Need A Wireless Router

I have never, I repeat never purchased a wireless router before. Yes it's sad! I know a lot about pcs but hardly anything about wireless routers. The situation is simple...

My sister wants to use my internet, and as of now I just switch patch cords when she needs it. Which means I cannot use the net when she's using it, and vice versa. We have now decided to get a wireless router.

My computers downstairs, and her bedroom is somewhat directly upstairs. For some reason we tend to lose a significant amount of cell phone signal when we use our cell phones near my computer. I have no idea if that has anything to do with the walls, or the area the pc is in. This house is made of wood, and bricks. I just mentioned that in case it would be useful.

Would you guys be able to recommend a good enough wireless router that can cater to her laptop upstairs? We would also use it as wi fi for our cell phones, and possibly other future use such as a ps3 or wi fi enabled tv. We also need it to have really good security.

Here's the two stores I'd like to buy from:

http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/cate...37d4262en01&Page=1&PageSize=15&Sort=PriceLtoH

http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.php?cPath=27_365&page=1&sort=3a

Please choose a router that you think would be good in our situation. Our budget is anything below $100. I have already set those two sites to list wireless routers priced from lowest to highest.


Thanks

 

Does your internet supplyer offer one? I have DSL and when I bought it, they offered a few diffrent routers on my needs. Bought a wireless router from them.

 

The Cisco Valet get's good reviews:
http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=27_365&item_id=033047

 

I have had Belkin and D-Links that developed problems. I vote for the Cisco one or Linksys, (which is Cisco).

 

I have a Buffalo WZR-HP-G300NH ( http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=27_365&item_id=032277 ) and like it because it's a high power output so it gives a strong signal to the 2 wireless N computers we have upstairs (wife hates me drilling holes in walls, ceilings, etc.). One computer is located upstairs at the opposite end of the house from the router and gets 4-5 bars in Win7 with a no-name PCI wireless card.

One caveat-some new ones come with DD-WRT firmware as the operating system/web interface (for lack of a better term to call it), they can be flashed to Buffalo's 1.76 ("user friendly", Buffalo's term not mine) firmware. Buffalo's firmware is a bit more constant with signal output.

Sam

 

I would say go with the highest priced Cisco you can get, and then configure it with WPA2, if your other devices support it. If you are concerned with security, then the lowest you should go is WPA, as WEP can (and I have done this) be hacked within 10 minutes.

 

Wireless can be temperamental at times. The quality of the wireless signal can change from model to model. With wireless you will also need to make sure that you have an adequate level of encryption WPA is ok WPA2 is better. Plus you may have a lot of wireless networks in the surrounding area which will possibly add to your woes. Distance from wireless signal and construct of property are important considerations also.

An alternative option to wireless which would probably provide faster thoughput, less prone to wireless dropouts or instability and safer is by using homeplugs.

From what you are saying your pc (as well as your sister's both have ethernet cards installed so there would potentially be no need to install wireless card).

I run both types of systems at home. The wireless (actually have 2 systems on 2 channels) work fine but needed a lot of tweaking eg better arial on the wireless access points (WAPs), directional arials on some pc wifi cards, some laptops have had their wifi cards replaced with pcmcia ones.

The homeplug system is straight plug and play. The homeplugs are invisible to the router. My homeplug system consists of wired homeplugs and combo homeplugs with wired and wireless capabilities.

See below.

wired

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Twin-85Mbps...94FA/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1300901764&sr=8-5

wired and wireless (has an RJ45 port at bottom as well as the arial).

http://www.amazon.co.uk/HomePlug-Et...7A86/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1300901764&sr=8-9

Hope this helps

PS if you do shoot for the homeplug route, you will need to get a router. By router I mean something that will create a LAN and dish out LAN IP addresses. Reason I say this is because from what you are saying about your current set up, looks like you only have a modem right now, correct?

Good Luck

 

IPv6 day which is scheduled for June 2011 (forgot day) will eventually add a question mark, however initially and probably till the end of 2011 it should not really be an issue.

OP, in theory (at least) the ISP to which you subscribe should be able to handle this even if your router is not natively IPv6 compatible. I have already spoken to my isp about this (since my router is IPv4) and although they will not be making this feature available on day one, they are getting / testing HW for this purpose. I do not profess to know the ins and outs of how this will be done and whether this is actually going to work seamlessly.

As plodr has said there are very very few routers currently on the market that support IPv6 natively.

superstar, the only thing I wanted to get across to you is that will all such equipment ie routers, waps, etc it is better to compartmentalize functionality. By that I mean that wireless should be handled specifically by wap,s, router (eg modem/router) by another unit, rather than having an all in one combo which may either fail on say wireless capability or as a result of global changes (IPv6). If you see what I mean.

This route is slightly more expensive initially but allows much more flexibility in the longer term.

Good Luck