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Questions about proposed wireless setup?

S

Salvador

Diamond Member
Hi,

I've been reading over Practically Networked's site and these are the questions that I still have:

I'm looking at ordering the SMC7004AWBR wireless router and a Orinoco gold or silver wireless PCMCIA card. I plan to run both wireless and wired on my network and I may add more than one wireless setup later.

If this wireless setup is for a desktop, do you think that I'm better off getting the USB device instead of one of the wireless NIC's with a PCI adapter? Also, does it matter what PCI card adapter I go with if I do go that route? Will a PCI adapter affect performance?

I will be replacing a Netgear RT314 router that has been working flawlessly for me. Does anyone know if I will get as good or better wired performance from the SMC router?

Does anyone have any better or less expensive, but just as good recommendations for a wireless setup for me? I'm thinking that this thing is going to cost me in the neighborhood of $300 just to add wireless to my network. I still see it being just as cheap as adding a wireless access point, that's why I'm looking at the router.

Last question. I don't see many people selling the Orinoco cards separately other than Fleabay. If I were to buy from someone on Fleabay, would this be a safe bet? The cards appear to be running $10-$20 cheaper over there. I just don't want to get ripped off.

Sorry for all of the questions here. Please respond to what you want to, if any. 😉

Many Thanks!

Sal

 
The last time I checked outpost.com was selling them at a decent price. I have both netgear and linksys PCMCIA's as well along with a cisco wireless config on my network so just let me know if you need any advice. I have used both the USB and the PCI solutions. There are different variations on PCI wireless NIC's. Some of them are just a place to stick a wireless pcmcia card and others are dedicated wireless PCI cards with an antenna. The latter is the most reliable but more expensive.
 
I've got the SMC and other than a few hiccups at the start (which were my fault, too) it's been working great. I use the SMC wireless cards too for my laptops, again with no hitch. Only weird thing: occasionally the systray icon assures me that I'm not linked when, in fact, I am. 😕

One question, though: if you're thinking of linking up a desktop, why wireless? I'm assuming that you're desktop is not being moved around much, so couldn't you co-locate your SMC and the desktop? That's the layout that I've used for my home...I roam around with my laptop and the desktop stays put keeping the Barricade company.

The USB should be superior for throughput to the router, if that matters, if you're sharing with another cabled machine. Otherwise I'm not sure your performance will be affected.
 
The reason why I want to go wireless is that I have limited runs of CAT5 in the house and would like to connect them to the internet. One of the connections would be very difficult to setup. It would be a major PITA to run cable to that location in the house. For another setup, I have a main computer in the office where the cable modem is and then I ran CAT5 over to another room where my "fun" computers are. I only have room for one run of CAT 5 in there, so if I want more than one pc hooked up at one time, I have to either run more cable which would be unsightly, difficult to run or both.

I figured that probably the best solution was to run a combination wired and wireless setup, so I didn't have to tear the house apart wiring CAT5 or pay some electrician to do it for me. Even if I do it myself, I'm looking at a spool of 1000 ft CAT 5 plus more connectors and that will probably get me 1/3 of the way to a wireless setup. I can also sell my Netgear router and make back a few bucks.

Also, I do have a laptop that I'd like to make more use of, but I don't have a NIC for it (just a modem). I figure that a wired NIC card will cost me about half as much as a wireless NIC and why waste the money on a wired NIC when I could go wireless with it? There again, I'm running into the problem of having enough runs of CAT5. I'd love to have about 4 runs of CAT 5 going into this room and I only have 1.

If you have a better idea than what I propose, I'd love to hear it?

Sal
 
Howdy Sal!

<< I'd love to have about 4 runs of CAT 5 going into this room and I only have 1. >>

A low end switch or hub tying those 4 computers back through that existing run of CAT5 would be WAY cheaper than wireless setups for each of them.
Where you have isolated machines (or machines that do a LOT of roaming), wireless is the way to go!

g/l
TallGeese

P.S. Don't forget get to score a BBA for your new Dreamcast and hook it to your network so it can go online. I'm ready to smoke you in Daytona, TDLM, or any other online capable racer, my man! 😛
 
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