United3dArtists Archive

hey folks.
We are moving to a house with a finished basement.
One of the computers will be going down there.
I have a wireless router, and my question is,
can it be used to link the downstairs computer,
with those upstairs? Or, is there a problem with that
configuration?

Thanks!

Froo

I my self got health problems caused by a wireless router. I switched back to cable to avoid electro magnetic pollution caused by these devices.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EykTJJMv ... re=related"

Hi Froo, No prob. i got a wireless -N 300 router set from Negear.
I conected the wireless router to my modem( internet connection) .It does not mater
if the modem is in the roof space or the celler ,my 4 pcs all have a internet usb stick which comes
with the Netgear router and you can buy exta ones if you need to, plus handys with internet can also
connect to the router if they have wifi or wlan.
Hope this helps
Ralph

Thanks guys.
Ralph, what's a 'handy'?

Sorry Mobile phone

Another small point is the configuration of the house may require some additional equipment. For example... my wireless router is on the top floor of my house and my daughter's room on the main floor has aluminum siding between her pc and the router.

A $30 dollar wifi antenna solved the problem of connectivity but the speed is somewhat reduced.

hth ... let us know how it goes.

wireless is useful for a notebook but sometime you can have a problem of connection. too many reasons: material of the house, numbers of connection in your building, other hardware in the room, softwre on your pc,...
Compared to my 100 megas connection for internet with optic fiber, my other wireless connection is slow to download big files. about 10 time less. but it is enought for most of use with internet because most of the site can't upload with very hight speed. the interest to use a cable instead the wifi is to use hd tv at the same time you do other things. Also wifi can be more unsafe.

In our house we use power line connections like http://www.devolo.co.uk/
You can plug your PC to every power line in the same house to have a connection to your router
( You need a second plug for PCs power). I think it is better than WLAN.
I use our WLAN for my handy (it's the german word for mobile phone, isn't it funny, an
english word, that doesn't exist in the english speaking world) but WLAN is so slow
and sometimes the connection breaks.

Hi froo,

though I'm late, no prob to use this WLan-Router for connecting all computers in your house - you only have to try if the connection is strong enough.

But there arises a serious problem with internet&internal connection at the same time, because WLan-Routers usually only serve one IP-address per W-Lan. This means your internal network has the same address like your internet access-point (one network). So unblocked drives/devices of your computers could be seen on the internet. To keep your internal network separated from internet, you'd need a two-channel WLan-Router - one IP-address internal one for the internet access, thus you'd need also two wlan-sticks at every of your machines. To avoid this you can separate internal network over cable and take WLan only for internet access, but I suppose this was the reason of your question, namely to avoid cabling downstairs. Also you could configure one machine upstairs or where your internetplug is located as a router&proxy with cabelaccess to the internet. There you'll need at least a DSL-Modem (wallplug) and in that computer two networkcards to be configured with different network addresses - one to the modem, one to the accespoint. Then your WLan-Router is an access-point only for internal connections. Your router/proxy machine then is your Gateway & DNS address for all other machines. I know, there are quite some free proxy softwares available solving this, but I can't name them offhand now, that would need a research.

Well, this is not complete, there are other configurations possible.

HTH & not too confusing
-BM.

Nice thanks everyone!
Thanks for the detailed explanation Booxie!
We have not yet moved completely so we'll see how it pans out.

This is why I braved the spiders and made the long belly crawl under the house with Cat-5 cable clenched in my teeth.
There's almost always a way to fish a wire where you want it.
(But if your router is already wireless this post is pointless)

Good Luck!

Cool thanks spacekdet.

I use wireless in my house to connect my laptop and my wife's laptop to the internet. I have 5 desktops that are in a render farm that all directly wired through a switch and then into the wireless router. I am able to send over the files to the server via wireless.
If the computer that's going in your basement is going to stay in one place and not get moved around then you are better off running cable if you can do it without causing too much destruction to the walls or floor. If you are moving to an area that is heavily populated check and see with your laptop how many wireless connections you can find around you. There are only so many frequencies that are available and you can end up with some cross talk going on if there are a lot of wireless connections in your neighborhood.
1) Will the computer be moved around?
2) If not then go wired, if yes then wireless is needed.
3) If wireless is needed, then do a site analysis with your laptop and see how many wireless networks you find in your area.
4) If you find very few wireless networks you should have no problem.
5) If you find several wireless networks in your area then, use a upper channel to prevent cross talk and always secure the router with a WEP key.

This may help you in making the right decision for your location.

Hi jeffroig,

I agree with everything except WEP! This is known since several years as a relatively unsecure encryption algorythm, that can be hacked in a second.

I can recommend to use WPAII or at least the older standard WPA only.

Best Regards
-BM.

Thank you for the info jeff!
Dang Booxie you know your networking stuff!

Froo,
You are welcome.
Booxie, you are correct with the security piece, I just checked my router it is WPA that I use not WEP.
I am still using a Wireless B router, I know it is out of date but it works and as they say why fix something thats not broken.

hehe say, I do believe mine is also a LinkSys wireless-B style router. It's a dual mode: LAN cable / wireless.
So far I have not used the wireless part though. Maybe in a couple weeks!