Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler OT: Wireless internet?

This is a question for all the computer experts out there. I have cable internet access, and would like to go wireless. I understand that I need a wireless adaptor card, a wireless card and a wireless router. Are there differences in brands or is all hardware pretty much equal? Is there anything else I need?

Generally speaking, a wireless adapter card and a wireless card are the same thing. Are we dealing with multiple machines here? Are they Windows/Linux/MacOS/MacOS X? Laptop/Desktop?

Generally, I would stay far, far, far, far, far away from D-Link and Netgear. I've had (so far) a very good experience with my Linksys WRT54G (yes that security hole is a bit of a myth, as long as the firewall is turned on).

My old D-Link router was a piece of junk and trouble ever since I got it. I recently returned it for warranty repair/replacement, and ended up with a new one that had the exact same problem. They swore they were going to have Level III tech support call me and determine whether they should pay the return shipping, but they only called once and have not returned my multiple messages.

My Netgear router did not work at all with my Mac laptops (when they went to sleep, you could not recover the connection without rebooting.) No such problems with the D-Link or Linksys, so don't try to tell me it's a Mac thing.

The Apple Base Stations are very good, but also very expensive. I'd only go with those if you've got Macs and some extra cash. High quality, good warranty, good customer support, built in print server, but is it really worth an extra $130?

Windowsxp/os. Desktop/labtop network. I was under the impression that I would have to add an adaptor to my desktop to use a separate wireless card. From your post it appears that my compusion was complete.

OK, what you will need is a PC card for the laptop and a PCI card for the desktop if you wish the desktop to be wireless as well.

kcarlile -

What kind of mac do you have? Have you had a chance to use/see the new G5? And did you check out the new monitors?! Those are sweet looking.

I have a G4 (FW800) Dual 1.25 GHz (last of the G4s...dammit!) and a PowerBook G4/867 from work and a PII/450 from work. My wife has a PBG4/667 (nominally from work), and we have an Athlon 1400. Since I work on Macs, I have had a chance to work on most of the G5s (as well as just about everything else, including Xserve G5s!), but not the new dual 2.5 giggers, as they're not out yet. Haven't seen the new monitors in person, but they are pretty sweet. Pity that the 30 inch requires the $600 video card, but hey, that's the way it is.

Thanks K!

No problem. I would recommend getting cards from the same manufacturer as your router, but I think there's a little less difference there. Although I'm not sure...

Good question.. i just recived a new computer and now im looking for a wireless router and a usb adapter. Theres a few to choose from locally but i was under the imrpession that the 802.11g is better then the "b" the two computers will be roughly 100' apart seperated by numerous walls. The price for 100' of cat5 cable was as much as a wireless usb adapter so the choice seemed obvious. right?

802.11g is certainly faster than 802.11b. I'm not sure if it's better for distance. It also depends on what kind of walls and what kind of antennas you've got. The Linksys I mentioned is certainly more powerful than the D-Link I had, but other than that comparision, I'm not sure how far it will go. Of course, you can always replace the antennae with powered ones.