Going Wireless

Alright. As aforementioned I have a new gaming computer and I'll be doing a lot of online gaming. Since this comp is gonna be up in my room instead of downstairs in the computer room where my switch is, I was wondering what wireless choices do I have? I know I'm going to have to replace my switch with a wireless router, but I need to know what the best budget routers and cards would be for what I want to do. I don't want to have to route 50ft. of ethernet cable through my house or drill a hole in the floor. Oh yeah the computer I have in my room is like 10ft. away from the switch (and that's on the diagonal). Thanks for reading this and considering my situation

 

You just need a wireless router and either a wireless pci card or usb adapter, i personally think that the pci cards are better and more efficient. I wouldn't recommend anything less than wireless 54g speed because you want a fast as connection as possible. Look at D-Link and Linkseys, and try to get the same brand of router and usb/pci card if possible.

 

When going wireless there are a couple of things to keep in mind. First of all is security. The second is speed. For security purposes you need to enable at least 64 bit encryption, even though there have been 4 'hacks' made known about 64 bit. The preferred encryption is 128 bit. The problem with encryption is that is slows the connection down. The good thing about encryption is that it keeps your neighbors from stealing your bandwidth. I live out in the country and my closest neighbor is out of range, but to be safe I still use 128 bit encrtyption. The second thing, speed, is really only important if you do, or plan on doing, a lot of file sharing between the computers, and I am talking about big files. The cheapest usb / router combination I have seen is around $30. for a a Netgear 'b' with 11 Mbs transfer speed. Now, I don't know about anyone else but my internet connection is 1.5 Megs burstable to 2.5 Megs. This is still well below the 11 Mbs transfer speed of even the cheapest/slowest wireless connection.

Just my opion, and I could be mistaken.