WiFi woes and a big WOW from Netgear's new product lines !!! WOW WOW WOW !!!!

[Carol Haynes]

I have been having endless problems recently with my WiFi network - the router keeps dropping out and there are often long pauses. I have spent hours fiddling with it and having looked at various web sites it seems that it has always had a bit of a mixed reputation (it is a Linsys WAG54g v1.2 by the way so it is now a bit 'old hat').

Consequently I have taken the plunge and ordered (gulp) some new kit from Netgear - the latest router which is supposed to run at 14x 802.11g speeds (270Mbs) and have a much higher range. I have also ordered new PCI cards to take advantage of the new features - so on Monday hopefully I will say bye bye to the WiFi woes!

Here is what I have ordered  - they look really impressive ...

http://www.netgear.c...ssadapter_wn311b.php
http://www.netgear.c...androuter_dg834n.php

in fact I found a good deal so that I will end up with 2 routers (it was a bit cheaper to by two routers and cards than one router and two cards - go figure). If anyone in the UK would like a cheap top of the range all singing, all dancing superfast wireless ADSL modem/router/LAN switch PM me ... and we can talk dosh ...

While I was browing though I noticed these items too .... which look yummy .... maybe Father Christmas will be kind this year (if not I'll mug him with spiked mince pies) ...

Check out ...

http://www.netgear.c...apterkit_hdxb101.php (you can do away with wireless pretty much altogether with these!)

and

http://www.netgear.c...tertainer_eva700.php (don't you just want one NOW!)

[Deozaan]

802.11n standard. *drools* 

[Carol Haynes]

I'm just praying it lives up to the hype .... you know the way these things work (hopefully) ...

[Deozaan]

I'm just praying it lives up to the hype .... you know the way these things work (hopefully) ...

-Carol Haynes (October 06, 2006, 07:15 PM)

Considering that the n Standard is still in Draft form and hasn't been finalized, I don't expect it to be full power of what the finalized N standard will be. However, I do fully expect it to be much faster than a/b/g standards.

But speaking of faster WiFi. I bought a router and PCI adapter (D-Link, which I will never purchase again!) that should let me connect at about 105mbps, but I don't know how to get them above the standard 54mpbs. Anyone got any tips on that?

[Carol Haynes]

Big WOW added !! This is really neat and really simple to install. The only problem I had was the setup requires a wired ethernet connection and an ADSL connection - it won't proceed without both. Given that I want a wireless network I think this is a bit of a short sighted design requirement 'cos if I could plug in an ethernet cable I probably wouldn't have bothered with a wireless network in the first place. Having overcome that issue with a telephone extension cable the installation was absolute simplicity (and a complete no brainer compared with Linsys installations).

Anyway ... I now have a spare brand new Netgear DG834N router (still in its sealed packaging).

I have put it on Amazon for sale (see http://s1.amazon.co..../202-0598010-8130205). If anyone wants to make me a reasonable offer here I will withdraw it from the Amazon listings. Just drop me a PM. (Sorry UK only)

Now I am off to play again.

Update - sorry sold quickly !

[Carol Haynes]

Any UK people interested in any wireless kit I have put the following items for sale on Amazon ...

2 x NetGear omnidirectional antennae for improving reception quality - they replace the built in antenna on your router or PCI card (provided the originals are removable). I also have a couple of extension cables ...
http://s1.amazon.co..../Y08Y3210140Y6146697

2 x Linksys WMP54GS-UK 125 Mbps Wireless-G PCI Adapter with SpeedBooster
These are good wireless b and g cards. Speedbooster only works when all items on the network are speedbooster enabled - but they still worka at full 54Mbps and seem to get good reception - esp. with the Netgear antennae, though they are good without too.
http://s1.amazon.co..../Y08Y0671430Y2919610

1 x Linksys WRE54G Wireless-G Range Expander - External
Let's you expand network range when you have thick walls by relaying the signal. Only works with Linksys routers. A bit of a fiddle to set up but once it is up and running it is switch on and forget about it. Forces your whole network to use WEP encryption is the only draw back. Linksys promised to update to WPA but haven't done anything so far! I got it working with a WAG54G ADSL Gateway/Router (below) without too many problems (despite Linksys saying it doesn't support that router!).
http://s1.amazon.co..../Y09Y1790131Y5673651

1 x Linksys Wireless-G ADSL Gateway WAG54G - Wireless router + 4-port switch
Works fine (now that I have discovered that you have to disable filtering on the router IP in AdMuncher!). Doesn't drop connections (or at least hasn't for me). Requires manual setup - so you need ISP settings (I can tell you the BT Broadband settings).
http://s1.amazon.co..../Y08Y6662350Y5975297


Anyone interested in any of these items use PM to contact me and make me an offer (can be a bit less than Amazon price because they take a pound of flesh for letting you post the items!).

[Carol Haynes]

Strange - I have my 802.11n network up and running now and the PC furthest from router (and through two walls) is running solidly at 270Mbps, but my main PC which is about 8m from the router is only running at 162Mbps ??

Anyone any ideas?

[f0dder]

Hm, I'd ve careful with buying hardware when standards are only in draft - also, is the super-high speeds only available if you use a netgear wlan card? I seem to recall there were gotchas like that in the past with some of the faster-than-standard solutions.

[Carol Haynes]

I got a deal on a Router + PCI card which was cheaper than the PCI card - so I bought 2 and sold the spare Router at a profit. So I am not bothered. Everything is also 100% backward compatible - and they say in the blurb that you can even run 54g devices in the system with 50% speed increase (though I haven't tried this) without degrading machines working at the faster rate. Looks like a win win situation (at the moment).

Just a bit nonplussed as to why the adapter almost next to the router is slower than the other one - I wonder if somewthing is being overpowered by the strength of signal? There is an option to turn down the power on the PCI card but it doesn't seem to work in the current version of drivers. (You can set it but the system automatically defaults back to 100%)