Terry Stockdale
Top Choices for April...

Wireless Router and Wireless Card Recommendations

  
 

I'm often asked which wireless equipment I recommend for someone to purchase.

There are a number of brands of wireless routers and cards available in the consumer market. If you watch the ads from the big electronics stores, you will see ads for whichever brands are offering current specials. These may or may not be your best choices.

For a home wireless network, I recommend equipment from Linksys. For a wireless router, my number one recommendation is the Linksys WRT54G Wireless Router. If you prefer, you could get the WRT54GS router with SpeedBooster, which uses Linksys' proprietary high-speed wireless protocol also (make sure you have a Linksys "S" card on the computer, too!), or the compact WRT54GC. All of these have multiple ethernet ports for your wired network in addition to the wireless capability.

For the computer end of the wireless network, you need either a wireless network card or a wireless network USB adapter. With today's hi-speed USB 2.0, I would not hesitate to use a USB wireless network adapter. With the Linksys 802.11g USB Adapter, you have a USB cable and a remote USB device and antenna. This enables you to easily use a floor-level computer but have the antenna placed higher for better reception. The other advantage of the USB-based wireless adapter is that you do not have to open your computer's case! If you want a wireless card to go in your desktop computer, I recommend the Linksys 802.11g PC Card or Linksys 802.11g USB Adapter.

Obviously, if you've bought a recent notebook, one end of your network connection already has a wireless connection -- it's built-in. Still, you can use a USB-based wireless network adapter or a PC-card adapter, if you choose. Personally, I'd use the wireless adapter in my notebook, if it did 802.11g. If it only does 802.11b (the slower 11 Mbit/second transmission rate), I would purchase an adapter to get 802.11g 54 Mbit/second rates.

One last comment — go read my Wireless Security page. Lock down your wireless network -- you will protect your computer, your network, your files and your connection.

Besides Amazon.com, another good source for networking gear is Buy.com.

 

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Copyright © 2005-2006 Terry A. Stockdale. All rights reserved.


 
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