another wireless networking question

my parents will probably be buying the components for a home wireless network this weekend and had a few questions.

1. is linksys the best brand? it seems they have the largest amount of products and they were just bought by cisco so i imagine they must do very well. does intel, microsoft, motorola, or any of the other brands compare, or are they all basically the same

2. is G really that much faster than B? i mean, either way its a step up from having the ghetto dial up we have right now, (this will be paired with high speed from adelphia cable company).

3. whats this "speedbooster" thing that linksys is selling? sounds like crap to me but has anyone had the chance to compare a normal router vs a router with this speedbooster?

4. about how far do the signals from the 2.4's go? if i have the router in our basement, will my computer on the second floor get a good signal?

 

Linksys, Netgear & D-Link are the top choices for the mass produced and usually most inexpensive wireless products. The problem is that while all are good features, they all work differently depending on your environment. Do you have neighbors close by that use wireless? Do you use a wireless phone at home? I've heard less complaints about Linksys than the others.

With the 'Turbo' feature boosting it up to 108 MBPS, it generally works pretty well... but it is not totally needed. With most broadband connections, you only get up 2-3 Mbps max, so it matters how fast you need to move internally within your own network. For $10 extra, its a cool feature that you can turn on and off.

Honestly, the best way to find out is to buy everything from the same vendor, and try it out. If you have any problems, take it back. Unfortunately with wirelss, trial and error is a well thought of philosophy.

 

dont really know about what my neighbors will be using. theyre a good distance away though. probably 50 to 75 meters. yes we use wireless phones.

thanks for the help

 

"Speed Booster" is Linksys answer to D-Link/Netgear 802.11g Super.

When you buy and use the Linksys WPC54GS you might get 35%-%45 more bandwidth (Speed) out of your Wireless. It is compatible with regular 802.11g but the chipset has a special mode that provides better performance.

In order to benefit from it you need a Source and client card that have the same chipset otherwise you get a regular 802.11g.

More here: Link to: Wireless What Should I Get?

 

the ezlan.net site really helped, thanks guys

 

I recently picked up a linksys that had some rebates. Circut city I think... Anyway, dont forget the wep!!!!

 

i think we'll just use pricewatch to find the best prices. i did a quick look around and i found i could save ~$50 on pricewatch over best buy.

plans will be for having the main line downstairs in our basement, the router will sit next to our ghetto old windows ME machine, connect that machine with the router via an ethernet cable, then we'll have a notebook card for my dads government laptop running windows 2000 i think, and then a PC card for my dell on the second floor running xp pro


ninja edit/// for my pc, would an internal card be better or an external USB card?

 

check out airsnare for wireless networking security too

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4091

READ the instructions VERY CARFEULLY before you install.

 

i dont think we'll really have to worry about anyone trying to screw with us. we live out in the boonies, about 150-200 meters from the road, and we know both neighbors on either side of us quite well. ones an elderly couple so i cant imagine theyll be doing anything.