Looking to go wireless

[Loony BoB]

A few questions regarding it.

I'm currently with Virgin Media and use a standard surfboard broadband modem. I'm soon going to be purchasing my second PC. One PC will, at that point, be running Windows and one will be running Linux. I'd like for them to use the same wireless connection.

Does anyone know if there would be problems with a Windows box and a Linux box sharing a wireless connection?

What kind of router/modem would I need?

Is there any way for me to get said router/modem on the cheap (or free )?

A while back I had a router and plugged two PCs into it. The drop in speed seemed dramatic when both PCs were in use (although that might be partially down to my ******* flatmate of the time downloading too much). Should I expect similar things with a wireless router/modem? If so, would speed be split 50/50 automatically or would it be more adjustable so that if only one PC was actively downloading info from the internet, then it would receive 100% bandwidth speed?

Anything else in particular I'd need to know?

 

[tolien]

Does anyone know if there would be problems with a Windows box and a Linux box sharing a wireless connection?

Provided they have drivers for the wireless card, the router doesn't care what OS the machine's running.

What kind of router/modem would I need?

A "cable/DSL" router with no modem.

Is there any way for me to get said router/modem on the cheap (or free )?

Unless VM will give one away, no.

Should I expect similar things with a wireless router/modem?

That all the machines connected can only shift traffic that totals the speed of the connection? I'd expect so.
The slow speeds you were getting before weren't the fault of your router though, as you suspected.

If so, would speed be split 50/50 automatically or would it be more adjustable so that if only one PC was actively downloading info from the internet, then it would receive 100% bandwidth speed?

It isn't split 50:50, and if only one machine is using the connection it'll get 100%...

 

[Loony BoB]

Thanks.

 

[.walls]

As tolien says - no probs at all, so long as you have the wifi drivers for your adapter. I would stay away from a USB wifi adapter for the linux box - these are notoriously difficult to get working, but pci cards are well supported - I personally use ASUS models with a Ralink 2500 chipsets with no issues - did have a Netgear wg121 USB with a prism54 chipset (or prismGT - it was a while ago!) - which was a PITA to get working at first.

 

[Loony BoB]

What would be the recommended cards/routers for this?

 

[.walls]

What would be the recommended cards/routers for this?

I personally like Netgears - I've used several and not had a problem with any of them, but you don't have to pick a router which will be compatible with linux/xp - as they all are.

When it comes to adapters - as I said above, for your linux box, I would go for a pci model rather than a USB one, but it doesn't really matter for XP - because every manufacturer has made the device with windows in mind, therefore driver support is fine. Ralink, Intel and Atheros seem to be a good choice when it comes to chipsets (however you need to have a google of the make/model for the specs ).

EDIT: This looks good