Based on the conversation in my "New X-Box 360 thread, I’m considering buying a wireless router and a wireless receiver for my desktop computer. Can anyone with experience in wireless recommend brands for them?
For setting up my desktop with wireless, am I looking at having to open the computer and install a card, or is it something I plug in somewhere?
Sorry for the questions, but I’m more knowledgeable in the software side of computers than the hardware side.
When I lived in the US (pre 2006), the brand that gave me the least trouble was Linsys. In Taiwan I am used to using ZyXEL. And this has become a pretty big brand worldwide as well. I know Belkin is a pretty famous brand, but I have not used it before.
There are both internal and external wireless adapters. There really isn’t a huge difference between putting it inside or plugging an USB adapter. The only downside to the USB is that it takes up a USB slot.
The newer WIFI router models have MIMO, which will have two antennas. This is not just for show. Having two antennas and MIMO significantly increases speed (802.11n or above).
My experience tells me to get the same brand for the router and adapter… otherwise complications might arise needlessly. My experience also tells me… Wireless doesn’t work for me… It is never reliable enough for me.
I have an alternative. ZyXEL (I am sure other companies have these as well) has these network boxes that you plug into the power grid at your house. And you can network using another box and plug it into any power plug (unfiltered by extension cords), and you turn your house into a giant land lan.
I am currently using that… because it works for me. It’s an alternative worth considering, if you are not planning to have a bunch of friends crashing at your place and all use wireless lan.
Linksys is a good brand, I’ve had a couple of them before and don’t have many complaints, aside from some nitpicks like lack of ability to create DHCP reservations (something that likely doesn’t matter to you). I had problems in the past, but since Linksys was bought by Cisco they have improved a lot, to the point where my newer Linksys router has only failed and needed to be powered off and back on once in 3 years or so. So, I would definitely recommend a Linksys router.
You can get an internal wireless card, but that requires you to know a little about your computer and what sort of expansion ports are inside it. If you’re not familiar enough with the internals of your computer or if you are uncomfortable with opening up your computer and installing a card then your best bet is to get a USB wireless adapter. You can just plug it in to an open USB port on your computer. My wife uses a USB adapter from a company called “D-Link” on her computer (mostly because it’s about the only adapter we’ve tried that works with crap-ass Windows Vista) and she’s had pretty good success.
Whatever kind of router you end up getting, make sure you configure wireless encryption, otherwise you’re just asking someone to leech off of your internet or worse, take over your router. If you need help with setting up encryption, let me know.