Thinking about a network. Should I go wireless?

[buckmasterson]

I have a shop in my garage where my PC is, and my wife's is in the living room. The garage is attached to the house putting the PC's are about 70 feet apart. I'm in line to purchase a Microsoft Router L21-00001 and and two Edimax 802.11b adapters from Newegg. Should I pull the trigger, or should I go with a cable system instead?

 

[SearchMaster]

I say go for it! I recently installed my two kids' computers in an area where I didn't feel like running wires, so I went with a very cheap 802.11b setup. I have their educational games (20+) mounted as ISOs on a server, and each game has an icon on the desktop with a simple .vbs that mounts the ISO and runs the game. It works very well, and the computer doesn't know the difference since most of the games only require a 4x CD-ROM anyway, and they don't have to keep up with a stack of CDs. I had some problems with microwave and 2.4GHz phone interference for a little while, but once I switched off the default channel for the router, I haven't had any more issues. People may recommend that you go the 802.11g route for greater speed, but if you are only looking for internet sharing, printer sharing, and small file sharing, 'b' should be just fine.

 

[Mingon]

Cables better + more secure, 70ft + walls is pushing it slighty. I have had my wireless router for about 3yrs now and whilst its great transfering large file is painful. What do you intend to use it for? just internet access?

 

[Imdmn04]

If you want large file transfers with a wireless solution, you might wanna get a super G router along with the approiate pci wireless adapters. Theoretically they can go 108Mbps, acutal use should be a lot lower, however this is still a lot faster than 802.11b solutions where the theoretical max is only 11Mbps.

 

[buckmasterson]

Thanks folks! I am planning on using it for a DSL connection. You think it will be too slow? This is my first network set up and to say the least, I don't know what I'm doing...

 

[SearchMaster]

It's hard to say. My neighbor across the street shares our Internet connection via wireless, and she's 100+ feet away, but there are only three walls between her computer and our router. Our DSL is 1.5Mbps (1.2 effective), and she gets almost 1.1. There are certainly advantages to running wires, and times when it is essential, but if you can get away with a wireless connection it is easier. If you can find a friend with a wireless router who might let you borrow it to see how wireless will work in your environment, it might be good.