Advice on wireless broadband router

[mubs]

Hi there,

I’ve been nominated to help three college kids share internet access in the home they’re renting. It will most probably be DSL (384-1500k / 128k); the fallback is cable internet. Still trying to figure out if DSL is actually available. All three girls use notebooks running Win XP.

There’s a phone/cable jack in the master bedroom (A) only; the other two bedrooms (B & C) have only electrical outlets. I think a wireless router would work, but need practical advice; my experience to date is with wired equipment only.

Here’s the floor plan:

     |---------------------------|
     |                           |
     |                           |
     |            A              |
     |                           |
     |                           |
     |                           |
     |  1                        |
     -----------------------     |
                           |2    |
                           |     |
                           |     |
                           |     |--------------
                           |      ||||||||||||||
                           |     |--------------
                           |  3  |
       |--------------------  -  ------------------|
       |                      |                    |
       |                      |                    |
       |         B            |          C         |
       |                      |                    |
       |                      |                    |
       | 4                    |                  5 |
       ---------------------------------------------

All three bedrooms are on the same floor. The phone jack is in the Master bedroom, A, at point 1; the first notebook will be used at the same spot. The second and third notebooks will be used in bedrooms B and C, at corners 4 and 5, respectively. Point 3 is immediately in front of the common wall separating bedrooms B and C. Point 2 is immediately above bedroom A’s door. Points 2 and 3 are in a corridor connecting the three bedrooms and the stairs.

Distances between points:

1 – 2 along the wall : 25 feet

1 – 2 “as the crow flies” : 17 feet

2 – 3 line-of-sight : 13 feet

3 – 4 “as the crow flies” : 12 feet

3 – 5 “as the crow flies” : 15 feet

Where do you suggest the wireless router be kept? Would access from points 4 & 5 be ok if the router was kept on a desk at point 1 (signal would have to go through two walls). Or is point 2 best? I’d then have to wire point 2 to point 1 by laying the wire around the wall on the carpet. Can I leave the DSL modem at point 1, connect a 25-ft Ethernet cable to the wireless router at point 2, or is it better to locate both the DSL modem and router at point 2 and use a long phone line to connect the DSL modem at point 2 to the jack at point 1?

Which wireless router, which wireless nic card (brand/model)? I’ll have to buy 3 wireless cards for the notebooks as well. I want a solution that’ll work + be secure. I could read the few reviews on the web, but would trust practical advice from you folks a lot more.

Thanks all for helping!

 

[Mercutio]

It's been FAR too long, mubs. Good to see you back here again.

Which are the interior walls (since you'll have to make at least one drop to the AP)?

Since these are laptops that'll probably be used elsewhere beside this dwelling, I think in this case 802.11a is out. "A" is IMO the technically superior solution - the shorter range for 5GHz broadcasting is a good thing from a security standpoint, and less subject to interference.

But "A" equipment is fairly rare and is incompatible with everything else.
Multimode hardware (dual A/G) is expensive.

So that leaves B and G.

"G" hardware is inexpensive and somewhat faster than B... but that might not even be an issue if the only network tasks the students perform is browsing and maybe printing.

"B" hardware is incredibly cheap. Seriously, I think I paid $600 the first time I bought a "B" AP maybe 2.5 years ago. Now the AP/router boxes are like $60.

Speed probably is not an issue here. As long as there's some kind of signal the web will be available.

I'd suggest a Linksys BEFW11S4. They cost about $75. I think I'd mount it somewhere close to what you've labelled point 1, at least initially.
Point 2 is a reasonably short wire run and would be more-or-less centrally cover the apartment, but I think you'll be OK on the desk.

The Linksys has decent-ish firewalling options and support for long WEP keys. Securing 802.11 is annoying but very do-able. There are articles for doing so all over the internet. I can repeat what they say if need be.

Hopefully, your PCs are all running 2000 or XP. 802.11 isn't as fun on "reboot to make changes to networking" Windows 98.

 

[Mercutio]

It's not as likely to come up as it was two years ago, but they'll either want all Cell phones or a 5GHz cordless. 900MHz-anything is worthless in high-density living areas.

 

[mubs]

Thanks a million, Merc.

Amazon has the Linksys WRT54G (interoperable with B) for $57 after rebate; should I jump for it? IIRC, WEP is the newer, better security protocol, right, with WPA being the wimpy one?

Yes, all notebooks are running Win XP. So you think keeping the wireless router at point 1 will work for notebooks in locations 2 & 3, then?

What wireless nic cards would be good to go with?

 

[mubs]

WPA is the tighter security.

 

[mubs]

The Amazon deal was too good to pass up, so I ordered the Linksys WRT54G. I guess it would make sense to get the matching Linksys PC cards, "WPC54G Wireless-G Notebook Adapter"; according to their web site, this router and card now support WPA.

More for the kids' sake than mine, I hope the install goes smoothly. :roll:

 

[Handruin]

Linksys has a wall mount kit for their wireless units and such. I don't know if it will help/hurt in your config, just wanted to point this out to you. Merc. has better experience with this than I do...

wall mount kit

good to see you back mubs...

