Advice on going Wireless (internet) Please

Hey,

Lots of Q's!.....

Given the nature of your house, I'd probably try something along the lines of the following:

1. Get yourself a decent wireless router (a search in here will pop up many "fors" and "againsts" for different models, but about $200 seems to get a *much* better product than the ~$50 versions....

2. Get that going in the office and then go "walkabout" - You *might* be lucky, and you're done.

Assuming that's not the case;

3. Note the dead spot(s) and investigate "ethernet over power lines" - Little doohickies that go into 110v sockets (may or may not incorporate a wireless router) - Use this/these to run "wire" out to the dead spots - If the chosen model(s) include wireless you're again done.

Check the laptops - Probably a USB mouse/kbd combination would work. Then you've got to get "TV" out of the laptops - Generally (but not always) requires an adaptor. Also remember that TV's don't approach (in most cases!) the resolution of 'puter screens - Suggest you try it out - It may be better to mount a regular monitor instead (to which you could feed a TV signal with appropriate bits of course.]

HTH,
Cheers,
Ian

 

A consumer brand wireless router and repeater should get the job done for non-roaming applications. If you plan on using portable voip phones and walking from coverage area a -> coverage area b you will need higher end gear and someone to configure them. As Ian said, it is probably best to go grab a wireless g or pre-n router from a retail chain (so you can return/exchange it if it doesn't work for your application) and add a repeater if necessary. Keep in mind that devices connected to the repeater will have a performance degradation when compared to devices connected to the router. Depending on your access speed and needs this may or may not become a factor. Average connection throughput on wlan is around 24Mbps. Devices connected to the repeater may only be capable of 10-12 Mbps. If your ISP provides 5Mbps and you do not do any LAN transfers (host a -> host b sharing large files ) then you won't even notice the difference as your wlan speeds will be faster than your ISP provides.

 

David,

I was actually talking about wireless repeaters ( see here: http://www.amazon.com/Linksys-Wireless-G-Range-Expander-WRE54G/dp/B00021XIJW ). And I do not believe that will support roaming with the skype phone. This is about to get very technical so fasten your nerd belt.

VOIP utilizes UDP as it's protocol for communication. UDP is very efficient and fast but in order to gain that efficiency it has no error checking for dropped or out of order packets (a packet is the tech term for the data being sent between two devices). As you can imagine a phone conversation being transmitted over radio waves or copper must be received timely and in the same order it was sent to ensure high quality voice communication. If you utilize a consumer brand repeater they typically do not share SSID's or frequencies and negotiation is necessary between your wireless device and the access point as you leave one access point's coverage area and move into another. While this happens your phone call will more than likely experience problems if not drop all together even if you provide the necessary overlap between coverage areas. It can take > 1 minute to find the best access point and perform any authentication procedures necessary to connect. You can read more about this here ( http://www.techworld.com/mobility/features/index.cfm?featureid=435 ). I know cisco offers gear that can accomplish this but it is going to be expensive and require someone with experience in advanced wireless networks to configure all the devices for you which is another added cost. (~100/hr for a certified tech from a reputable company).

The EoP (ethernet over power) solution will work for extending the area's you can add to your network but I have only seen the wired versions in action. I did find this link ( http://www.devolo.com/co_EN/produkte/dlan/dlan200avwirelessgsk.html ) but again, I have absolutely no experience with their products or the wireless access points in unison with the EoP device. I would have to assume that even using one of the access points that plugs into the wall in every room will still not solve the roaming issue because the roaming device will still have to connect to different access points.

The easiest way to think about it is just like a cell phone. As you travel your cell switches which tower is providing service. It takes expensive equipment to make sure that you don't know when this happens. And even with all the infrastructure the cell companies have, how many times you drop a call in certain areas?

As for the notebooks, it depends on what applications they are using. Most TCP connections (TCP unlike UDP does in fact handle error correction and packet re-ordering) can handle up to a minute of errors without the end user noticing. Web surfing, Email, and FTP for instance all utilize TCP connections and will probably handle the sub-par roaming capabilities of consumer brand equipment just fine.

Regards,

Joe

 

Cinch it up a little tighter.....

It sounds like you've got the laptop "docking station" covered.

Joe, why do you suggest a "pre-n' router? - I wouldn't "suggest" anything other than 'n' these days so am a little intrigued.....

Anyway, I'd also suggest looking at Apples "Airport Express with iTunes" - It gets pretty good range, and will stream your music etc all over the place.... It also has a USB port so you can share your existing peripherals across your network via inserting a USB hub [Another alternative is the same thing, but with a built in hard drive that you can share and use for backups of all your machines - Very, very, cool solution IMHO.]

I suggested EOP as a relatively easy way to extend range (and remember, routers also need a single power outlet!) However, you did say you have easy conduit access, so pulling good ol' ethernet cable to your "dead spots" and plugging in another wireless router will do the job. However, neither will give you true "roaming" capability. I suspect trying to get this is going to open a can of worms that you don't want to go near, particularly in terms of complexity and administration. Get the laptop connected, do your stuff. If you want to move to another wireless zone it'll disconnect and reconnect automagically (or it may need a gentle "refresh') - But, this is not true "roaming" - The connection goes away and comes back again.

Unless you're a "real" audiophile, I suspect the DAC cable is overkill - You can get analog audio out of your 'puters already, and the Bluray player should be connected (digitally) directly to your monitor. I really don't see the need for it [but have been known to be wrong ]

As for the Netgear you mention - it looks pretty good, but you're still going to need something at the other end of the ethernet cable.

HTH,
cheers,
Ian

 

Ian,

802.11N is still in draft format and as such is not an officially recognized standard (despite the marketing hype found on the packing on the shelves at hardware retailers).
Thus any device sold as 'N' would still be considered proprietary and not a true standard. Until late 2009 all N marketed equipment is still just 'pre N' and that is assuming that the economic conditions do not delay the release even further than that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/802.11n
http://grouper.ieee.org/groups/802/11/Reports/802.11_Timelines.htm

Regards,
Joe