Will a wireless network work?

[nvening]

I want te setup a wireless network but i am not sure if it will work. I will have one pc upstairs and one downstairs, so do i place the router in the middle of the 2? How many walls and how far will the signal of the WGT634U work for, it is mostly for 512 BB but i would also want to plug in my external HDD into the router (there is a usb port)

[Flash]

most wireless routers will easily do upstairs downstairs but if the signal is lost just purchase an access point to join the connection

[Nick]

Depends on the thickness of your walls, cabling embedded in the walls, plumbing in the way and all that malarkey.

My router is diagonally opposite a PC wirelessly connected to it (ie; Router ground floor, back left...PC first floor, front right) and I get a decent enough signla for surfing and downloads. I wouldn't bother gaming over it though, seriously.

You'll need to be able to have one PC connected through Cat5 at some point though, so you can set up the router, so perhaps think about keeping your main rig permanently wired in... you'll enjoy much lower pings online and it frees up the wireless bandwidth for the other PC.

Unless you live in a mansion with lead lined walls, you shouldnt have any trouble.... but a good fiddle with the aerial positions is always recommended...

[Olly1234]

I have a similar setup and if you have any problems with signal strength, Maplins do these neat directional arieals for about £15, look like a pack of cards then part of it flips up so you can direct it or stick it on the wall etc etc. Works an absolute treat

[nvening]

so hang on, what i would really like is to have have my main rig wired to the internet (u can do that with just my mobo think, its an nforce4) and then just the pc downstairs connected to the internet wirelessly, just for browsing. Can i do that? I want the Netgear DG834G i think. Is there a better one? Will the hard wired one connect at full speed when the one downstair is dissconnected?

[Nick]

You’ll enjoy faster connection speeds with the wired in PC, exactly the same as if it was wired direct to your existing modem.

The PC on the wifi connection will hardly make any difference to your speeds unless one or other is doing some serious downloading (download accelerator regularly maxes out my 1meg connection).

[nvening]

whats a download accelerator? so when the router is set up i can just place it anywere in the house and plug it in to the phone line and power, no usb to pc needed?

[Nick]

Download Accelerator is a program you can get to speed up downloads, it makes multiple connections to servers and essentially maxes out your download bandwidth... it also supports resuming downloads part way through, so you can pause whatever you're downloading and pick it up later without having to start all over again.

I guess that you could set the router up and then wifi into it from both machines, but you wouldn't be making best use of your broadband connection, you'd be better off keeping one wired in and just using wifi for the other machine.

I'd go with using a bit of Cat 5 ethernet cable to connect the PC up to the router, rather than USB. In my experience, its easier to set up than USB, doesn't require you loading any drivers onto your PC to network with the USB port and it leaves a USB port free for you to use for something else.

[Olly1234]

Specially with Telewest, the usb drivers for their modems were so unstable a year or so ago that got no end of BSOD, bloody engineers had installed it on USB while I was at work..Grrr..changed it sharpish

[nvening]

sh say i had a routeri could have it my my main rig just attatched wih some networking cable stuff no usb or drivers, it would be like plug and play wireless?and then i just install the drivers that came with the pci wifi adapter on to my other pc and it (should) set istself up? How do i make it secure so people cant hackin to my stuff or use my internet?

[Kumagoro]

Buy a wireless router plug the modem and your main computer in via ethernet.
Set up the other PC with the wireless card. Enabling WEP encryption is good enough to stop people as long as your wifi stuff isnt older then 3 years.

[nvening]

I have AOL (yes i no, but i need it unlimited and u dont have to use the crappy software) Will that make any difference?

[Scientist]

nope, I run AOL wireless (Infeact have just got there new 2mbit service!) and have never had a problem - BTW I use a Netgear DG834G..

[nvening]

did u get ur router from them? how do u set it up with aol?

[Howard]

Put the router as high up in the house as possible. You'll get a better signal.

[nvening]

But closer to the pci card is better, right? That cant make sense