 

[Handruin]

Wow...the price of the wireless-G Notebook Adapter is more than the WRT54G!

I was about to buy this also...but the notebook card is expensive....

 

[Mercutio]

While I had mine up, I had it stuck in a deep shadowbox/picture frame thing I found at "Hobby Lobby". I cut the top edge off so the antenna and cat5 cable would be unobstructed but I stuck a photograph on the front. If you were really paying attention you might notice the antenna sticking out of the top but mostly it just looked like a normal something hanging on the wall.

 

[Howell]

While I had mine up, I had it stuck in a deep shadowbox/picture frame thing I found at "Hobby Lobby".

That's pretty slick.

I'm not sure if there is generic software for this task but Cisco has software to determine signal strength while walking around.

Mubs, Merc was suggesting you not get a G adapter unless the girls will not need wireless access outside of the apt. Do they already have the laptops? Some machines come with a wireless adapter built-in.

 

[mubs]

Thank you for the kind words, folks, and for the advice.

I typed in a pretty longish reply this morning, and when I submitted, I got an error and my post was swallowed by the BBS black hole

Handruin, thanks for the link to the wall-mount bracket. The web page for it says it's a pack of 10, though!

Howell, I got the impression that Merc was suggesting 'B' class stuff. That confused me, because I thought 'G' class was the latest, greatest, with backwards compatibility with 'B'? I thought it might be better to go with the most recent standard as opposed to one that might be on the way out.

The girls will be using the Internet for communication with the University (assignments, paper submissions, etc.), for which purpose the notebooks will typically be used like a desktop. The times they might want to sit in the backyard (and assuming the signal doesn't work there), it won't matter so much.

Handruin, yes, right now the router is cheaper at Amazon than the nics. I've searched the web, but the spread on prices for the nics is pretty narrow.

Howell, I don't have all the details of the notebooks yet, but IIRC, at least one of them has built-in wireless, though I have no idea which standard.

The girls live 40 miles away and I have to fight horrendous traffic almost any time of day to get there. They're also almost completely clueless (other than Word, Kazaa, browsing). So of importance is that the setup must work and be stable, with minimal calls for me to go out there. If that means buying matching Linksys 'G' nics for the 3 notebooks, so be it, it'll be absolutely worth it.

If I goofed buying the router I did, please let me know! I'll beg a thousand pardons from you folks and set about to fix my error.

Thanks a million! You're the best!

 

[Mercutio]

You didn't. I was just trying to save you some money.

The thing is that they probably won't use the capabilities of "G" and I'm fairly certain that "G" equipment is generally more expensive than "B".

 

[Howell]

Allow me to be theoretical:

If the G nics are backwards compatible with B then I would go with that solution. Especially for use with Kazzaa.

Merc, can you confirm?

 

[Mercutio]

Absolutely.

802.11anything is shared bandwidth, like USB.

Real-life, you'll get about 1MB/sec from a dedicated 802.11B and about 4MB/sec from A or G.

Thing is, if nobody will notice, is it really worth the extra, say, $30 a node to go G?

 

[e_dawg]

1 MByte/s and 4 MByte/s? That's pretty good. I've heard stories of people who barely get 1 Mbit/s and 4 Mbit/s once they're in a different room.

 

[Mercutio]

802.11 is incredibly frustrating. My first 802.11A router couldn't maintain at 30% signal at 10 feet with a clear line of sight. My second works just fine at up to about 75 feet in any direction as far as I can tell.

You WILL find dead zones in any 802.11 service area or places where signal drops to NOTHING for no apparent reason. I've found dead spots 10 and 15 feet from APs and in the same room. WTF? My first "A" AP was like that. Maybe it was a bad antenna. I don't know, but at times placement of APs seems like voodoo.

I think people have incorrect assumptions about wireless networks, and one of them is that you're going to get beautiful and perfect connectivity everywhere within some magical range, usually the boundry of whatever building. It ain't like that. 10 feet from an AP, everything is beautful, but when my co-worker whines that she only has 30% signal 100 feet and eight concrete walls, all I can think is "why the hell around you complaining?"

Frankly, if you're using wireless networking, simple connectivity is to a large extent the only concern for users.

 

[Howell]

802.11 is incredibly frustrating. My first 802.11A router couldn't maintain at 30% signal at 10 feet with a clear line of sight. My second works just fine at up to about 75 feet in any direction as far as I can tell.

What software are you using to test signal strength?

 

[Mercutio]

I've got a Toshiba e750 (pocketPC) that gives a numeric indication of signal strength on its integrated 802.11.

That's almost entirely the reason I own it; when I bought it I expensed it as a "signal meter".

 

[Howell]

2.4GHz Wireless LAN Range-Extender Antenna (Pair)
Designed for use with Linksys® Wireless Routers, these 5.5dBi-gain 2.4GHz Router Range-Extender Antennae are used to extend the range of indoor access points or client bridges in 2.4GHz wireless LAN environments. Most standard antennas supplied with indoor equipment are only 2.2dBi gain! The 5.5dBi more than doubles the signal strength to give more range. The antenna features a 360° horizontal transmission pattern and a 50° vertical transmission pattern.