The Glade 4.0

The time has come for me to go wireless! I have picked up some information from reading discussions here and elsewhere on how to go about setting up wireless networking, various types of wireless security, different troubleshooting things to get consoles to work, etc etc. I thought I was decently well informed for someone that never did it firsthand myself. Now that it's time to actually implement it myself, however, I stumbled upon an aspect I haven't really thought much about: what hardware to actually get.

I've spent a bit of time doing some searching for information tonight. The general consensus of my web searches seems to indicate that PCI adapters beat out USB, unless possibly you can make good use out of ghetto extension cord use to put the USB adapter in a more advantageous spot for reception. While I suspect either PCI or USB would work, I'll likely be going PCI unless someone has some information that puts USB reliably better. I will admit that most of the information I could find was not from 2009, so perhaps things have changed.

I have also read that it is very helpful if you get the same brand router as you do adapter -- is this true from a practical perspective? Is there a significantly higher likelihood of issues if this is not the case? I get the suspicion that the people saying this are basing it purely in theoryland.

In short, I'm just trying to find out what adapter (for my desktop) and what router I should get. The laptop that is the root cause of going wireless supports N networking, or whatever the technical term for that is. I have read that N isn't really very meaningful now, in which case a router/adapter that doesn't do N and only does G should suffice. Are there any really good, reliable routers out there? Linksys WRT54G, for example? I'm not looking for anything fancy, and I understand that is a very popular one that probably has a ton of support for based on the number of people that use it. Likely can find tons of results on Google for any troubleshooting I'd want to do, for example.

I figure if I can pin down a router, then deciding on an adapter would perhaps be easier. Also, if there are any well-tried mainstays for adapters like Linksys has for routers, I'd probably be content just getting that.

I do play WoW, if that matters. A 600 ms ping would not be acceptable. I often get 150-200 now and I'm fine with that. I haven't thought it through yet, but I suspect my router will sit right on my computer desk, so range isn't an issue. Otherwise I am not really looking for anything fancy, and I suspect hardware that has been proven reliable would be my best bet.

So... suggestions on router and/or adapter?

hate wireless with a passion. Too many things go wrong with it, too much of a headache to troubleshoot. Wired connections FTW.

Matching brands isn't quite as important now, because they finally got around to finalizing 802.11n. Before, N interoperability could be spotty, because things were using *draft* N, and using different drafts.

Look for a router that can do a mixed N/G mode.

If you do any voice chat hosting, game hosting (say, if you play RTS games on Battle.net), or FTP or web hosting, look for port forwarding options on the router.

If you do file sharing, throttling or QoS (quality of service) settings might be attractive to you and influence your choice of router.

I can't imagine a modern router or wireless card wouldn't support WPA2, but double check to make sure.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

I know you're talking internet, but if you decide to also go the wireless mouse/keyboard route, Logitech makes some solid solid products.

For desktop don't, seriously, wireless is fine for a laptop that moves around the house, but wireless is still crap compared to wired so for a desktop wired is the way to go unless your router is no where near the desktop and you can run a cable to if, but since you said yours would be on the same desk, there's zero advantage to wireless on a desktop, it's slower, less secure, and has worse latency.

So for the router go with a G or N router and hook your desktop to it wired.

The N standard has only been final since July I think, and there were a flurry of draft releases leading up to that date.

Just make sure whatever hardware you are buying (if it is N hardware) is the the final standard, and not one of the drafts, and you should be fine.

As far as backwards compatibility, I believe mixed mode A/B/G/N is part of the standard, so it shouldn't be a problem finding routers that support them.

Generally speaking, if you can go wired, do so. The hardware is cheaper. Your mobo should (at this point in time) have onboard 10/100/1000. You should certainly have wireless hardware in your house to support other devices, but you should reserve your wireless for mobile devices. That said, I haven't been paying that close attention to the current state-of-the-art, I thought N was fully backwards compatible to G. If not, get an N/G hybrid if possible.

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I'll defer to Midgen here -- I haven't paid attention to N drafts since a few years ago; I'm glad to hear A/B/G/N made the final standard. That said, I'm sure that for a while, marketting will be plastering all 4 on products that are N.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Hrm. So the optimal way to do it would likely be to mix wired and wireless? I like my wires, but the laptop sort of forces the wireless issue, so limiting the impact of wireless while still getting the laptop functional could be sweet.

There's going to be a laptop, desktop, and perhaps the occasional other device all using the network. A wireless router is a necessity to get them all online, as I understand it. But if my router is right at my computer desk, I could just connect the desktop physically to the router via a cable and only worry about wireless for the laptop and occasional other device? I could skip out on the adapter entirely then, which would be nice, both in terms of money saved, simplicity in setup, latency/signal issues, and also the fact that I know pretty much nothing about the adapters themselves. Standard ol' ethernet cable like the one I have running now from my modem to desktop would do the trick for connecting the desktop to the router, I assume?

