Whats best PCI or USB

Davy644 · 13 Dec 2009 at 01:09

Hi this i have to admit i am not to clued up on "network&adaptors" which would you say is the best all rounder for speed and security.As for fitting a PCI adaptor is no problem to me if it works out the better choice,Your thoughts on this would be appreciated thank you .. Davy

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=NW-014-EX or this
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=NW-055-EX its to go with my Belkin N1 revision

thepeganator · 13 Dec 2009 at 01:11

PCI is better, but usb you'll be able to put exactly where you want for best signal.

Why wireless anyway for a desktop?

Davy644 · 13 Dec 2009 at 01:19

Its for my sons Pc upstairs,I have the Belkin USB adaptor for my daughters room but at £44 a little pricey when i can get one just as fast 300mbs for less than half the price,Just thinking is it ok to mix and match all brands?
Thanks Davy

FatRakoon · 13 Dec 2009 at 04:18

As long as the devices are compatible, ( b, g, N ) any brand will do yes.

For what its worth, my entire house is fully wired. I have the phone line in teh kitchen, coming through along the door of kitchen and living room , up the wall along the ceiling and down to the router... The Master PC is directly connected to the router, but so is a second CAT5 cable, and this follows back to the kitchen door but then that goes upstairs along the landing and up into the attic, where it is connected to my switch, this is then feeding 4 other PCs and a Hub, The other PCs feed into that, but one other cable then goes out of the attic, down the outside of the wall, and along into the shed for the kids.

Now, I have in total 13 PCs all connected by way of Ethernet cable and guess what?

You cannot see a single cable anywhere!

Its not built into the wall at all either, its trunking but again, its not obvious because its right int the corners and its painted over so its near invisible.

Im not wasting my time with crappy wireless... Id rather do without!

Davy644 · 13 Dec 2009 at 07:15

FatRakoon said:
As long as the devices are compatible, ( b, g, N ) any brand will do yes.

For what its worth, my entire house is fully wired. I have the phone line in teh kitchen, coming through along the door of kitchen and living room , up the wall along the ceiling and down to the router... The Master PC is directly connected to the router, but so is a second CAT5 cable, and this follows back to the kitchen door but then that goes upstairs along the landing and up into the attic, where it is connected to my switch, this is then feeding 4 other PCs and a Hub, The other PCs feed into that, but one other cable then goes out of the attic, down the outside of the wall, and along into the shed for the kids.

Now, I have in total 13 PCs all connected by way of Ethernet cable and guess what?

You cannot see a single cable anywhere!

Its not built into the wall at all either, its trunking but again, its not obvious because its right int the corners and its painted over so its near invisible.

Im not wasting my time with crappy wireless... Id rather do without!

Hmm" Switch" hey" where can i get one of those bad boys from? I already have 30mtrs of cat5 cable .. if i buy a switch I could plug both Pcs and my lads Xbox which will leave me with the belkin airless adaptor for a Laptop maybe "bound to get one for Christmas

" sounds like a plan
Switch cant find them in the shop,
Again Thank you

thepeganator · 13 Dec 2009 at 12:38

Try the MM for a cheap one?

FatRakoon · 13 Dec 2009 at 13:37

Davy644 said:
Hmm" Switch" hey" where can i get one of those bad boys from? I already have 30mtrs of cat5 cable .. if i buy a switch I could plug both Pcs and my lads Xbox which will leave me with the belkin airless adaptor for a Laptop maybe "bound to get one for Christmas" sounds like a plan
Switch cant find them in the shop,
Again Thank you

Oh no, I have just given a fairly good one away... Always the case.

Switches are indeed getting harder to find, but you can get routers that have a switch built-in.

If you are interested, I have just bought a Linksys router ( NOT GOT A MODEM IN - ITS JUST THE ROUTER BIT ) thats wireless and has a 4-port switch and its brand new, but the guy I bought it from did not provide me with a power adapter.
Make me an offer on that if you want?

