Some cable wireless questions... (Im sure i know there are loads)

[MumboJumbo]

Some cable wireless questions... (Im sorry i know there are loads)

Ok then. Before you ask yes i have used search and i did find quite a few links but a lot got derailed or never met a conclusive ending of which is best. Just a lot of people all saying different wireless which is not helpful really!

In 2 weeks i will have virginmedia 4mb cable (i hope) and my dad sometimes works from home so he will need wireless. My sister also comes home from uni and will need it to. Both of them have built in wireless cards and i suspect its probably pritty cheaply done as my sister has terrible times with connecting to the internet at uni so here are my questions baised on these facts:

1) Do you think paying the few quid extra for 108mbps cards and wireless router is worth it for the two laptops?

2)Which cablewireless would you recommend . I want to be able to get every Mb out of my internet i can for my desktop and dont want it slowed down by the wireless so i need a wireless that i can use a wire between that and my pc but i want one with a very fast connection speed.


Im not sure which is the fastest, dual gigabyte?? Also is netgear a good company to go with? i was thinking about buying this:

Netgear WGT624 108Mbps Wireless Cable/DSL Router

with Netgear WG511T 108Mbps Wireless PCMCIA Network Adapter for the laptop cards.


thanks

 

[Snapshot]

There's very rarely any absolute best so people can only say what's worked (or not) for them in their particular circumstances. There are so many possible combinations that almost everything will work for someone, somewhere. Of course, some makes are better than others and I think most peoples' advice would be to use Linksys or Netgear and avoid Belkin and D-Link.

It's impossible to say whether your sister's lappie has poor wireless performance as we don't know the setup at her uni. It shouldn't be that poor if it's a reputable make. It also really doesn't matter how fast the connection to the router is if you're only accessing the internet rather than sharing large files between the PCs. A wired connection will be 100Mb/s, your internet will only be 4Mb/s. That's more than enough difference. Similarly, a standard 54g wireless connection will provide a real-world speed of around 15Mb/s which is still comfortably more than the 4Mb/s of your internet connection. You might gain a bit of extra range by using 108Mb/s across the board but you won't gain any speed to the internet. This router should do the job perfectly well.

 

[tolien]

You might gain a bit of extra range by using 108Mb/s across the board

Only if it's 802.11n or MIMO - normal 108Mbps over two bonded 802.11g channels won't give you any extra range (on the contrary, it'll normally reduce your resilience to interference and so give you a shorter range).

Having issues getting it to connect at uni doesn't necessarily mean the laptop's wireless adapter is crap - it wouldn't be the first time somewhere's tried to cover a huge building with one weedy AP, or advertised a connection that's away up the road.

 

[MumboJumbo]

I see. Thankyou for your help. My sister may have to get a wireless card anyway to boost the range as she gets a very bad signal in her flat.

So two bonded 802.11g channels increases interference. Are there any 108mb/s which dont do this? And snapshot you say 54mb/s will give me up to 15mb/s that seems fast enough. But how would the speed change if both laptops where using the internet. Would it split the 4Mb by 3? or will the desktop get the better connection like half of the speed and the laptops a quarter each?


The file shareing would most likely be photos, documents and *possibly* playing a lan game with my friends laptops. (probably about 2 laptops playing the game and 1 desktop). I forgot to menchen that sorry


:EDIT: also the wireless would be downstairs and my sister will be upstairs most the time with her laptop.



Thanks for all your help so far

 

[tolien]

So two bonded 802.11g channels increases interference.

No, two bonded 802.11g channels means that you're going to have problems if there is any interference (like other people using 802.11g networks).

Would it split the 4Mb by 3? or will the desktop get the better connection like half of the speed and the laptops a quarter each?

Neither - it's best effort, rather than dividing the available bandwidth by the number of machines.

 

[MumboJumbo]

I know that my next door nabour has wireless if that could cause a problem.

Also what do you mean best effort? Which ever pc needs the most bandwidth will get it?


:EDIT:

Considering that i may be using the wireless to play games with my friends who all seem to have good laptops which would be able to run css and bf2 easly. Do you think the 108Mb/s would be best?

Also if so do you think its worth paying the bit extra for this one as it would be nice if i could sit outside in the garden with my laptop:Netgear WPN824 108Mbps RangeMax Wireless Cable/DSL Router.