Wi-fi set-up for student house - what's needed?

[TheVoice]

Hi guys, hope you can help me out a bit here with one step of the planning for our house next year. we're going to need a wi-fi set-up so we can all have internet access - it seems like the easiest solution and everyone, except myself, already has wi-fi in some shape or form, so it makes sense.

The problem I'm having, is figuring out exactly what hardware to go for. I know we need a router, but there's pretty-much where my knowledge stops; I've got very little experience with wireless networks.

My main concerns here are security and speed. Security is the main one because we'll all be sending sensitive information etc through it. Been reading the sticky and it helped a lot so I think I know what to look for, but is wi-fi still going to be fully safe for this?

Also, I'm hoping to start online gaming again once everything's going, how suitable is wi-fi going to be for this, and should I be looking at anything specific? The Netgear website seems to think that their Rangemax routers are best for gaming, but that's just as likely to be a marketing ploy. We might also add an Xbox 360 into the mix at one point.

Additionally, Macs won't have a problem with any of this, will they? 2 of the 4 people will be using Macs (2 PowerBooks, 1 Intel iMac). Now it's always been my understanding that wi-fi was designed to be cross-compatible as the protocols etc should be the same, but apprently certain wi-fi setups are being sold with "Not Mac compatible" stickers on them, which has confused me a bit.

I'm inclined to stick with Netgear for the hardware because it's a brand I know and am familiar with, but I'll happily consider others.

As you can see, I'm a bit confused as to all of this. I'd assume everything can be sorted with a single wi-fi router like a Netgear DG834GT or something, but I'm not sure. I'd also need a wi-fi card for my PC.

Oh, one other thing - any benefits/disadvantages to Cable vs ADSL? I've got no experience with Cable internet so a little advice there would be great too.

Thanks a lot for any help at all.

 

[aaazza]

Hi,

I might be able to help a bit.

1. Main difference between ADSL and cable is the upload speed. With adsl your max upload is only likely to be 15k/sec whereas with ADSL if you get ADSLMax you could get around 48k up. Obviously faster upload is better but you may feel you wouldn't benefit from this.

2. The DG834GT is apparently prone to problems so you might want to strike that off your list.

Don't have wireless myself so not sure what to recommend but I'd go for something that has WPA2 (encryption) and a good reputation for range, something like the netgear rangemax stuff or linksys kit.

I'm sure someone else will be along soon to give you a model recommendation.

EDIT: On a separate note I notice you are organising things for a student house. I would recommend setting up a 'house' bank account. This is where you can all transfer your money for bills etc (Internet, Water, Phone etc) in (online) and get direct debits taken out for your bills. It provides an easy way to pay for things house wise and there is always a record of who has paid and who hasn't. We do it in our house and it has saved a lot of hassle with writing cheques to each other etc.

hth,

aaazza

 

[E1mo]

EDIT: On a separate note I notice you are organising things for a student house. I would recommend setting up a 'house' bank account. This is where you can all transfer your money for bills etc (Internet, Water, Phone etc) in (online) and get direct debits taken out for your bills.

Good advice, get it sorted out early on in the year, its been a life saver in our house!

On a more technical note, your Apple computers won't have a problem connecting to any 11g certified wireless gear. We run a mixed PC/Apple wireless network in our house without issue.

I would go with Blueyonder 10Mbit phone and internet service, good price and gives everyone free evening and weekend calls and unlimited downloads - I can't stress how good this is for reducing the number of arguments over bills in a student house

Blueyonder will provide you with a Motorola Cable Modem. To share this either wirelessly or via wired you need something that is commonly sold as a 'Broadband Router' or 'Cable Router' which basically has a WAN port that you attach the provided Cable Moden to use an ethernet cable. We have the Linksys WRT54G and its a great bit of kit, highly recommended. These have gone up in price now, so the Linksys WRT54GC looks like a good buy too. To be honest anything your comfortable will do the trick as long as its the right category of router.

 

[TheVoice]

Thanks a lot guys, that helps a lot.

Will certainly take the bank account idea into serious consideration; been wondering how we'd sort out bills and expenses, and that sounds like a great way of doing that.

Still have to actually find a house (getting quite stressed about it now, not long left to find one), but once we know where we're living, I'll start figuring out for sure what connection and network stuff we'll go with.

Thanks again.