[meremoongirl]

Hi there!
We just purchased our first home and our reg. wired networking is no longer an option. Our main computer can be directly hooked up to the internet, upstairs in the living room, but the second computer will have to be downstairs in the recroom, almost directly, but not quite, underneath the main hook up.
I am looking at d-link and Linksy's, there are not aLOT of different wireless routers available, but these are what im thinking of.
D-Link DI-624 AirPlusExtreme G Router
Linksys WRT54GS Speed Boost Wireless Router
NetGear WNR834B Wireless N Router

These are the three that are the most affordable and available in my area.
As for the PCI cards,
D-Link DWL-G650 Wireless PCI Card
Linksys WMP54GS Speed Boost Wireless PCI Card

I cant seem to find any netgear cards. There is only one store here that carries the NetGear router, (which i was thinking is a good one, from what Ive read about it on cnet) but I cant find ANY netgear cards.

We move out of town this weekend, and when we do that, we will be even further away from any stores that carry these items and I was really hoping to be able to purchase them before we move so that my three teenagers, husband and myself dont have to go without internet for long. The cable company is coming to hook up the ent on Monday.

Any suggestions of simple wireless router/card combos?
Sincerely,
Shilo

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Hi Shilo,

I have a D-Link setup at home and I haven't had any issues with it, but Linksys and Netgear are both reputable products, so the deciding factor may just be the price tag. The exact combination should not be overly important, however you may wish to ask the staff at the store to ensure that there will be no issues (better to be safe than sorry).

I'd highly recommend that you take a look at Spacecowboy's Networking Tutorial, located here. The Wireless section begins at Post #3 and goes to Post #4. Depending on how computer savvy you and/or your family are, you may wish to save the page for offline access or print out the relevant sections.

If you have any more questions/concerns, please don't hesitate to ask, and I hope your move to the new house goes as smoothly as possible.

- Dan

[Dan]

Hi Shilo,

I have a D-Link setup at home and I haven't had any issues with it, but Linksys and Netgear are both reputable products, so the deciding factor may just be the price tag. The exact combination should not be overly important, however you may wish to ask the staff at the store to ensure that there will be no issues (better to be safe than sorry).

I'd highly recommend that you take a look at Spacecowboy's Networking Tutorial, located here. The Wireless section begins at Post #3 and goes to Post #4. Depending on how computer savvy you and/or your family are, you may wish to save the page for offline access or print out the relevant sections.

If you have any more questions/concerns, please don't hesitate to ask, and I hope your move to the new house goes as smoothly as possible.

- Dan

[meremoongirl]

Hi there Dan,
Thanks so much for your response. I did infact arrange to have the page saved for me for when I moved... unfortunately, the person who I asked to save/print the pages forgot. (i had to ink left in my printer or I would have done it myself before I moved)
So, we were forced to use the cd.
We got the Linksys WRT54G.
I am online... my husband is currently downstairs installing the pci card. Hoping it all works out well.... not sure if he should just install it and see if it is detected, or if he should use the disk.
Ive already been dropped once off the wireless and I am directly connected with this pc upstairs.. i thought that was a bit odd.
I dont know if i should go through Linksys and manually set everything up again, as I was not sure about the security issues etc. We set the password.. but I am waiting to see how these computers hook up to one another through this set up. Now that we are already connected, I am guessing that I shouldnt use Spacecowboy's Tutorial? OR is there still some manual things I can do to make sure all runs smoothly?
Sincerely,
Shilo

[Dan]

We got the Linksys WRT54G.

SpaceCowboy's Tutorial is actually based on that exact router, so you should be able to follow his tutorial pretty easily. However, if the Linksys Manual seems to be working for you, then you may opt to continue using it. Else, if your desktop already has an Internet connection (I assume this desktop is hardwired to the router? ie. an Ethernet cable to the router, instead of wireless?) then you can continue to follow SpaceCowboy's tutorial from this post, however start at #38. This will walk you through the steps of setting up the Wireless Desktop (just replace LAPTOP with DESKTOP ) and also some important security measures in your router.

Ive already been dropped once off the wireless and I am directly connected with this pc upstairs.. i thought that was a bit odd.

I wouldn't worry too much about this yet -- it could be put down to a number of things in terms of setting up the router, however if problems persist once you have everything setup, then please let us know.

At the very least, I would take a sneak peak at SpaceCowboy's tutorial to ensure you have covered all of the steps Let us know how everything goes, or if you have any other questions, ask away.