Wireless Networking... help! - Page 2

nffc · 30-03-2005, 17:17

Any hints?

re: wireless range. It will be overstated but the range of 54g is over what you should need anyway.

What is more important is siting of the router, also the sitings of the individual PCs most notably where the antennae of the adaptors are.

Water, metal, microwaves, cordless phones, will also degrade your signal.

The Belkin PCI adaptors are fine apart from the aerials. They basically screw straight onto the card and that's where all the wiring for your PC is. I got a new antenna on a wire and moved it miles away from the pc and the coverage is miles better, almost no downtime now.

The usb ones are quite good as they come with extension stands so you can put the adapter miles away from the pc.

As for siting of the actual router obviously you're going to need to cable it away from your STB or SACM so it's governed by that. You could get ntl to set you up a SACM or move the existing one if you're getting signal issues. Basically the same restrictions apply: keep it central to your PCs, avoiding metal, water, microwaves, etc etc.

One final note... the security measures are there for a reason and that reason is to stop unauthorised access to the lan. Use them. Particularly useful are:
- MAC address filtering... only lets "allowed" addresses on the lan but these can be cloned. It's a decent start though.
- WEP encryption... encrypts your data so it can't be read by "snoopers"
- Don't broadcast the SSID [change it]
- Change the router's default password

anything i've missed?

goblin · 30-03-2005, 20:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by nffc

Any hints?

re: wireless range. It will be overstated but the range of 54g is over what you should need anyway.

That's good news then.

Quote:

What is more important is siting of the router, also the sitings of the individual PCs most notably where the antennae of the adaptors are.

Water, metal, microwaves, cordless phones, will also degrade your signal.

I must admit this is something that I hadn't considered. I have my desktop in a corner, opposite to where the broadband cable enters the room. Within this corner I have a Panasonic DECT phone. The only place to put the router itself would be ontop of the computer sub-woofer. Even though it is reportadly "shielded", I take it this may cause a problem?

Quote:

The Belkin PCI adaptors are fine apart from the aerials. They basically screw straight onto the card and that's where all the wiring for your PC is. I got a new antenna on a wire and moved it miles away from the pc and the coverage is miles better, almost no downtime now. The usb ones are quite good as they come with extension stands so you can put the adapter miles away from the pc.

Is this antenae a generic product or is it specific to Belkin?

Quote:

One final note... the security measures are there for a reason and that reason is to stop unauthorised access to the lan. Use them. Particularly useful are:
- MAC address filtering... only lets "allowed" addresses on the lan but these can be cloned. It's a decent start though.
- WEP encryption... encrypts your data so it can't be read by "snoopers"
- Don't broadcast the SSID [change it]
- Change the router's default password

Very useful advice.

Quote:

anything i've missed?

Errm don't think so.

SMHarman · 30-03-2005, 22:34

The linksys BEFSR81 does QoS, but that is wired only so you would need to set up a WAP in addition to the router. This cost about 50.

My wireless router had virtually 0 range sat on top of the PC next to a metal filing cabinet. Great range now I have 3m CAT5 cables and it is on the top shelf nearby (ooher)

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/article.php?a=12

nffc · 30-03-2005, 23:58

re: Belkin antennas... the one that comes with the card is wack and i had to spend about 10-15 smackers on a new one. HTH.

goblin · 01-04-2005, 18:15

Well I bit the bullett as they say and today purchased the following items:

1 Linksys WUSB54GP 54Mbps Wireless-G Portable USB Adapter
1 Linksys WRT54G 54Mbps Wireless-G Broadband Router

They should be delivered by 12PM tomorrow... hopefully!

I was going to go for the D-Link range of products due to their small form factor, but in the end thought that what with the number of happy linksys users around here, I really should join this happy band

So is there anything I should do to prepare my system for installing the above hardware on my desktop. Other than implementing whatever security protocols that are included as soon as possible?

Thanks.