Please kindly post wireless router and adapters combos.

Thanks in advance.

yotta

Stay away from linksys, thier gear is shit. Dlink tends to behave a bit better. Go with 802.11b, it's cheap, and an established standard. D-Link's USB adapters are pretty decent, though belkin's get better range. Also... 802.11a and g USB adaptors do not seem to be available. A DWL-614+ and a pair of DWL-120+s will probably work well. You will probably want to enable WEP, however it will slow things down. You might want to call D-Link presales, and ask what throughput you can expect with WEP on, however they will probably quote the radio data rate (22mbps on thier airplus gear)

That setup will run you about $250, possibly less.

Really though, if possible, just run ethernet.

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darkure

802.11g is still not a true standard yet. There are still a few things that need to be ironed out first so that 11g gear from one company works with that from another and is also fully backwards compatible with 11b stuff. I don't think you would need the 54Mbs offered by 11g anyways if you are not going to be sharing files between computers. Since you are just going to be sharing an internet conncection any slowdown will because by that internet connection since it doesn't go anywhere near as fast as your WLAN even if you use 11b.

Yotta is right though, if possible just use ethernet cable. People will not be able to leach off your connection. And the connection is always a constant speed. There is no singal that is varying in strenth that you get with a wireless lan.

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HeyAgain

Thanks yotta and darkure for your input.

What does WEP mean? What purpose does it serve?

Okay, for the D-Link products, I have seen REFURBISHED items for these two products. Are these refurbished items any good.

Thanks in advance again.

yotta

WEP pervents casual access and sniffing. It provides some basic encryption, but can be cracked by sniffing about a gig of traffic. Refurbished stuff is usaly fine.....

802.11b throughput without WEP is 5mbps, with can be as low as 1.5mbps. 802.11g offers throughput of about 20 mbps in g-only mode, and about 10mbps (to g clients) in b compatibility mode. Many 802.11a products offer turbo modes that are quite fast, but the range is a bit less.

Make sure you secure your wireless, unless you don't mind you neihbors finding out what websitesd you visit. EVEN WITH encryption, your traffic can easily be intercepted, and I do not know if that has changed with G.

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arch13

A great place for refurbs is Tiger direct , they have great prices and are well known to all who work custom and large volume. They own systemax machines and have a 25% stake in gateway. they have a section with only refurbs. i once bought a hardware based USRobotics modem for only 22.00 dollars there. (I live in miami by there headquarters and return center). they give NO WARRANTY whatsoever, but are dirt cheap. they carry linksys(crap) and some netgear and D-Link. If possible, find an MR814 router from netgear on pricewatch (again, never expect a warranty from these places) and use it. I've installed them on every IT service call i ever did when I worked for a network installlation company and i was so impressed i bought one myself.
It's both an wired and wireless router, offering better options and more flexability. Plus it just has great industrial design.

Also, turn WEP on! It's affect on speed is insignifigant and worth the extra security to stop an occasional network packet sniffer and IP range port scan. Also, change the default access code to the router after setup, to many idiots forget that can be the most crucial step to stoping snooping.

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Kllr Wolf

I say use the ethernet, but if you are going to go wireless the D-link air-plus is great. I have it for my laptop and it is twice the spped of normal wireless. The bad thing is that both the access point and the cards have to be the air-plus type other wise it links at normal speed.

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Shadowman

I have been doing a lot of research on wireless gear, including home made antennas, etc. (Lets just say Im very interested in Wardriving). 802.11g has just recently been passed as an international standard, and prices for g standard are almost the same as b standard. I wouldn't bother with A standard, its as fast as G, but with added security features. (A) is the set standard for companies who want better security for their WLan. You can purchase A, and get great results, but the prices are almost double that of G and B. In my personal opinion, you can't go wrong with Dlink Airplus equipment. It's reliable. Your setup is similar to mine, except I have 2 PC's and a laptop. I use 2x Dlink DWL 520+ on the PC's, one set to point to point, the other set to point to multipoint. My laptop has a Senao PCCard, which is set to the equivalent of point to point. This allows me to access the server (and the network) with my PC and my laptop, without having to buy a wireless router. Hope that helps a bit.

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happymaan

I agree, going with the dlink is the way to go, go with there 802.11b enhanced line, you'll get up to 22mbits without spending a lot of money. There dwl-120+ is a great USB wireless reciever.

but if you can, by all means go with a wired connection. I have a wired network for my desktops, and only my laptops are wireless, except for when I'm at my desk...then they are wired.
-happymaan

whale

Good to have the wireless router support UPnP.

For the record. My D-link 714P+ is (once a day) unstable. This usually happens when the unit is cold. And turned on for about 1 hr.

Once this crap happens, I've to power cycle the router. Then it's stable.

I can live with this ... No. I *have* to live with this. Since I've not much money.

diergray

The IEEE just radified the g standard. A uses the 5 Ghz range while G and B use the 2.4 Ghz. G is also backward compatible with B. I have never had a problem with Linksys and now that Cisco is buying them they will have major financial backing. I believe there is another standard coming out soon I, that deals with security. Check if any of the APs support PEAP. It is an interim standard that Microsoft, Cisco, etc. are supporting. It will encrypt all of your traffic and be MUCH harder to crack then WEP.

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ratbastid

OPINION ALERT:

I think 802.11b is PLENTY fast enough for almost all residential uses. How often do you really need to move files around your own personal network at faster than a few M/s?

Over 99% of the network traffic on a home nework is routing out to or in from the cable or DSL modem, which I promise you is NOT running at any 802.11b speeds. THAT'S the bottleneck in the modern residential network. Anything faster than that out to the end-client is wasted bandwidth.

For home/noncommercial uses, .11a and especially .11g are overpriced, oversold overkill.

/OPINION

happymaan

I totally agree with ratbastid. I have a 802.11b+ for my laptops, and a wired network and my desktops, and I don't need any more then that. When I need to move large files I hook up to a hub, even g isn't fast enough for real big files.

I'm not going to go any faster the b until one or two generations past g I imagine.

-happymaan