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Wireless Dilemma

lykaon78

Golden Member
I had RoadRunner installed on Thursday and I've sucessfully got my wireless network running with a Linksys router. My desktop is wired to the router and my wife's laptop has a PC card connection running wireless to the router.

Because of DISH network running to the TV in my computer room. The road runner had to install in an adjacent room.

So my compuiter is sitting in the adajacent room wired to the router and I want to move it back over to my computer room.

As I see it I have two options:

Option 1: Continue to hardwire my desktop to the router using roughly 75 feet of cable running along baseboards to connect my router to my desktop in its proper location.

Option 2: Buy a PCI wireless card for my desktop and connect that way.

Questions:
Which options is better?
For option 1 will I get speed loss because of the distance between my router and the desktop?
For option 2 will I get speed loss going from wired to wireless and will that be greater than any speed loss as compared to option 1?
The installation process for the router required a computer to be wired into the router. Option 2 would have no computer actually wired to the router. Does this present any problems?


Thanks for the help.


 
1) You won't see any degradation of speed or quality.

2)Due to the answer to 1), Yes.

3) Any time you wanted to access the routers control panel you can simply plug the laptop directly into the router.

If all you're doing is surfing the web and simple stuff like that wireless is probably your best way to go, if you're gaming, downloading or doing some other internet intensive thing a wired connection would suit you better.
 
cat5e can be up to 100m i believe.

you should go with the wireless option. running 75 ft of cable in the house is a pain in the ass. you won't notice a speed difference if you're surfing the net, unless you're still on the older 802.11b network.

don't bother with a PCI card, just get a USB version. i've experienced compatibility issues using PCI before. is your wireless router 802.11b or 802.11g?
 
I'm running 802.11g.

I only have USB 1.1 running on this ancient machine. Because of that for the cost the PCI option is easiest.
 
Originally posted by: lykaon78
I'm running 802.11g.

I only have USB 1.1 running on this ancient machine. Because of that for the cost the PCI option is easiest.

802.11g $10 AR

USB 2.0 is backwards compatible.

USB 1.1 has a max transfer speed of 12Mbps. Obviously if you get a PCI adapter, the BUS speed will be much faster than 12Mbps. However, you're using a wireless 802.11G network which has a theoretical speed of 54Mbps. In the real world, you're only going to see 12-18Mbps. Your internet is the limiting factor.
 
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