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[lee269]

Hope I dont fall foul of the OT chopper, but Im clueless and looking for some advice from any networking gurus out there.

Im looking to buy a laptop shortly, for my wife who needs one for a university course. Shes going use this primarily for word processing, but it isnt going to be much use without internet access, plus printing abilities.

Currently weve got a standalone PC with an ADSL broadband connection through a modem. Im figuring I should aim to create a wireless network, to allow sharing the broadband connection, printing to the printer attached to my PC, and file sharing from laptop to PC which will allow me to organise storage for backups etc.

Im confident with PCs but I know nothing about networks. Based on my research I know I need a wireless router, but there are a lot of grey areas. Heres what I think the basic layout of my network 'hub' should look like:

phone socket - modem - wireless router - PC

The PC is my MC PC. It seems that I could put a wireless access point on the PC and potentially move it anywhere away from the router, but I dont need to do this and it seems that I would be losing network speed if I went wireless with the PC as I have reportedly 576kbps downstream from the modem. Then the laptop needs a wireless access point, or if its a Centrino the wireless access is built in so no additional device required(?). Centrino is something Im particularly confused about. I know there are various flavours of 802.11 but the minimum 11Mbps Ive read about sounds fine for what the laptop would need.

I havent even thought about WinXP configuration etc yet - Im mainly interested in getting the hardware right at this point. Can anyone offer advice? Have I got this basically right?

[sraymond]

I suggest you buy yourself a wirelss DSL router.  This is a device that takes the DSL Modem as an "in" and does network address translation (NAT) to route the incoming traffic to various machines (computers connected downstream of the router) based on established connections (for example, it knows that when a computer sends an HTTP packet, the return should automatically be sent to that computer) or port forwarding (for example, if you're running a web server, all new port 80 traffic should get sent to your web server).  I use a D-Link 614+, but there are some nice Linksys DSL Routers as well.

Centrino is just Intel's way of rebranding.  It's nothing more than 802.11b built into the laptop (vice having to buy a PCMCIA 802.11b card).

802.11b throughput is usually around the 5Mbps level...  meaning a single router (or access point) can't send more than a total of 5Mbps at any one time to the aggregrate of the devices (computers) connected.  802.11a and 802.11g provide for greater throughput - but you won't need that just to access the internet.  The real problem is when you're connected to a file server via the wireless router - then you'll definately notice (and lament!) the limited bandwidth.  Remember, standard wired ethernet is 100 Mbps - which is more than twice the best wireless available (52 Mbps theoretic, but in actuality much less).  And there's now 1000 Mbps ethernet (gigabit ethernet)...

Go to http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/ for some great technical information on 802.11.

Scott-

[sraymond]

I know there are various flavours of 802.11 but the minimum 11Mbps Ive read about sounds fine for what the laptop would need.

11 Mbps is the theoretical MAXIMUM of 802.11b.  In actuality, it is much less...  around 5 or 6 Mbps best case.  This happens because 802.11 does collision avoidance (it guarantees no two devices will communicate at the same time - but this requires significant traffic overhead) vice ethernet's collision detection (which tries to avoid collisions, but doesn't guarantee that collisions never happen - this saves overhead).  So the end result is that ethernet (802.3) comes closer to it's theoretical maximum than wireless (802.11).

Scott-

[lee269]

Scott

Thanks - this helps a lot. www.wi-fiplanet.com was where I did most of my research so far. Ill check out the brands you mentioned. I think I follow what youre saying - it sounds suspiciously like what I was trying to describe.

Centrino: trying to read between the lines, I figured it was more than just not having to buy a PCMCIA due to things like battery life, laptop size/weight, etc. Impossible question I know, but do you think a meatier/cheaper laptop with a wireless card would be just as good or better. This is my 'Centrino problem' - I know what Id buy in a desktop, but it seems there are more compromises re RAM, HDD space, processor speed etc with laptops. My requirements are reasonably basic, but of course I want the best I can get. I dont think this laptop is going to be roaming the world, just oscillate between work/university/our front room.

Im assuming 5Mbps will do for printing, internet (web pages) etc. Am I right in saying I should/could wire my PC for maximum bandwidth and run the laptop wireless?

[AndyCircuit]

Am I right in saying I should/could wire my PC for maximum bandwidth and run the laptop wireless?

