Moving old machine to man-cave

[Zardnok]

I built my mom a new machine and her old Dell (P3-1G Ram) is being retired to the shop/man cave behind her house where it will be used to mostly check Nascar forums or maybe stream music. Mom has a Linksys Wireless G w/ speedboost router inside her bedroom at the front left side of the house about 50 yards away from the shop. I can move the router against a window if needed.

I have little to no experience with wireless, but was thinking a PCI wireless NIC would be the easiest way to get net out in the shop. I am unsure if there will be a problem with the distance. The wireless router could be near the window inside and the computer could be near the window out in the shop. I could even build some sort of directional antenna from cardboard and foil to "aim" at the house and hopefully concentrate the signal. Am I totally off base here?

Mom's router has the speedboost feature, but is it worth the extra expense ($20 vs $60) to buy a PCI card that also has speedboost on it or is a regular Linksys Wireless G card fine for an old P3 machine? Is there any signal strength advantage to the speedboost models or is it merely the speed advantage?

Models I have been looking at are the Linksys WMP54G and the WMP54GS. Thanks in advance for the help.

 

[keeleysam]

There is no signal advantage, just buy this card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16833315041

You can place the antenna at the window, and the router at the other window. For increased signal strength, add two of these:
http://www.freeantennas.com/pr...s/template2/index.html

 

[JackMDS]

Quote:"Is Linksys Wireless G- Speedboost worth".

Absolutely Not. :thumbsdown:

 

[ScottMac]

Only if you have the entire 802.11 B/G spectrum all to yourself, totally and completely, with no other hosts, and no other devices (like phones and microwaves) within range.

 

[Zardnok]

Originally posted by: keeleysam
There is no signal advantage, just buy this card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16833315041

You can place the antenna at the window, and the router at the other window. For increased signal strength, add two of these:
http://www.freeantennas.com/pr...s/template2/index.html

Thank you ever so much. I sent mom a link to that card so the next time I go visit I will install it for her.

I sort of figured the whole "Speedboost" thing to be a marketing ploy, but wanted to ask advice here from the experts before I told mom to spend $60.

My sister across the street also has a Wireless G router and there are a number of wireless phones throughout both houses that are used as intercoms, so I am sure we are sharing the spectrum with any number of devices.

Again, thanks ever so much to each of you for replying and sending me in the right direction.