Topic: Looking to go WiFi soon.

[ScaryTooth]

I'm looking to go WiFi. I plan on getting a PSP soon, and Wii is coming out. Not to mention we have a laptop that I'd like to have WiFi on. So I can access the web around my house, mess around the internet while I'm pooping, that kind of thing. I know the basics. I'm just looking for a little advice I guess. Good router suggestions? Stuff like that.

[scottws]

Well, you can't really go wrong with a Linksys WRT54G.  Personally, I'd spend the extra dough and get a WRT54GL so I could slap some third party firmware on there and play with all the goodies.

But yeah, as long as you get something that does wireless B & G and has support for WPA2 (or WPA + AES) encryption, you're fine.  And that's pretty much most modern SOHO routers.  Don't be too tempted by "Speedbooster" and things like that.  Those are proprietary technologies that need matching wireless network cards.

[Cobra951]

Linksys WRT54G here as well. I got it for my daughter (who has a laptop) for Christmas sometime back.  It's worked very well since.  I've recently gotten online with my PSP as well.  No hassles.  In fact, my PC is hooked up wirelessly too, through a Linksys adapter (WUSB54G).  No problems.  I tried a Netgear adapter before, and that was a disaster.

[Pugnate]

Can you get a good download speed on WiFi? I've been out of the loop for so long.

[scottws]

Yeah, download speeds are fine.  With 802.11g, you get about 25 Mbits usually, with 54 Mbits being the maximum.  Sure, that's not as fast as the 100 Mbits you can get from regular Ethernet, but it's plenty fast.

I just tested Jennie's DSL connection, and she gets less than 1.5 Mbits down.

[Cobra951]

It's much faster than your internet connection too.

[beo]

if you've looking to ever do file transfer between systems, i'd wait for the 802.11n standard to come in fully, as it's meant to be quite a bit faster and have significantly better coverage than 802.11g devices. there's already a bunch of pre-n devices on the market, but if you wait a couple of months the standardised 802.11n routers will be available.

[scottws]

That's an idea.  My brother has a 802.11b router that is just taking up drawer space.  Maybe I could somehow get that to you.  I don't think he took it with him to school.

The only thing with going this route though is that 802.11n routers will be expensive on debut, and you will need compatible wireless network cards if you want to take advantage of the extra speed.