Home WIFI questions

[325Projectz]

i'm assuming you bought the home... so wire your house.

pick a closet to have all your cables run to w/ power for the equipment (cable modem & router).

its also a selling point when you go to list the house up. i also put cat5 in with the entertainment center for ps2 & xbox, or whatever other uses i find for it.

[Ben Carufel]

I agree that hardwire is the way to go.

That said, I used Linksys routers for years with my Apple's and had mediocre results. I finally broke down and bought an Airport Extreme base station a few months ago after the new ones came out, and HOLY SHIT. All of a sudden it's like being wired, without the wires!

[Jscotty]

i'm assuming you bought the home... so wire your house.

Most times when you are having a house built, you don't actually "own" it until the house is complete and you go to settlement on it.

[325Projectz]

Most times when you are having a house built, you don't actually "own" it until the house is complete and you go to settlement on it.

well to add on to that, you don't actually own anything if you're making payments... the lienholder owns it, but i'm assuming you already know that.

[ivo316]

So, my house will be done soon and I want wireless internet throughout. I figure ill have a wireless router stored somewhere in the attic - but i want to make sure i have a good connection throughout the entire house. Is there a certain type of router i can use or can i use like multiple antennas? I havent been wireless in a couple of years so im sort of out of the loop.

I just installed this one in a business,

http://www.3com.com/prod/es_ES_EMEA/detail.jsp?tab=features&sku=3CRWDR200A-75

it's an old house, with 40 cm walls and three floors, i installed it on the third floor and added PCI wireless cards to all the desktop pc's, there are 15 in the company, all of them range from "good" to "very Good" in signal level.

I tried Linksys and D-link, both with 2 antennae and rougly in the same price range, both gave signal levels that ranged from "poor" to "very poor", also the connection as intermitent with those signal levels..

It's the only wifi router i install now, since the rest are just trouble at a later stage. ;)

[benDASHDASH]

You're obviously going to want your house hardwired.. but wifi is the only way to go for laptops / wii and the such. And if your house is too big just add another router and wire the two

[xLibelle]

since normal home network is half duplex, it only uses four of the wires in the cat-5. that leaves room for two telephone lines in the same cable.
i bought a big roll of cat-6 (nicer wire) and handed it to my parents contractor and said, use this instead of the phone lines.

We installed a big central network box and have the cable modem, and phone lines all split out on some nice pannels in that box. THATS the way to do it.

[Beej '86 325es]

linksys sucks. that shit never works for more then a few months

I'm not a fan of Linksys either. I had a D-Link that worked great for me 2-3 years, but I think it recently got zapped in a storm. I had the cable coming in through the basement and just hooked the router up there. Got a great signal everywhere in the house.

Are the "N" routers worth the extra $40-$50? Sounds like they're quicker, but are you really going to notice it?

[AndrewBird]

Are the "N" routers worth the extra $40-$50? Sounds like they're quicker, but are you really going to notice it?

In a word, yes.

Wireless B/G is only capable of speeds up to 54mbps where as wireless N is capable of up to 300mbps. N is basically just as fast as wired, assuming you have good signal strength.

[Jscotty]

well to add on to that, you don't actually own anything if you're making payments... the lienholder owns it, but i'm assuming you already know that.

Actually you do own it. The leinholder has the option of reposessing the item into his ownership if the obligations are not fufilled.

[ak96ss]

In a word, yes.

Wireless B/G is only capable of speeds up to 54mbps where as wireless N is capable of up to 300mbps. N is basically just as fast as wired, assuming you have good signal strength.

Unfortunately, -N is still a draft standard. I would really recommend that if you go that route you use the same brand for everything, just in case.