Good good. So just the router then. You folks are helpful.

And unless I'm misreading something, don't the vast majority of the routers on Newegg (wireless router page here) specify that they're draft versions of N? Otherwise the two lower version of the Linksys routers (120 and 160) probably look good. That 160 is rife with buzzwords that set off my technology shopping warning alarms but it's only something like $8 more than the 120, and neither are particularly expensive.

Yes. It makes it much safer and less hair-raising to configure the wireless, too, if you've got a wiredly connected terminal available.

N hasn't been finalized for long, so, yeah -- most of the models you'll see are probably still draft. I think most everybody's got a model or two of finalized N available by now, though; problem there is they might not be the most affordable of the models, particularly because it means they'll be phasing out the draft N models, which will get discounted to clear stock.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

I suggest caution in your deference. Wireless is definitely not my forte.

I just happened to be helping Teek do some research the other day.

I found the 802.11N wiki page here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11n-2009
(emphasis mine)


If I understand this correctly (and I may not), this is saying that the N specification has protections built in to allow it to co-exist with the other specs on the same hardware. Most routers have a "Mixed Mode' setting that enables these protections, at some cost to performance.

Ideally you would want to run single mode for optimal performance of your N devices. It's not very realistic though, as there are going to be Legacy G devices out there for a long time. Smartphones, Gaming systems, or just about anything currently on the market with embedded WiFi will need G compatibility for quite some time.

My 2 copper addition to the discusion:

If you are running Windows 7 or any 64 bit OS, make sure the wireless adapter is compatible. For example, the Linksys wireless pci adapter WMP54G is NOT compatible with win 7 64 bit.

Probably going to make the purchase tomorrow night. Things are narrowed down pretty well now.

One last question!

Looking forward, just how important is getting an N router? The Linksys N routers are all getting fairly mixed reviews, to a pretty alarming degree. There are some others that aren't as bad, but either go up in price (D-Link DIR-655) or down in popularity (most in the $40ish range) and with that, easily Googled up support from people with similar issues.

...and behind it all is the router I mentioned in the earlier post, the somewhat garishly colored WRT54G. Or as I can find on Newegg, at least, the WRT54GL. For a bit cheaper, with a much better track record.

Since the wireless probably won't see much of any heavy use, and since it seems hard to even find a non-draft version of an N router at this point in time (let alone a draft version with great reviews), it really seems like the WRT54GL might be the best way to go.

So on the relative eve of N being introduced en masse (and maybe Windows 7 coming along at the same time?) is it wrong to put money into G technology? Because if not, there don't seem to be any N routers available with anywhere near the quality of that WRT54GL, which seems to me to make that the best choice for the money right now.

It's not wrong to put money into G technology, especially when you don't consider speed or range requirements to be at a premium in your use.

_________________
"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

You'll probably find in a lot of the comments for that router that they're using DD-WRT software. If you do get that router, I would invest the time to look into that as well. For the record, I have that same router, and installed DD-WRT, and it works great. Granted, I almost bricked it, but I think that was my fault. Since getting past my initial hurdles I haven't had to cycle the router once in the two years I've owned it. I use my 360 for playing games. It did fine with Rock Band, but I never tried other games where a smokin ping was mandatory.

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The Dude abides.

Also, when considering the comments by others, make sure they are commenting on hardware that had the final spec, and not one of the drafts (which was only released in July).

Also, many people don't understand that buying an N router isn't going to make their G devices any faster. To the contrary in fact, if they try to run mixed mode where they were running single mode before, their legacy devices will be somewhat slower.

If I were buying a new wireless router today, i'd probably go look for a brand new linksys device and ensure it supported the final N spec. Not because I have some pressing need for N compatibility, but because when the next generation of wireless devices start supporting N (smartphones, game consoles, laptops, etc...), I don't want to have to go buy another router.

My Linksys WRT54G is probably the oldest piece of tech hardware I own. It's older than every TV, Computer, Phone, Game Console, etc.... I think I paid $49 for it new. Definitely worth every penny.

Thanks for all the help guys and gals. I ended up ordering the WRT54GL. It just doesn't seem to be a good time to buy into N wireless technology yet unless you're a power user who tends to run hundreds of dollars a year in new gadgets. My guess is it'll be another 6 months or so before all this N draft stuff ends up behind us and the finalized N standard become the norm, to the benefit of the average user. Since there won't be much demanded of the wireless here, this should probably be more than fine. Especially with WRT-DD which I hear nothing but good things about. :p

I hope this thread can help out fellow Glader's down the line! It has been informative.

Now let's see if Newegg's fabled shipping (free 1 day UPS ground) can hold up to its standards during the rush before Christmas. :p