Its a 4-port switch as I said and to use it as a switch and WAP its brilliant and fairly good range too... Much better than teh Netgear junk Im uising thats for sure.

I bought it thinking it was a full modem router when its not.

But, almost any router will give you a 4-port switch Im sure.

The main thing about a switch as in a proper switch, is that there is no configurating of the thing, you just have a load of Ethernet ports and it does not matter what you plug into them, they just work and get devices talking.

Davy644 · 13 Dec 2009 at 15:28

Am thinking

Say the one you have is it this by chance

FatRakoon · 13 Dec 2009 at 15:43

Yeah, its like that one yes.
Iassume the pic is a bit editted cos mine has a couple of ariels sticking out the back, but otherwise its like that.

I got a few Routers, but that one is brand new but minus the adapter and driver CD

( Why the hell do you need a driver Cd for a router? )
( and why the hell do companies put WINDOWS 7 COMPATIBLE onto the box? )

tolien · 13 Dec 2009 at 15:47

FatRakoon said:
Switches are indeed getting harder to find, but you can get routers that have a switch built-in.

No they aren't. It looks like the shop only has one for some odd reason but they're not going anywhere.

FatRakoon said:
( Why the hell do you need a driver Cd for a router? )

You don't. It's a configuration utility, manual, all that crud.

( and why the hell do companies put WINDOWS 7 COMPATIBLE onto the box? )

Because you'll always get someone asking if it works. Look on here for no shortage of examples.

FatRakoon · 13 Dec 2009 at 15:53

I just been looking on some auction site and I entered ETHERNET SWITCH and I found a fair few on there mate... None are Wireless of course, and since you only want a couple of systems connected, then most modem routers have 4 ports, so, it might not be worth bothering with a switch at all.

What do you have ( PCs and your Modem/Router )

You have 4 in total yes?

PC1 / PC2 / XBOX / LapTop

So, what modem / Router do you have now?

FatRakoon · 13 Dec 2009 at 15:56

tolien said:
No they aren't. It looks like the shop only has one for some odd reason but they're not going anywhere.

But less and less places do sell them.

tolien said:
You don't. It's a configuration utility, manual, all that crud.

I know that, thats why its in quotes.
The thing is that the configuration utility is built into all routers, so why have it on CD too?

tolien said:
Because you'll always get someone asking if it works. Look on here for no shortage of examples.

yeah, ok, agreed.

tolien · 13 Dec 2009 at 16:15

I don't think anyone ever has done a "wireless switch" - the closest to that is something like a WRT54GL that can be configured for the wireless to work either as an AP or a client.

FatRakoon said:
But less and less places do sell them.

I dunno, I just went round a bunch of e-tailers and they all have a big selection of switches. I've just posted a thread FAO the shop folks asking why (if they can say, obviously) they don't seem to be doing any.
I guess most people either have old routers kicking about and/or get a router with 4 ports for nothing with the big 5 ISPs anyway.

The thing is that the configuration utility is built into all routers, so why have it on CD too?

Same reason as "Windows 7 compatibility" I expect, people don't get it.

OP, if you decide to use cable rather than wireless, you can probably expect to have a lot less hassle. Wireless adapters seem to be a pain point when it comes to getting working drivers

FatRakoon · 13 Dec 2009 at 17:25

I got a WRT54GL
I got a number of routers that can also do both.

I got router ( Thats a great AP ) and a modem router that both do 1000Mb LAN and 108Mb Wireless and I really should use these but my switch is only a 10/100.

I could use them for say my main PC along with 2 others and ad the switch to the 4ht port I suppose, to have a partial 1000 LAN, but Im going to splash out on a proper device sometime in the new year that will let me have it all in one. Just not found anythign that does it at a price thats under that of a new car....

Although Netgear do a nice 10/100/1000 8port switch and I could simply add my current netgear router to that to give me a couple of extra ports with the wireless and then I can stick with the current modem here?

I dont know, thats still 3 devices... I want just the one!

