Wifi Optione

[JAS21]

Guys, I did ask about this in August..however I not need to get it sorted so please advise again

I have an HP CQ45-102TU laptop and it has 4965AGN wireless capabilities. I am running Amit Aghara Vista Extreem (whatever that is). My ISP is TOT, I have no choice.

I want to go wireless. I see the Belkin 2740B and the Linskys WAG160N. Price is secondary to the thing working and my ability to set it up.

I want to be able to use my laptop anywhere in the house and hard wire a desktop, hopefully both of these can be used at the same time

Any recommendations/advise please, I also read about a Billion7300N

[Fore Man]

In my home office located on the first floor of our home, I connected my incoming ADSL line (downstream of a DSL splitter) into my ADSL modem. From there, I ran a short Cat-5 jumper over to an ethernet switch--I used an old one laying in a box and it worked perfectly. From the switch I run another short jumper to a (new, not old) Apple Airport Express router which I set up as a base station for wireless connectivity. That networks to three other AE routers I have located around the house so I can access them for Internet conectivity or stream music from iTunes on my office PC. Those other 3 AE are also the new version (802.11n capable) and are set up as range extension routers. From the ethernet switch I also pipe wired connectivity to my daughter's room (we laid the cable during home construction) as well as a second cable sent back to my office desktop and used as a back-up capability (I normally use only the WiFi signal in my office). If you need additional wired drops you simply get a bigger ethernet switch. We use an 8-port version but only populate the first four jacks.

In this manner, I can surf the Web almost anywhere in our large 2-story, concrete-walled home as well as out on the patio. We can also stream iTunes music to four sets of powered speakers or amplifiers simulaneously. The new AE is a powerful router and if your PC is set up with a new 802.11n (or draft n) card, the whole wireless network runs 5-times faster than 802.11b/g and twice as far. By adding another AE router as a range extension device in one remote area of the home, I could probably have 100% coverage...but in our case it's not needed. The new AE router has two valuable features: it allows you to simultaneously stream music to multiple AEs AND it can also use a powered set of speakers connected to the host PC (the older AEs can't do this). We connect a Bose Companion 5 system and it is awesome. In the adjoining library, we have a small bookshelf stereo set that is connected to a remote AE and this allows me to hear the same music in both rooms without having to run wires through walls or over ceilings. When we have parties, I stream the same music from iTunes out to the pool sala as well to another stereo system located in an adjacent first floor wing--the quadraphonic stereo effect from these four sound sources is wonderful; everyone feels surrounded by the omnipresent music.

We had visitors from England a few months ago and the chap was able to use his own laptop and access our network easily. I gave him the network pass key and he was off and running. A pool engineer came over to do some work in our place and could use his laptop easily to communicate with his home office to grab some images he wanted to show us.

I run XP Pro with these AE boxes and everything works great. If you use Mac, it would even easier...just plug 'em in. If you have no experience with AE, it is still easier to get up and running than a conventional wireless router. If you buy these from an Apple retailer, they can also come out to your home and get it all running if you are not experienced in setting up a complicated network. Good luck.

Edited December 18, 2008 by Fore Man

[chang35baht]

John45, I just bought a Buffalo WBMR-G45 for 1900 Baht. 4 LAN ports if required(probably 1 will suffice) Wiring couldn`t be simpler and after asking for a bit of advice on the forum, installing turned out to be really simple also. I wanted exactly the same as you, hardwire the kids desktop and roam around the house wirelessly. No swapping cables everytime I wanted to go online.

Read the topic I posted a couple of days back, all the info you need should be on there. It got me going and I`m a real novice.

Foreman sounds like he has a great system set up in his house, maybe a bit over the top for your requirements.

Good luck,

Chang35baht.