Is this wireless router a good buy?

NickyBoy

I currently have cable broadband and a wireless access point.

I have two desktop pc's on a simple crossover connection with internet connection sharing enabled on the one with the wireless adapter.

I've recently come by an old P3 laptop with a wireless card and am considering changing the simple WAP for a router.

This router http://www.scan.co.uk/products/productinfo.asp?WebProductID=338399 is currently on offer at £29.96 plus postage.

Anybody got an opinion on this piece of kit? - or any other that I should consider??

Thanks

John_Gray

I have never heard of the manufacturers, and can't find any reviews of the MSI RG54G3 on a quick squint on Google.

The cost from Scan is £38.19 including carriage and VAT! Not much cheaper than one from a well-known manufacturer, perhaps?

John

wolfman

Oh, didn't know MSI did routers. They're generally very well known for making motherboards. In fact with AMD boards they're seen as one of the best.

Could be a solid router, although I too can't find any reviews for it.

GreenNotM

Nicky - sounds like you are already using one PC as a router, apart from the energy saving of not having the pc on all the time and I hope it is firewalled etc - here is a MS article showing that you don't really need a router box as such but your pc can act as one ..

Making the Wireless Home Network Connection in Windows XP Without a Router

But your WAP should be able to accept data from the wireless laptop card as well - just set it up with an unique IP address from the range you are already using - if not the above article will help.

But the MSI router seems to have all the features - it is just a shame Scan have a £10 min del charge !

Here is a older router 802.11b ( with fave reviews) if your laptop is that old, no need for 802.11g, but best to check.TRENDnet WiFi Home Gateway (802.11b) for £23:49 + postage (£10 +vat !!!) unless you are close to morgan computers.

NickyBoy

Thanks for all your remarks.

Green, thanks for the link to the MS article - I'll try and digest that later.

Using the current equipment I have, I'm not sure that I can use the PC as a 'router'.

The equipment is Netgear stuff which was supplied by Telewest, and it runs on it's own software as opposed to XPs zero wireless config.

It appears to me that the first machine which is switched on acquires the IP address from the cable box, and after that if the laptop is switched on then it will fail to connect to the WAP and give itself an APIPA address.

I'm guessing that if I used a wireless router then it would acquire the IP address, enabling the machines to use a private range.

I'm still quite new to this, so I hope that made sense!

NickyBoy

I've reserved one of these Linksys deals (as found on another thread), and will try to pick it up tomorrow.

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/store/pcw_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0133327584.1138645773@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccdcaddglfkdlgfcflgceggdhhmdfho.0&category_oid=&sku=852034&page=Product&fm=null&sm=null&tm=null

Looks like a good deal!

GreenNotM

Look at connecting the laptop to the wireless card in the PC - a network card can have multiple ip addresses. As long as you tell the laptop to use the correct gateway address or use ICS as per your other PC

If I have your network correct - you have the cable modem connected to the wireless access point (WAP) and then the Wireless PC connects to the WAP and the other PC uses the crossover cable ?

Have a look to see if the PC's are using DHCP or have a manual IP address and gateway IP address. As your laptop gets an APIPA address it would seem you do not have a DHCP server in your system or your DHCP server is set to give addresses to certain MAC addresses only - so the ip addresses just needs to be on the same subnet - ie if subnet is 255.255.255.0 then the first 3 sets of aaa.bbb.ccc.??? have to all be the same (usually 10.bbb.ccc.??? so ur pc are not seen on the internet) and the ??? have to be all unique.

Hope that has helped. Just let me know if you do have DHCP assigned addresses and look for the gateway address - in XP from a command prompt use "ipconfig /all"

GreenNotM

Hi Nick

just seen your last reply - I need to type faster

The Linksys box does have good reviews esp for telewest users @ amazon http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0002LHXB6/202-2221515-7179022

NickyBoy

Thanks for the input Green!

You describe what I have here pretty well.

The problem I see with what you suggest is that I can't set the wireless adapter to ad-hoc and retain connectivity with the WAP. It only connects on infrastructure and with the appropriate SSID and passphrase.

The equipment here is Netgear MA101 adapter and ME102. It appears that telewest may have specifically modified these items in order to restrict the functionality.

It also seems that telewest will only issue one IP address.

I picked this gem up after a bit of googling;

"Don, unfortunately this unit is not like your standard Netgear product.

Like I said before the firmware has been modified by BlueYonder before it gets into the hands of the customer. The reset only removes settings internally in the router not the firmware.

BlueYonder doesn't disable the firewall it just limits the connections and configuration that is able to be done to it. Basically with the firmware they have installed they turned that router into an access point.

So when you plug it into a standard connection it will forward the IP address that you usually get on your computer and give you the ability to pass it to the computer wirelessly. Hence why it only allows one connection. (Only 1 IP address = Only 1 connection)

GreenNotM

Hi Nicky

I have found the kit you are using http://www.netgear.com/pressroom/press_releasesdetail.php?id=49

To clarify a router is a bit of kit that connects 2 seperate networks. Your pc with the ethernet card and the usb wireless card is acting as the router between your home LAN and the Telewest network. View the WAP as being part of the Telewest network that you cannot change - the routing was auto set-up when you enabled ICS for the other PC.

As your PC connected by the cross-over cable can "see" the internet this must be working !

So the additional settings - nothing is to be deleted or changed - just an additional IP address will be given to the Netgear USB wireless adapter so it becomes part of your Home LAN. Look at the Local Area Network Settings Properties Page for the usb adapter, goto Highlight TCP/IP then select properties and then select the advanced Button and ADD a local IP address and subnet mask. Okay all the boxes closed, then open a command prompt window and run ipconfig /all to see that the IP has taken - no need to reboot with XP anymore other o/s may need a reboot.

Next set up the Laptop ip address and use the address you just gave to the USB adapter as its gateway address - again use ipconfig /all and try ping to confirm you have a connection. Will leave the DNS settings but set then as per the Desktops. Subnet mask and the aaa.bbb.ccc.???.. have to all be the same take from the PCs' settings The final ??? have to each be unique to avoid clashes.

Good luck if you want to try this before you get your Linksys box.