Davy644 · 14 Dec 2009 at 01:35

FatRakoon said:
I just been looking on some auction site and I entered ETHERNET SWITCH and I found a fair few on there mate... None are Wireless of course, and since you only want a couple of systems connected, then most modem routers have 4 ports, so, it might not be worth bothering with a switch at all.

Hi matey yes i had good look on there and would prefer it to be wired as my own Belkin devise is wireless and has very good range[/QUOTE]

You have 4 in total yes?
As follows .. PC1 Master Pc downstairs PC2/PC3/Xbox and maybe a laptop in the near future all up the stairs,The easiest way to do it is to move my router upstairs and connect All from up there as you say it has 4 sockets or switches at the back however i rather like to have it next to my PC

So, what modem / Router do you have now?Its a Belkin N1 which stays downstairs along side my Master Pc so i can see what my Daughters upto

[/QUOTE] sorry had to rush this just on my way out to work Cheers

FatRakoon · 14 Dec 2009 at 02:49

Ok, the position of the router is fine. Thats how I have it...

Your wireless signal is strong enough you say, so thats great, lets accept that as that.

So, yes, a switch would seem to be your best bet then and have a single ethernet cable going up from the router to it.

The one thing that I have found ( I may be wrong ) but if you say used a routrer ( one without a modem ) and connected that to the modem downstairs, you will be able to get the PCs connected to it, onto the internet just fine, but you wont be able to network the PCs... You can however in most routers, only use the 4 ports instead of the one on its own... You can certainly do this with the WRT54GL and use that as just a switch and a WAP ( I think you may need to fiddle with the wireless settings however to set it up, and this will give you in efect 2 wirelesses..wireless's ... Wireless things

Hell, just for kicks, and in a quest to get a decent range, I have thrown all my wireless routers together and as long as you alter them so they dont conflict, I think that there is no reason why you cannot add a whole load of them... Why I dont know but who cares its fun.

But Im digressing here...

A switch wont require any form of setting up ( none that I have had have anyway ) so just get an ethernet cable from your router to the switch and have the other stuff connected to that, with any wireless options talking back to the belkin.

Its a straight forward job and once you do realise just how superior WIRED is, you will never want to go back... As much fun Wireless is, its just too crappy to be taken seriously.

Its getting there however... 108Mb Wireless is pretty bloody good, but its still not good enough.

ReeVo.uK · 15 Dec 2009 at 00:30

The advantage of PCI is the speed. PCI is far faster than USB.
The main advantage of USB is the universal compatibility, the convenience of not have to open up your case. And that USB's can be positioned around the PC for maximum range coverage and can also be interchangable between computers easily.

However, I would personally, and have gone with a PCI wireless card. It is easily fittable, requires no drivers and comes with an arial which can be positioned on your desk.

FatRakoon · 15 Dec 2009 at 01:04

ReeVo.uK said:
However, I would personally, and have gone with a PCI wireless card. It is easily fittable, requires no drivers and comes with an arial which can be positioned on your desk.

I agree on the fact that a PCI option is the better option, but to say it requires no drivers is totally incorrect.

Some do, some dont, just the same with many devices USB or PCI.

Similarly with the arial. Some came be mountable in other places and some stick out of the back of the PC.

Dont base your answers on that one card that you might have because there are many others.

tolien · 15 Dec 2009 at 15:15

They all require drivers irrespective of whether they're USB or PCI. The question's whether they're bundled with your OS or not and that's something specific to a card.

The only option that won't need drivers (for the device) is ethernet.

FatRakoon · 15 Dec 2009 at 22:55

tolien said:
They all require drivers irrespective of whether they're USB or PCI. The question's whether they're bundled with your OS or not and that's something specific to a card.

Oh thats a little picky, you know what I mean... They dont need any EXTRA drivers, but yes you are correct, everything needs some form of driver.

tolien said:
The only option that won't need drivers (for the device) is ethernet.

Now you are just either lying, or that is somehow a trick question???