Wireless vs Wired - help needed

Ramblin'_Man

Hello

I have a desktop PC in my office which is upstairs, it was broadband connected via a second phone line which runs upstairs. This line has since been cancelled and disconnected (although the physical cable is still there)

I want to get broadband back onto my desktop using my home phone line which is in the hallway (downstairs).

Initially I was going to try and get the phone lines changed over, so my home line comes into the house on the disused business line, but this is proving difficult to sort out with BT. So now I am thinking of getting a wireless router and doing it that way.

Firstly, is there any reduction in service using a wireless router compared to a wired one i.e. is it slower, does it drop out more?

Secondly, is it reasonably easy to set up? I've noticed that Madasafish BB comes with a wireless router, as does BT (for an extra £30). Is this the best way to go about it, or should I buy a wireless router seperately? Is that all i need to set it up?

Sorry if my questions are a bit basic, but I'm new to wireless and couldn't find these answers when searcing other posts.

Any help or advice will be much appreciated!

D.K.

Hi,
I live in an Edwardian house and wireless did not penetrate the walls..maybe worth checking if it will work in your house. I'm very happy with wire..nice and secure.

D

Conor_3

To answer the OP...

A decent Wifi ADSL Modem Router should be very easy to set up.

Speed wise, for the internet, you'll not notice any difference but file transfers from PC to PC over the network will be slower and the speed dicated by the quality of the Wifi reception on the PC.

markchadwick

Hi there,

Another option which you may find useful, especially others in old houses/cottages with thick walls, is something called Homeplug/Powerline. This is a recent technology (I think) and effectively uses the mains power supply system in your home as a network bridge between two plug sockets. See here for Netgear and other manufacturers' offerings (http://www.amazon.co.uk/s?ie=UTF8&tag=mycroft16-21&index=blended&link%5Fcode=qs&field-keywords=powerline&sourceid=Mozilla-search).

You simply plug one adapter into your router and a power socket nearby and then pick any other socket in your home where you want to create the bridge, in your case in your office next to your PC. A "powerline" network connection is then created through the mains supply offering decent speeds. This way you get the security benefits of a (hybrid) wired connection, without all the worry or fuss of wireless configurations and security breaches. Might be wise to google it and find out a bit more if my explanation isn't too good.

Two caveats are: if you're using a laptop also and want mobility; then this won't solve your problem as you need to still be hard-wired into the network. Also, it can be quite costly and so not particularly moneysaving with it being a new idea. Ideal though, if you don't want trailing wires at home.

Mark

LuciferTDark

I also went from having a wired connection from downstairs to a wireless router, right now I actually have 3 PCs connected to the router & the only time I've had trouble with the connection is when there's a serious problem at my ISP.

It's just as fast as ever with the added bonus of being able to thrash my kids at Unreal Tournament whenever I feel like it

For me it was just a case of plugging in the bits & running the install cd in each machine & we were up & running.

Ramblin'_Man

Thanks for your helpful advice.

I've decided to go wireless, am planning to sign up with Tiscali for my broadband and buy a wireless router seperately using the contribution from quidco towards the cost. It's only to connect to the internet, not connecting pc's together, so I think wireless should be fine.

Is the Netgear DG834G a good router to go for?

This one comes with a USB adapter as part of the bundle - should i be getting a wireless card to fit into my desktop or will a usb adapter work just as well? I'm not one for 'taking the back off' my computer so not sure how easy a wireless card is to fit..

Also, have seen in other posts that security is very important when going wireless - am i right in assuming that this netgear router has all that included?

ormus

the netgear dg834 g or gt, is the one to get. highly recommended. gt is better, you can increase the speed with the gt.
a pci wireless card is fairly easy to fit. usb dongle are easier but not always reliable. some work, some dont.
all wireless security is built into the router SW. you have to configure it though.
simple enough.

Ramblin'_Man

I've now decided to get a Netgear router, and want to get it as a bundle with the usb adapter, as i'm not convinced i'll be able to fit a pci wireless card myself! It's now down to a choice between these 2:

DG834G - £49.99 from ebuyer
or
DG834PN RangeMax - £69.99 from amazon

Does anyone have an opinion as to whether the rangemax version is worth the extra £20? I haven't found the DG834GT as a bundle, so it works out more expensive than both of the above.

LuciferTDark

Sorry Ramblin' I thought I'd mentioned in my previous reply, all 3 of my machines (upstairs) are using usb adapters & the router is plugged in downstairs, we're using d-link & (I'm assuming it's the same with them all) the router comes with a built in Firewall & all the security features are fully configurable from any of the machines. Everything can be password protected as well.