I'm starting a home wifi network

Kosan1123 · *Last edited by Kosan1123; 11-13-2009 at 23:32.*

Ok, so a complete noob when it comes to wireless networking... I want to start a wifi network what do I need? I already have a cable modem , so I need a router correct? Also what can you guys reccomend router wise, and a good pci, pci-e or USB wifi card for my desktop.

lysaer · 11-14-2009, 00:36 | posts: 850 | Location: London

it depends on what you are doing with the network i guess

my personal experiences with home wi-fi networks are just plain bad.

i found that internal and external usb dongles tended to get incredibly hot when gaming or streaming large data for long periods and would cause disconnection issues.

i found that i had marginally high ping in games compared to a wired connection, even using recommenced and expensive hardware.

i used to get constant disconnections, from either phone signals, microwaves, neighbours wifis, who knows.

in the end i just wired my entire house neatly and put gigabit Ethernet ports into every room.

that is my personal experience and after all the problems it used to cause me i would never go back to wifi.

as i said though it totally depends on what you have in mind for your network.

as for recommendations, the parts i found that worked best were

usb wifi adapter netgear wn121t.
routers sitecom wl-308 and the netgear dg834pn worked well.

Kosan1123 · 11-14-2009, 03:22 | posts: 187 | Location: Arkansas

Quote:

Originally Posted by lysaer

it depends on what you are doing with the network i guess

my personal experiences with home wi-fi networks are just plain bad.

i found that internal and external usb dongles tended to get incredibly hot when gaming or streaming large data for long periods and would cause disconnection issues.

i found that i had marginally high ping in games compared to a wired connection, even using recommenced and expensive hardware.

i used to get constant disconnections, from either phone signals, microwaves, neighbours wifis, who knows.

in the end i just wired my entire house neatly and put gigabit Ethernet ports into every room.

that is my personal experience and after all the problems it used to cause me i would never go back to wifi.

as i said though it totally depends on what you have in mind for your network.

as for recommendations, the parts i found that worked best were

usb wifi adapter netgear wn121t.
routers sitecom wl-308 and the netgear dg834pn worked well.

hmm well i was going to game on my pc... its a directly a floor up from my modem so..

irfdude · 11-22-2009, 20:30 | posts: 251 | Location: Stevenage, UK

Personally I would recommend a wired connection if you are looking for a stable connection with good ping for gaming.
I used wireless for playing counterstrike for about 2 days before I went back to a wired solution.
I had a spare powerline adaptor which has never failed me gives speeds of up to 100Mbps for moving files between the network.
Dont get me wrong I do use wireless but not for streaming or gaming. Its for my laptop just for browsing online.

maleficarus™ · 11-23-2009, 01:38 | posts: 3,587 | Location: Toronto, Canada

I found wireless to be fine for gaming. It all depends on the router used and network card used and ISP.

zomb69 · 11-23-2009, 05:17 | posts: 791 | Location: cyberspace.brisbane.au

i too need a cheap wifi network at home for my ipod touch (second gen so only wifi), whats better usb or pci-e?