It depends on various cicumstances. You never know how good your connction is unless you tested this in your home. Brickwalls? Concrete ceilings? If you get a good signal  your wlan speed is fast enough for DSL anyway but you may face instability or weired probs. JimH and looran said they are happy with Linksys, I'm not with DLink. Check forums before purchase!! My opinion: If easy take cable and use wlan with the notebook (much more comfort)
AC

[AndyCircuit]

http://www.musicex.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=MediaCenter;action=display;num=1057858548;start=16#16
Here's something more about wlan

[sraymond]

I think the biggest "problem" with Centrino is that your limited to 802.11b.  Try to connect to an 802.11a network (on campus, maybe?) and you're SOL...  the frequency is different (5 GHz vs. 2.4 GHz).  There might be some power consumption benefits to Centrino, but I don't know of any.  I guess an integrated antenna (I think it's in the display) has some benefits, but I don't know if the performance is affected.  Something to look at, though...

Im assuming 5Mbps will do for printing, internet (web pages) etc. Am I right in saying I should/could wire my PC for maximum bandwidth and run the laptop wireless?

That should do fine for printing, web browsing, etc.  Even 1 Mbps is usually plenty - and that leaves quite a bit of wiggle room for decreased signal.  802.11 reduces the transmission rate based on signal strength...  I think it goes 11, 6, 4, 2.5, 1 or something like that.

And don't forget that WEP will also reduce your throughput (down to something like 3.5 MBps) as well.

With prices of 802.11b DSL routers at an all-time low, it's hard to go wrong.  Take a look at http://www.googlegear.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=252201 for a good deal on the Linksys BEFW11S4  - I haven't seen it go for less than $60.

Scott-

[Markeau]

I recommend this basic setup which works great for me:

DSL Modem > Netgear FM114P - (parallel printer)
                        |           \
                     wired       wireless
                        |              \
                   Desktop        Portable

I get up to 1.5mbps on my DSL down, and even the wireless 802.11b at least goes up to 3-4mbps with all the wep overhead and all, so the Portable plays back high-bandwidth streaming videos, etc, fine.

The FM114P has 4 wired ports, a parallel printer port, a SPI firewall and is super easy to install/maintain.  I've had mine up 24/7 for many months with no downtime nor any other problems.  And the firewall does great because Norton Internet Security 2003 Pro on both machines never sees any suspect intrusions.  I like the printer port on the FM114P because I don't always have the desktop on when the portable needs to print - but, it only supports a parallel printer.

I have some huge usb2 and 1394 drives on the desktop and use Synchromagic Pro to backup both the desktop media and outlook files and the portable's outlook files.  To completely backup the portable I connect the usb2 drive to it and use PowerQuest's Drive Image 7 which creates an image while still booted and working in windows.

If you expect to do backups or other huge file transfers from the portable to the desktop then I'd go with 802.11a or g ... I got a Netgear 802.11b/g pccard so if I upgrade to a 802.11g wireless router I'm ready to go.

[lee269]

Thanks a lot everyone - that was really useful. Im going to go for pretty much Markeaus layout. Now to check the bank balance and start looking at hardware.

[lee269]

Some closure on an old topic - for future reference.

I got a laptop. By chance it was a Centrino - there were so many options, and in the end we pretty much went with what my wife liked the look of. Actually Im really pleased with it so far.

After struggling for quite some time I realised that there is a fundamental problem with all the network gear sold in PC chain stores in the UK (or at least round my way). Every router they sell expects an ethernet connection from the modem. Those same stores dont sell 'ethernet' ADSL modems - they are all USB modems that plug into your PC. All the network diagrams that Id considered and understood fell apart because there was no way of connecting the (USB) modem to the router.

So yesterday I got a Netgear DG824M modem/router/wireless gateway. I ditched my old modem and set the netgear up to login to my ISP, connected it to the ethernet port on my PC and set up the wireless access on the laptop (nothing sticking out of the Centrino, it just works like magic). All this took about 30 mins.

And now Im in a 2 PC household and surfing the internet and sharing files like a demon in any room in the house. I even have Markeaus setup (minus printer sharing) that I was aiming for. Thanks again for all the help and info I got. Now all I have to do is figure out firewalls and wireless encryption and stuff like that.

Disclaimer: I know nothing about networks and the preceding might make that clear to those who do know. I probably havent even got the terminology right. I maybe didnt even buy the optimum gear. But Im happy.