Best Wireless Setup and How to set up wireless?

[John_da_leecher]

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.

[D0401]

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.

[+dave164 Subscriber¹]

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

[Toastyone]

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

[D0401]

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

[John_da_leecher]

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

[D0401]

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

[daveoc64]

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.

[D0401]

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.