Ok for christmas i am trying to get my parents to get me a laptop for college next year, also i am trying to talk them into going to wireless router and nics, and im going to try to hook up my neighbors wireless for them sometime this week. So i was wondering what are the best price/value wireless cards and router to get for your money? I heard orinoko gold cards are good and wonder about them. Also how can i set up the wireless internet.

wireless network setup is simple... the setup is basically like this:

connection > modem > wireless router

personally i have a linksys wireless router. i picked up some cheap d-link wirless pci cards for like $30 after rebates from best buy for the desktops. my powerbook already had an airport extreme card.

i guess what you need to figure out is if you want 802.11b or g.

802.11g is 54 - 108mbps and 802.11b is 11mbps (like me)

Im on a Belkin setup

3 computers on a 750k broadband line, setup is as follows

Router --> Broadband connected to router via ethernet in the internet slot --> USB wireless adapter in each pc

Thats it

Then in windows xp you select in my network places setup a small home/office network

Thats as simple as it gets;
dave164

A Linksys WRT54G is what I have as a router, you just hook it up to a broadband modem and that’s about it, the wireless cards will see the network and ask if you want to connect

yeh you just want to make sure to encrypt your network to make sure you don't have people mooching off your connection.

set up wep encryption correct? Also what brands do you recommend for wireless cards and what brands for wireless routers?

personally i would recommend linksys for the wireless routers... i have been using them without any problems for the past 4 years.

I would go for either Netgear, Belkin or Linksys for the router. I use a netgear and it is good. Try and get a router that allows MAC filtering which adds another layer of protection on top of the encryption.

yeh mac filtering is a good feature.. the linksys ones have it for sure. i use it as part of my security to screen who can use the wireless signal and who can't.