wireless network

[Dan Dan The Magic Man]

hi all,
im planning to set up a wireless network in my house between 4 machines,
just wondering if any one has ant advice before i start? any tips,
pitfalls??

is it relativly straight forward?

cheers in advance

 

[Philip Edward Lewis]

I really like the smc barricade line...
handles firewall, NAT, pppoe, dialup backup (external modem required),
3 hardwire connections, and a printer attached to the unit.

just plug my dsl modem in, then attach this puppy to it. no need to
install special software on any computer.

I havn't used other units, this one was recommended by a friend and
has done everything I need.


good luck.

 

[hawk]

Well, I couldn't get the dial-up feature to work. Repeated calls and
E-Mails to SMC produced nothing until one tech E-Mailed me a bootleg copy
of a firmware version that no one else seemed to know about. I am still
using that bootleg firmware for my dial-up connection.

I would go with a wired/wireless model. The prices have come down to a
reasonable level for wireless capability. And then you can network laptops
or other computers that aren't located within convenient hard wire
distance/location.

Regards, hawk

 

[Philip Edward Lewis]

Well, I couldn't get the dial-up feature to work. Repeated calls and

hmmmm i see that i have the information stored, but i don't know that
i've ever actually used it. i do know that I used a windows box with
internet sharing to provide the house with dial on demand wire/less
internet...

I would go with a wired/wireless model. The prices have come down to a

sorry... since this was a "wireless" thread, i made the assumption
that folks would realize i had the wireless model...

I actually have two... got the second one for like 50 bucks after
rebate.... right now a friend is borrowing it. (he was using a mac as
an AP and didn't like the range/features/etc and had lent *his* to a
friend...

 

[Krusty]

Hi Dan,

My experience has shown that depending on your understanding of the settings
it is far from simple! Also I have found that the claimed distances are very
optimistic, for example I networked three P.C.s with an external router
(NIC), USB device, & inbuilt (notebook). I have found that brick walls are a
real killer, in fact I get a range of only about 20 meters (65ft). The
machine at 40 Meters (131ft) seldom works at all. In fact it has had nil
signal for the past four days but on some days works fine for many hours!

I have tried absolutely everything (Antenna, diversified, left, right. Every
channel. Preamble long/short etc.) In fact I got abysmal rates until I found
that the notebook needed to be set at Preamble long (not short & not auto),
this is despite the router being set to preamble short, otherwise the data
rate fell to under 1% after around 12 seconds & never recovered?

The end result is a transfer rate of around 40% which is acceptable & I have
to assume normal, at least it is consistent & can transfer several Gig.
without fail! This equates to around 500Meg. per second, maybe someone more
conversant with wireless (11Meg) speed can confirm that this is normal? My
foray into wireless was anything but simple & took weeks of experimentation,
I was though pretty much a novice although I had an excellent understanding
of computer hardware/software!

 

[Krusty]

"This equates to around 500Meg. per second"

Sorry, I wish ) - make that 500Kb per second!!!