Wireless home networking...
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Hey all, I'm looking to wirelessly network my house and I was wondering what experiences my fellow CPians have had with this adventure. I've read a good amount about using 802.11g over it's sibling 802.11b, and I've seen some LinkSys kits that'll get me started, but I'd really like some real world advice from people who have already gone through the whole process. Anything you could share would help a ton. Thanks. -Mike Zinni "No shit it's tough. If it wasn't, everybody and their sister would be an engineer and then you wouldn't have a job."
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Hey all, I'm looking to wirelessly network my house and I was wondering what experiences my fellow CPians have had with this adventure. I've read a good amount about using 802.11g over it's sibling 802.11b, and I've seen some LinkSys kits that'll get me started, but I'd really like some real world advice from people who have already gone through the whole process. Anything you could share would help a ton. Thanks. -Mike Zinni "No shit it's tough. If it wasn't, everybody and their sister would be an engineer and then you wouldn't have a job."
I have wireless networking in my home, and it works fairly well. I mostly use Netgear equipment and haven't had any problems. There are several "dead zones" in my house where the signal strength is low. At those spots the more expensive cards work, while the cheap cards cannot find the network. Also, I notice that the WAP gets pretty hot, so I have it sitting on blocks to allow proper air flow.
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Hey all, I'm looking to wirelessly network my house and I was wondering what experiences my fellow CPians have had with this adventure. I've read a good amount about using 802.11g over it's sibling 802.11b, and I've seen some LinkSys kits that'll get me started, but I'd really like some real world advice from people who have already gone through the whole process. Anything you could share would help a ton. Thanks. -Mike Zinni "No shit it's tough. If it wasn't, everybody and their sister would be an engineer and then you wouldn't have a job."
I'm a huge fan of Wireless networking. It's #1 biggest benefit is, of course, the absense of all those damn wires going everywhere. This is especially nice if you rent your home/apartment and cannot wire things in-wall. There are some things to be aware of, though. Wireless (802.11b, at least) has serious issues with brick, stone, and cement barriers in my experience. Stone-tile floors, brick walls, garages, etc... will quickly make dead-spots in your wireless coverage if they are between your base station and your reception point. For instance, the living room in my old house would have 'Excellent' signal strength, whereas the screened-in porch (lined with brick) next to it would have no coverage whatsoever. You can combat these issues with a signal booster for your base station, or separate access points. Once you get things setup nicely, it really is great to have a cat5-free house. My computers all have USB wireless NICs, and my Tivo and game systems are attached to a little hub that is attached to a wireless ethernet bridge. The wireless gateway itself is in my utility closet above the washing machine. -- Russell Morris "So, broccoli, mother says you're good for me... but I'm afraid I'm no good for you!" - Stewy
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I have wireless networking in my home, and it works fairly well. I mostly use Netgear equipment and haven't had any problems. There are several "dead zones" in my house where the signal strength is low. At those spots the more expensive cards work, while the cheap cards cannot find the network. Also, I notice that the WAP gets pretty hot, so I have it sitting on blocks to allow proper air flow.
I am also using Netgear card + router. I have the same comments, the only difference is that the signal strength in the "dead zones" vary from one day to another. Also a couple of times the card became very hot, but usually it just gets warm. Good luck, Victor. phpWebNotes is a page annotation system modelled after php.net. http://webnotes.sourceforge.net/demo.php[^]
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Hey all, I'm looking to wirelessly network my house and I was wondering what experiences my fellow CPians have had with this adventure. I've read a good amount about using 802.11g over it's sibling 802.11b, and I've seen some LinkSys kits that'll get me started, but I'd really like some real world advice from people who have already gone through the whole process. Anything you could share would help a ton. Thanks. -Mike Zinni "No shit it's tough. If it wasn't, everybody and their sister would be an engineer and then you wouldn't have a job."
What I liked most about wireless, is that I can connect to any one of my neighbour's network's and use their internet. So all my P2P file sharing activities are traced back to them instead of me ;P Chris Meech "what makes CP different is the people and sense of community, things people will only discover if they join up and join in." Christian Graus Nov 14, 2002. Oh and for those that ask programming questions in the lounge. Seek the truth here[^].
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Hey all, I'm looking to wirelessly network my house and I was wondering what experiences my fellow CPians have had with this adventure. I've read a good amount about using 802.11g over it's sibling 802.11b, and I've seen some LinkSys kits that'll get me started, but I'd really like some real world advice from people who have already gone through the whole process. Anything you could share would help a ton. Thanks. -Mike Zinni "No shit it's tough. If it wasn't, everybody and their sister would be an engineer and then you wouldn't have a job."
I'd recommend a netgear MR814. You can disable SSID broadcast making your network completely invisibile to anyone who doesn't have the ssid Matt Newman
Sonork: 100:11179 "Battleship, was the first game that taught you to lie" - Zachery -
I'm a huge fan of Wireless networking. It's #1 biggest benefit is, of course, the absense of all those damn wires going everywhere. This is especially nice if you rent your home/apartment and cannot wire things in-wall. There are some things to be aware of, though. Wireless (802.11b, at least) has serious issues with brick, stone, and cement barriers in my experience. Stone-tile floors, brick walls, garages, etc... will quickly make dead-spots in your wireless coverage if they are between your base station and your reception point. For instance, the living room in my old house would have 'Excellent' signal strength, whereas the screened-in porch (lined with brick) next to it would have no coverage whatsoever. You can combat these issues with a signal booster for your base station, or separate access points. Once you get things setup nicely, it really is great to have a cat5-free house. My computers all have USB wireless NICs, and my Tivo and game systems are attached to a little hub that is attached to a wireless ethernet bridge. The wireless gateway itself is in my utility closet above the washing machine. -- Russell Morris "So, broccoli, mother says you're good for me... but I'm afraid I'm no good for you!" - Stewy
Russell Morris wrote: whereas the screened-in porch (lined with brick) next to it would have no coverage whatsoever. Is this metallic screen? If so, the dead spot is more likely due to this effect: Faraday Cage[^]
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