Help in a wireless world

[TheMurph]

Hello my fellow Trek fans, I have a dilemma and I would much appreciate the assistance of some of our more tech savvy members.

I'm moving to a new house in a month or so, and I figured it was time to get a new modem and wireless router. Looking at the new stuff, I have know idea what some of it does, or what I need. So any suggestions would be appreciated.

Here is some information to help with the suggestions.

I'm moving to a 1600 sq ft home, and I would like a signal that can cover that area reasonably well. It's all on one level, so no worries about having to traverse several stories. I watch most of my tv over the internet, so it has to be able to handle that. My budget is in the sub $100 range.

As for the modem, I would rather buy my own outright than lease one from Charter, so if anyone knows of a good inexpensive cable modem I would appreciate the suggestions as well.

Thanks everyone for any help you can give.

 

[YellowSubmarine]

The radius of the home (in a number of walls) is more important than the square feet. That depends on the antenna, you can look at the latest blog entry at ServerFault that I found an hour ago, citing certain Cisco antenna documentation on the matter. It's informative. I'm using my cheap one through two walls without much issue, even though one of the walls is slightly parallel to the signal path.

It's also possible to set more than one access points in the house. If you have a chance to do so, install ethernet outlets to mirror the wireless network with a wired network, if you have them already, make sure it's easy to connect them. The latency over wireless is not always satisfactory.

As for the router/AP/hub, make sure it's a 802.11n with gigabit ethernet ports. Having USB is a plus - you can plug a printer or storage. If you can get a router supported by OpenWRT it's a great bonus - I don't mean that you should install it, just have an assurance that it's supported.

Spoiler: Why insurance for third party support?

You don't want to rely completely on the software support from the original manufacturer. You might find it's lacking features you need or they might decide to stop supporting your device altogether. I got bitten once, I got a router as a present only to find out it didn't work with the ISP. It was a bug in the router software for which the manufacturer said “buy our more expensive models” (the router had PPPoE not conforming to specifications).

Oh, and buying the router is the easiest part of the set-up, test the signal strength with your current one first, and then buy.

 

[TheMurph]

Thanks YellowSubmarine, very informative.

Are there particular brands that are better than other?

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I have always had excellent workings with Apple AirPort gear.

 

[farmkid]

I imagine pretty much any router you get will cover your home just fine. My home is a little over 2000 square feet on two levels, and I have my router in a closet at on end of the basement. The signal is strong throughout the house. It's even an old router that a friend gave me when she didn't need it anymore. The router I had before that, which was an old 802.11b D-Link router that wasn't all that great to begin with also covered the whole house just fine. Your house isn't as big as mine, and if every piece-of-crap router I've had will cover my house, I think just about anything you buy will cover yours just fine too.

The wireless adapter and antenna on your computer and other devices makes a difference too. My laptop has a great antenna in it and I get a great signal just about everywhere I try to use it. For example, at my parents' house, on a good day I can pick up my sister's network. She lives about 3/4 mile away. Of course, this is out in the country and there aren't any houses or trees in between, but still that's a fantastic range for a wireless network.

I must disagree with YellowSubmarine a little on one point. Gigabit ethernet is nice to have, but it's not a deal breaker if the router you want doesn't have it. That will only make a difference when you're transmitting data between two ethernet-connected computers on your network, and then only if your cables and network adapters in the computers are capable of gigabit ethernet. Regular Fast ethernet will be way faster than your internet connection, so the bottleneck will be with the data coming into the home, not in your LAN.

 

[TheMurph]

Thanks for all the help everyone. I settled on a Linksys E2500 mainly because of the price ($40 refurb on Amazon), and it had mostly good reviews.