Wireless router ? help, no idea
Discussion
My dad is getting broadband at home, and wants to use it in his office downstairs ( apartment above his shops ). He has asked me to get him the equipment he needs. He has a wireless enabled laptop, the "hub" will be upstairs in his house and the computer will need internet access downstairs. He can't put the hub thingy downstairs in the shop
He wil have either 576kbs or 1meg broadband.
Is a wireless router the thing that broadcasts the signal to his laptop ? how powerfull does it need to be to go to the floor below ? would a standard one be enough.
Or have I got this all wrong and I ned something different entirely
Any help gratefully recieved, please don't worry about offending me, tell me in basic terms.
He wil have either 576kbs or 1meg broadband.
Is a wireless router the thing that broadcasts the signal to his laptop ? how powerfull does it need to be to go to the floor below ? would a standard one be enough.
Or have I got this all wrong and I ned something different entirely
Any help gratefully recieved, please don't worry about offending me, tell me in basic terms.
Have a look on www.ebuyer.com and get an ADSL router which plugs into the broadband connection and acts as a access point. You'll need to get WEP encryption set up on it unless you want to offer free broadband to the local neighbourhood. 
I use a 3com jobbie. Works all round the house and I can even get a signal outside. (Obviously only something that you'd want to do in summer.) The only issue I've had with it is a tendency to overheat every 10 or so days.
Failing that drop a note to "thepassenger". She seems to have a good understanding of computers.
If you're interested then the 3com routers can be found here
Forgot to add.. Thanks to XJS John for setting my router up for me.
I'm too stoopid for compooters.
Failing that drop a note to "thepassenger". She seems to have a good understanding of computers.
If you're interested then the 3com routers can be found here
Forgot to add.. Thanks to XJS John for setting my router up for me.
I'm too stoopid for compooters. Edited by mini_ralf on Tuesday 21st November 15:11
for pure simplicity (and i have installed these for several friends that are computer illiterate to the n'ht degree) i would recomend 3COM home office stuff.
It has an idiot proof user interface and a stupid button on the back that is a real button. Easy to "support" over the phone when that inevitable "it dont work" call comes in and does not have overly complex flashy lights either.
for home i use a Lynksys which is faster / better / cleverer, but i would not want to give it to someone when i know that i will get that call when something (probably to do with BT) goes wrong and i have to troubleshoot it.
just my £0:02p
It has an idiot proof user interface and a stupid button on the back that is a real button. Easy to "support" over the phone when that inevitable "it dont work" call comes in and does not have overly complex flashy lights either.
for home i use a Lynksys which is faster / better / cleverer, but i would not want to give it to someone when i know that i will get that call when something (probably to do with BT) goes wrong and i have to troubleshoot it.
just my £0:02p
MilnerR said:
Have a look on www.ebuyer.com and get an ADSL router which plugs into the broadband connection and acts as a access point. You'll need to get WEP encryption set up on it unless you want to offer free broadband to the local neighbourhood.
Don't tell people - we keep having firewall failures at work and if I flick on the WiFi I can see up to a half-dozen unsecured routers, presumably left on while people are at work. Without them life would be very dull when the firewall is dead!
I've got an upstairs-downstairs arrangement with a Netgear. Works fine in the bedroom above me even though it is on the end of a daisy chain of phone sockets (recommendation is that the router should be on the master socket - but hey!). As a recent convert I found that setting up a wi-fi can be very frustrating as plug'n play certainly hasn't got to this corner of technology where there are more fields to fill or ignore than on a tax return, and you need to get some set-up info from your ISP. I found it difficult to get an overall view of what was doing what and why.
I ended up putting my first wi-fi router in a drawer and getting the Netgear with an AOL set-up disc. Even so i couldn't get the thing to work until I went into the router via the web browser and clicked the disable security button. After that the two units actually communicated! When it works it's great.
I think there must be a lot of people in the same boat. Best of luck.
I ended up putting my first wi-fi router in a drawer and getting the Netgear with an AOL set-up disc. Even so i couldn't get the thing to work until I went into the router via the web browser and clicked the disable security button. After that the two units actually communicated! When it works it's great.
I think there must be a lot of people in the same boat. Best of luck.
pmanson said:
Linksys.
Had two or three of their routers over the years (home and at uni) and never had any problems with any of them.
On offer in PCWorld at the moment according to the adverts. I'd try online as well
Phill
Had two or three of their routers over the years (home and at uni) and never had any problems with any of them.
On offer in PCWorld at the moment according to the adverts. I'd try online as well
Phill
Wot he said.
Just bought the Linksys wireless modem router and wirelss G thingy and it works well. On offer at PC World for £54.99 and seems a bargain so far. Very easy to set up.
