What wireless router to get?

[Sephroth57]

I just got cable internet at my house yesterday (finally!) and its cool as hell. Its hooked up just to my computer right now but I need to hook it up to my sisters computer too. whats a good brand thats not too expensive for this type of setup? also will putting her computer on my cable with a router, make us networked also? or is that a different thing altogether?

[screaming]

whats a good brand thats not too expensive for this type of setup?

  Linksys is probably the de-facto in home networking. If you definitely want wireless, plan on spending about $50 more for the router and about $75 more for each connected computer, for the wireless network card.

  Wired is so much cheaper, faster, and less complicated to set up that wireless.  If you can go the wired route, I'd recommend it.  Wireless technology is still emerging and being developed, so you'll have to keep up on it as it approaches it's stable horizon in order to keep yourself from being 'hacked'.

  That said, if you want wireless, I recommend a Linksys WRT54G. It's a wireless router/gateway that plugs into your Cable/DSL modem and all your computers connect to it.  It even has 4 100baseT wired connections for when you need them.  This is what I have and it works great!

  For wireless network cards, sticking with the same name brand as your "access point", in this case your router/gateway, is always a good idea.  Go for a Linksys WMP54G (PCI) or a Linksys WUSB54G (USB) for your desktop computers, or the Linksys WUSB54G (USB) or the Linksys WPC54G (PCMCIA) for any notebooks.

  Back about 3 months ago, linux had a problem with my WPC54G on my laptop, so I had to downgrade to the 'b' version (WPC11), but I hear the 'g' version works now.  FYI.

  For a quick comparison of the different wireless standards ('b' vs 'g' vs 'a'), check out this table on Linksys' site.  Here's a decent (somewhat long) overview of wireless technology, if you're interested.

  If you want to go the wired route, get a Linksys BEFSR41 router/gateway.  Any standard ethernet network card will do in your PC.

also will putting her computer on my cable with a router, make us networked also? or is that a different thing altogether?

  No, they're the same thing.  If you're both connected to the same aforementioned router/gateway then you both will be able to see each other on your own private network, even if one is wireless and one is wired (which is cool, and by 'cool' I mean totally sweet).

/Steve

[Sephroth57]

thanks for the info, i found some decent prices looking through pricewatch. gonna go with the "b" type wireless, found a router and PCI card for like 80$ together, not a bad deal. Ill probably get another card soon so put in my arcade machine for ROMs transfer

[arizonacats]

My 2 cents on the topic...

Don't get a Microsoft wireless router (base station as they call it).  I should have gone with my instinct and bought the LinkSys myself, but Circuit City wa having a great sale on the MS brand so I fell for it.  To me, it's been nothing but trouble.  I finally got it all working fine, but it drops signal all the time (a MS USB wireless receiver) from about 15 feet away and I can't get other brands to work much at all.  If I had it all to do over again, I'd stick with LinkSys as I've had good experiences with them before.

[mahuti]

Having been wireless for several years now, I would suggest the following.

ABSOLUTELY get G (mixed) wireless. Linksys makes an excellent router, with great web interface setup. Linksys & netgear also make good cards which are fairly easy to set up.

The reason I say go with G? It only costs about $20 more for the router, and it's about 5 times as fast, the cards aren't much pricier, either. If you are tranferring large files between 2 wireless machines via B, it's gonna be really slow (and if you tranfer a bunch of roms... it's gonna be slow)

ALSO, when you get the linksys router, there is one that is ONLY wireless, and one that has 4 ethernet spots. Get that one, so you can plug machines straight in if you want to.

BTW, I've been using the linksys with a mixed network of Macs, & PCS with win 98, 2000, & XP, wired and wireless and everything runs great. Port mapping is easy to configure too. My mother-in-law bought one, and installed it with little problems as well. It's a good unit.

[maraxle]

Just keep in mind that wireless security sucks.  Do the best you can to lock it down.  Enable WEP, lock it to just your sister's card's MAC address, change your SSID from the default to something non-obvious, and don't broadcast it.  Even then, I can park outside your house and be on your network in 5 minutes, but at least it'll be a little more challenging than how most people configure their WAPs.

[gprime]

Just keep in mind that wireless security sucks.  Do the best you can to lock it down.  Enable WEP, lock it to just your sister's card's MAC address, change your SSID from the default to something non-obvious, and don't broadcast it.  Even then, I can park outside your house and be on your network in 5 minutes, but at least it'll be a little more challenging than how most people configure their WAPs.

LOL I highly doubt that ... come on now ... it's not THAT bad !

Let me tell you a little story about SMC wirless

I had a friend who got an SMC router and a couple of wireless SMC nics because they are super cheap. After a couple of days he started getting disconnected every 5 seconds and had to continuously reboot his router. Thinking that this was just bad luck, I also picked up some SMC stuff. I got an SMC Wireless-G 2.4GHz router and a matching card for the ol' lappy. When it was first set up.. WOW ! I loved it! Fast, I could be anywhere in my entire house and have 100% reception. But then a couple weeks pass and go, and I start to get disconnected every once in a while. Frusterated, I updated my firmware on both the router and my drivers for the card, and still the same problem. Even installed a fresh version of Windows XP. It finally got to the point where it was totally unuseable. I now have the laptop wired to the router again because it just sucks THAT MUCH.

When people say don't buy SMC.. they mean.. DONT BUY SMC. For wireless you absolutely need to get the best brands! I can't stress this enough! Some stores (this is honestly TRUE) don't even stock SMC wireless devices anymore because they get so many returns it is not even funny. Have you ever seen those "free SMC wireless router / NIC with purchase of _______" well it's no coincidence

[Wienerdog]

I would, without a doubt, go with the Netgear router.

Netgear WG411 .11g router (44.99 after rebate):
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00008SCFL/102-3772046-2492111?v=glance&s=electronics&st=electronics&me=ATVPDKIKX0DER

Netgear WG311 .11g card for the computer:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00009YW8B/ref=pd_sxp_elt_l1/102-3772046-2492111

or get them both from Buy.com for $135 ($116 after rebate):
http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=10347706&loc=33129&rp=true

[Edgedamage]

Have been using my D-Link DI-614+ for two months now no problems yet.

[bluGill]

I've met a bunch of people who don't like Linksys, but I don't know if that is just a Ford vs Chevy thing or not.   They work and are cheap.

Personally I like netgear stuff, seems like just a little higher quality, but they might have gotten worse...

Go wireless, when (no longer if...) you get a laptop you will be glad you have it.  

 Not nessicarly your laptop, could be your sisters next computer, or a guest.  The security concerns with wireless are real, but I would solve them by locking down my machines, and putting in a firewall so that anyone can connect to your router (this is called being polite to travelers and neighbors who might have wireless but be in a part of the yard where they can see your equipment better than theirs), but they cannot do much damage.   Good luck setting this up though, it isn't trivial and mistakes won't be noticed until it is too late.

[GGKoul]

My set up is:
Microsoft Wireless G Base Station
2 - Linksys Wireless G PCI cards
1 - Linksys Wireless G Game Adapter (for PS2)
1 - Linksys Wireless B Media Adapter

Everything works get and I had no issues with the Microsoft Base Station and the Linksys cards.  In fact, the MS Base Station even improved the speed of my internet connection.

I went from d/l'ing speeds of @ 200kbs to @ 300-400kbs.  

So I can't complain!
-GGKoul

[StephenH]

Basically it doesn't matter the brand.  Basically, what you want is to look at the standard.

802.11b is 11mb/sec and 802.11g is 54MB/sec.    All are intercompatible.

Linksys, Netgear, 3Com, Apple, D-Link, Orinoco all seem to make good wireless equipment.

[maraxle]

Just keep in mind that wireless security sucks.  Do the best you can to lock it down.  Enable WEP, lock it to just your sister's card's MAC address, change your SSID from the default to something non-obvious, and don't broadcast it.  Even then, I can park outside your house and be on your network in 5 minutes, but at least it'll be a little more challenging than how most people configure their WAPs.

LOL I highly doubt that ... come on now ... it's not THAT bad !

It is that bad.  I've seen it first-hand, though ethically I wouldn't do it myself.  I've also walked around with NetStumbler on a PDA and seen how many unprotected WAPs there are out there.  WEP itself is decent encryption (the 128-bit variety), but the implementation on most WAPs targeted at home users (read: cheap WAPs) is poor.  It uses a 24-bit initialization vector that when randomized is halfway decent.  However, most of the cheap WAPs out there use either a static or sequentially generated initialization vector, which makes cracking the key extremely easy.  

As for locking it down by MAC address, the 802.11x protocol only encrypts the actual traffic, not the header, making that ineffective as well.  All I have to do is capture a few packets of the traffic going by and I have the MAC address you're using.  Now I wait until you turn off your laptop and go to bed (or DoS you), change the MAC on my card (yes, you can do that), and I am on your network.

By the way, this is coming from the perspective of a somewhat paranoid security professional.

[Frostillicus]

FWIW, I just got a Linksys WRT54G at best buy for *drum rolll* 70 bucks.  Well, after 10$ instant savings, 10% off coupon, and a 10$ soon-to-be-in-the-mail rebate

It's pretty nice.  It's pretty light, too. The Rampster helped me out a lot with settings (I'm a network newbie).  Anyone remember when there was a direct correlation between quality and weight? heh.

[Mario]

I picked up a Netgear MR814 router from Amazon for $25 after rebate. It was at my door in 2 days. It's been working great so far. Setup was super-easy. I just plugged it in and it worked.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00006HYKM/qid=1076900021/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1_etk-pc/002-0835018-0785607?v=glance&s=electronics&n=541966

Mario

[scooter]

As for locking it down by MAC address, the 802.11x protocol only encrypts the actual traffic, not the header, making that ineffective as well.  All I have to do is capture a few packets of the traffic going by and I have the MAC address you're using.  Now I wait until you turn off your laptop and go to bed (or DoS you), change the MAC on my card (yes, you can do that), and I am on your network.

By the way, this is coming from the perspective of a somewhat paranoid security professional.

You still need to get my WEP key before you are going to get onto my network.  You will need to sniff for about a day (minimum) on a heavy network before you can "crack" this (assuming 128bit).  "Hello, police?  I'd like to report a suspicious car in front of my house..."    

Of course, *my* key would be changed before you would ever get this.  


-Scooter

[krick]

All I have to say is Linksys is now part of Cisco (the number one name in network hardware) as the result of a recent aquisition.  Cisco has a reputation to uphold.  The won't sell crap or give lousy support because excessive negative press will hurt their stock price.  Buy Linksys.

[maraxle]

You still need to get my WEP key before you are going to get onto my network.  You will need to sniff for about a day (minimum) on a heavy network before you can "crack" this (assuming 128bit).  "Hello, police?  I'd like to report a suspicious car in front of my house..."    

Not so.  Read my post above about the initialization vector.  Your key strength is effectively only 104 bit, since the IV is not randomized properly.  Anyway, WEP can be cracked with AirSnort in 5-10 minutes on a network with fairly heavy traffic.  All you need is about 100mb worth of packets...

[scooter]

I agree that the IV is weak, but you still need ~2000 weak ("interesting") packets.  Read http://airsnort.shmoo.com/faq.html#Q8 from the Airsnort FAQ.

On a sample network of 4 employees, they say 16 days.

[maraxle]

The catch is that they're referring to business-class wireless products rather than the stuff people buy for home (Netgear, Linksys, etc).  The business class ones actually randomize the IV, making the "interesting" packets spread out by a decent amount of time/packets.  However, the cheap home WAPs do not properly randomize the IV.  They often cycle through only a few IVs, or have a predictable randomization scheme.  Some (think $30 and under) even use a fixed IV.  The problem with this is that if they cycle through say 100 different IVs, then every 100 packets, the cycle repeats.  That puts the "interesting" packets very close together.  In the case of the really cheap WAPs, they don't even bother to change the IV so EVERY packet is "interesting".

[JustMichael]

Any "wireless router" cut a nice slot for t-molding?  

[Sprucemoose]

I picked up 2 wireless routers (G) from Buffalo Technologies.  You can set them up to be used as an access point also and with mail-in -rebates (Compusa) they will cost about $100 for both.  Here is a great thread about them.  I highly suggest you check it out.  They explain how to set it up (its pretty easy anyway) and common troubleshooting:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=310930&perpage=20&pagenumber=22

[Sephroth57]

thanks for all the replies guys, I will probably be going with a linksys if i can find a good deal on them