Looking to go wireless

[Glirk Dient]

I just moved into a new apartment and we could only activate one room. This means we have to get a wireless router and also need adapters for the computers. I have never really used wireless so that said what is a good router that would work at a range of 50 feet and still be fast and reliable and what adapter do I need?

 

[Tyguy]

Just get a linksys with the range extended, theres a bunch of different kinds...you get what you pay for

 

[Asus]

As long as nothing blocks or interferes with the signal, something like this would work well. Otherwise you would want a more powerful model (N spec? and matching adapters). The modem just plugs into the router for all to share. Encrypt the signal at least. Can also disable broadcasting to discourage and restrict MAC addresses (allow just yours) if you want to keep others off your connection.

Desktop adapter
Laptop (PC card) adapter
Flexible but poor USB adapters

 

[No Limit]

Go with linksys.

But wireless sucks when playing games, be prepared for lag and other problems if you will be using this for any kind of gaming.

 

[Boogaloo]

I am using a netgear router at tht seems ok. I do not game om my 233MHz/128MB RAM [IBM thinkpad 390E] laptop so that isnt a worry.

 

[lePobz]

I've got that D-Link GamerLounge hub ... it's perfect and has been for 2 years, has gamefuel too which reduces pings quite considerably.

http://games.dlink.com/products/?pid=370

Look at the amount of positive reviews ... can't argue with those ... and i'd personally give it 10/10 too. It's simple, secure, fast and reliable. Haven't had a single problem with it.

 

[Asus]

Wireless stuff is nice, but honestly no matter what solution you have, you'll still get lag and interference and random disconnects. Unless you have a good reason to go wireless save for it being "neat", then there's really no point. If you don't mind putting wires on the floor (you can always run them along the baseboards, etc.) then it's a much cheaper and faster solution.

I agree.

You might not get many disconnects and you may not notice the difference in latency with wireless but I always prefer wired for everything except laptops I want to move around. Had wires on the floor going around the wall at my previous apartment. The PS3 and Wii at my place are both wired as well.

 

[Sanada]

I agree too.

I prefer to have stuff that's stationary all the time wired as much as possible. If you have any desktops then I'd say it'd be best to connect them using stadard ethernet in the same room or the next. Wireless is great for laptops because of the mobility so it's an obvious choice for them. There's also the security risk (although minimal) and reliability issues of Wireless.

As for which router I don't know. There're so many of them now. The simple factor is higher price, better. Look for one that has long range reception like this one for example if you want performance. I think more antenna equals better? Some have internal antenna, though. There are a lot of cheap ones available now but don't expect great connections from any of them.

 

[Eejit]

A friend of mine has tried LAN over the mains and says it worked surprisingly well, much better than wireless for gaming.
http://www.devolo.co.uk/uk_EN/produkte/dLAN/dlan200avsk.html type stuff.

 

[No Limit]

I've got that D-Link GamerLounge hub ... it's perfect and has been for 2 years, has gamefuel too which reduces pings quite considerably.

http://games.dlink.com/products/?pid=370

Look at the amount of positive reviews ... can't argue with those ... and i'd personally give it 10/10 too. It's simple, secure, fast and reliable. Haven't had a single problem with it.

I have never had good experiance with a d-link product. Just want to throw that out there.

 

[lePobz]

I have never had good experiance with a d-link product. Just want to throw that out there.

... but you've not used this router, so what's that worth?

I can personally swear by this router, and it has countless perfect reviews by all the techies. It was reccommended by THG which is why I bought it.

Maybe the low-end D-link hardware is iffy, but the high end stuff is top notch.

 

[Qonfused]

... but you've not used this router, so what's that worth?

After buying several products by the same manufacturer and having them all suck, it kinda makes sense to assume the next one will be shit as well.

 

[lePobz]

After buying several products by the same manufacturer and having them all suck, it kinda makes sense to assume the next one will be shit as well.

OK, so when I say this ones perfect and mention that a lot of highly respected reviewers have rated it 10/10, im actually talking out of my arse and deserve to be ignored.

Cheers

 

[Dynasty]

Linksys or Belkin.

 

[No Limit]

OK, so when I say this ones perfect and mention that a lot of highly respected reviewers have rated it 10/10, im actually talking out of my arse and deserve to be ignored.

Cheers

Not at all.

But if every D-link product you ever owned crapped out on you just as the warranty ended maybe you would understand how I feel. I don't know, this might be an exception and it might be a good router. But if you are going to sink that much money in to it personally I think going with a reputable company would be the smarter choice. Plus using idiotic marketing terms like GameFuel really leaves a bad taste in my mouth, its a fancy way of saying QoS for newbies. This is ok if you are willing to pay $100 more for something because you don't feel like learning how to configure QoS properly on your network (a functionality most $50 linksys routers have), but keep in mind Linksys also has these gaming routers and for around the same price. Hell, for a few more dollars than that d-link "gamefuel" router you can get it using 802.11n which will quadruple your performance:

http://www.buy.com/prod/linksys-wrt330n-wireless-n-gigabit-gaming-router/q/loc/101/203973222.html

 

[Asus]

But one persons experience with several products from one brand is not accurate of a product's failure rate. Way too small sample size. I wouldn't blame you for not buying them again though. Would need to see what MANY users say about the product (not something you'll get from a forum but more like user reviews on newegg where they can change their review years later). Otherwise it very well may be that the employees from where you buy your stuff kick boxes for fun...
I do prefer linksys over Dlink but their stuff is too expensive for the quality increase they provide IMO. Granted they are owned by Cisco but Linksys branded products are no where near the quality of their own stuff.

 

[No Limit]

But one persons experience with several products from one brand is not accurate of a product's failure rate. Way too small sample size. I wouldn't blame you for not buying them again though. Would need to see what MANY users say about the product (not something you'll get from a forum). Otherwise it very well may be that the employees from where you buy your stuff kick boxes for fun...
I do prefer linksys over Dlink but their stuff is too expensive for the quality increase they provide IMO. Granted they are owned by Cisco but Linksys branded products are no where near the quality of their own stuff.

Totally agree with you, so:

http://reviews.cnet.com/routers/d-link-di-624/4852-3319_7-20817312.html?tag=uoall

The reviews are similar for other home routers from d-link, except for the DGL-4300 as lePobz said:

http://reviews.cnet.com/routers/d-link-dgl-4300/4852-3319_7-31229856.html?tag=uoall

It does get decent reviews, but you have to understand how anti d-link I am from these terrible experiances. And because of that I would still recommend a linksys router over this, you do not want to have a $150 router crap out on you a year down the road. There is no excuse for D-link's past in ****ing over the customer. Many of the products they released should never have been released and for that reason I will personally never trust them again and you will probably hear this same rant from me every time a d-link product is mentioned.

 

[Glirk Dient]

Unfortunately my dad ended up taking me to target and we bought a linksys WRTG45. For now I am using a cord and it's alright, but our apartment only offers sattelite so I don't think I will have to worry about a nice router as our connection sucks no matter what we do. Thanks for the help all, if we get a chance to upgrade I will definately go with something better.