4WD said:
Belkin
RUN, run for your sanity. Belkin wireless kit is some of the most useless, most ineptly designed, poorly supported heaps of steaming seagull shit i've ever had the misfirtune to work on.
Configure and join belkin access point to existing network = 6 hours
Configure and join netgear access point to existing network = 15 minutes.
They are cheap though.
independant test reports here:
www.lionbridge.com/lionbridge/en-US/services/outsourced-testing/competitive-analysis/Netgear.htm
and here:
www.tomsnetworking.com/lans_routers/charts/index.html?chart=119
Id get a Netgear DG834PN if you run standard wireless clients (or integrated) or a DG834N if you will be buying a matching 802.11 draft N adapter
www.lionbridge.com/lionbridge/en-US/services/outsourced-testing/competitive-analysis/Netgear.htm
and here:
www.tomsnetworking.com/lans_routers/charts/index.html?chart=119
Id get a Netgear DG834PN if you run standard wireless clients (or integrated) or a DG834N if you will be buying a matching 802.11 draft N adapter
tampon said:
My dad is getting broadband at home, and wants to use it in his office downstairs ( apartment above his shops ). He has asked me to get him the equipment he needs. He has a wireless enabled laptop, the "hub" will be upstairs in his house and the computer will need internet access downstairs. He can't put the hub thingy downstairs in the shop
He wil have either 576kbs or 1meg broadband.
Is a wireless router the thing that broadcasts the signal to his laptop ? how powerfull does it need to be to go to the floor below ? would a standard one be enough.
Or have I got this all wrong and I ned something different entirely
Any help gratefully recieved, please don't worry about offending me, tell me in basic terms.
He wil have either 576kbs or 1meg broadband.
Is a wireless router the thing that broadcasts the signal to his laptop ? how powerfull does it need to be to go to the floor below ? would a standard one be enough.
Or have I got this all wrong and I ned something different entirely
Any help gratefully recieved, please don't worry about offending me, tell me in basic terms.
What type of broadband connection is it? ADSL or cable? Or ADSL with TV, like Homechoice?
agent006 said:
4WD said:
Belkin
RUN, run for your sanity. Belkin wireless kit is some of the most useless, most ineptly designed, poorly supported heaps of steaming seagull shit i've ever had the misfirtune to work on.
Configure and join belkin access point to existing network = 6 hours
Configure and join netgear access point to existing network = 15 minutes.
They are cheap though.
I was using a Belkin ADSL router and Belkin PCMCIA card in the laptop and they worked fine, with excellent range.
Took only 15 minutes for me to set up, with only minor annoyances like the router's inbuilt clock refusing to update, and not wanting to work over 11Mbps, not that it mattered in my case. Laptop card continues to work well with all other makes of router. Oh yes, the other more annoying annoyance was when the Belkin's power supply melted. Came home to burning smell and sparks from the power supply. Belkin eventually replaced it for free, outside of warranty period, but it did take a while to get hold of them and for their indian support people to understand what a power supply is.
Switched to a Netgear 108Mbps router when I got Homechoice, where the modem is built into the TV box. I'll admit the Netgear (£45, PC world online price) is generally better and easier to set up (5 mins) and does more stuff (like WPA, although that wasn't really around when I got the Belkin). However the range isn't so good on the Netgear as it was on the Belkin, but it does normally connect at 36Mbps (still using the Belkin PCMCIA card). However Netgear is now doing some MIMO extended range router..
When I was looking at wifi routers, I did a bit of googling and came up with all sorts of techie sites, and the concensus was that Netgear is the daddy.
agent006 said:
RUN, run for your sanity. Belkin wireless kit is some of the most useless, most ineptly designed, poorly supported heaps of steaming seagull shit i've ever had the misfirtune to work on.
Configure and join belkin access point to existing network = 6 hours
Configure and join netgear access point to existing network = 15 minutes.
They are cheap though.
Curious. I had the older, grey Netgear DG834N and it worked perfectly for ages until the power supply failed. I replaced it with the same model, but the newer, white one, and it was atrocious - resetting to factory defaults if you tried to enter the security settings page twice without rebooting in between. I replaced that one with a Belkin (the only non-Netgear one in stock in the closet shop) which was as easy to configure as the Netgear, and it's worked every day since - just over a year now. Configure and join belkin access point to existing network = 6 hours
Configure and join netgear access point to existing network = 15 minutes.
They are cheap though.
I don't doubt that I just got a dodgy Netgear, but I reckon that they're all much of a muchness at this price point, unless you've got specialist needs.
Gassing Station | Computers, Gadgets & Stuff | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff