WiFi Range

The internal, because it uses a large aerial inside the screen.

An external connected to NORAD! You can Jupiter with that. Or maybe Arecibo, probably get other galaxies then.

siemens

Hey check this booster out. My friend's friend got it and she ahd 40% connection strength and then boosted it to 100%.

Let me know if anyone has this.

http://www.chumbo.com/info.asp?s=609...44&ptr=prcgrab

Don't know about D-link, etc., but Linksys pretty much always provides signal booster stations for their WiFi devices.

booster

yeah, I got a linksys, but can't find a booster on their website. You got a link?

No, but I remember at least seeing a 802.11b booster.

I use the wrt54G router from linksys and in my experience the thing goes far. I used the connection upstairs (while the base is downstairs) and I have used it in my back yard (the base is closer to the front of the house). Signla strength was not always great, but at 54 mbits, you dont really need 100% signal to max out your conenction speed. I got about 300 ft from the base before it refused to pick up the signal. Im estimating here because i was driving up the street real slow and just waited for it to go out.


I would go with external if you're looking for the g connection as i dont think they make internal yet. But once they do, internal would be the way to go because the antenna spans the entire screen, not just a little bulge on the side you get with the pcmcia card.

I don't trust signal boosters. I would be too worried of an incompatibility issue. If you find one, make sure it is compatible before using it. Chances are tho that if you get the g wireless, you wont need a booster if you plan on staying inside, unless of course your house is made of iron.

My LINKSYS 54G died - seemingly - a couple weekends ago. Just kept dropping the connection. I'd have one for about 3 minutes, then BAM off. Hadn't changed or did a damn thing, no updated drivers anywhere or anykind, just no more signal.

Pissed me off, as I couldn't play DesertCombat for more than a minute or so! The connection would come back in 5 min. or so, then drop after 3...

Anyway, long story short, went to BestBuy and bought a D-Link 802.11g router ($89 after rebates) and 802.11g PC Card (diabled my internal antenna when troubleshooting the linksys problems).

Been up ever since and I love having the extra bandwidth (as I serve up files off my fileserver, 802.11b is a dog).

Asking around, several collegues "in the know" do not have good things to say about Linksys products now-a-days (I hope they aren't becoming an iomega...). So I have TWO linksys 54G routers sitting and collecting dust.

Plus the D-LINK pc card has better utility software than the linksys pc card does (wife has a 802.11g linksys pc card) or my came-with-Sager Prism internal card has.

So far so good. I wanted to get a NETGEAR solution, but BestBuy only had an 802.11b netgear box for MORE than the D-Link 802.11g box (before rebates, even!). Anyway, if D-Link fails, it'll be netgear next.

-myrkat

g

maybe i should go G, i do know that at 33% signal strength it totally bites. I haven't tried multiplayer gaming but i'm sure the server admin will kick me out for high ping.

Let me know if there is a booster that works.

Myrkat, I wish you the best of luck with the D-Link. I had one that was a piece of junk. The only thing worse than their router was their service. I couldn't get them to live up to their warranty. All I ever got was the old phone bounce between their departments. It was like a classic old comedy. I couldn't even get out more than a sentence before they would transfer me to 'someone else'. The radio on it would drop the connection and the only way to get it back was to re-boot it. That started a couple of days after I got it. Later, the 100 MBps side of it died and I had to reduce my desktop to 10 to get it to work. From what I have seen by reading the reviews on wireless routers in most brands, about 1/3 of them have severe problems. So you have about a 33% chance of getting a bad one. What I noticed was that Belkin had only about a 1 in 8 chance of a bad one at that time. So I bought a Belkin access point and hooked it into a Netgear (non-wireless) router. I haven't had one second of trouble since setting my system up this way. I picked up about 50 yards more range with the Belkin also, which is important to me since I use my machine outdoors a lot. And, it is cheaper to upgrade since I only have to change access points instead of the whole router. Just a thought for the future. Like I said, I wish you the best of luck with your D-Link. Just be prepaired for the run around if you ever need warranty service. Mine never got fixed.

d-link

Hey Jeff,
wow - I'm surprised by your experience with D-Link. I've used D-Link and Linksys ... and D-Link has been pretty good to deal with on support and RMA issues.

I've had good success with them ... and I believe LinkSys was ok but don't recall as that was probably 3 yrs ago.

I have had a FIRST generation WAP11 from LinkSys and their card .. BOTH SUCKED! But, I give that up to me getting a first generation Wi-Fi solution but I'm telling you they were terrible.

So, I had a friend who went with D-link (and others) but he linked D-link the best. So, did D-Link again and have been fairly happy with the solution. I also have tried Buffalo on their G series as they had a repeater that was G as well but D-link only has the B version (at this time .. I'll assume they will be rolling one out too). Anyway, Buffalo seems good as well.

I'm glad they worked out for you. My problems with them came about 2 years ago. It is possible that they have fixed their service problems. After I spent 2 weeks trying to get warranty work on mine (and couldn't), I am just reluctant to give them another chance. My current combination works so good, I have no reason to leave it. The Belkin also has a lifetime warranty. When they bring speed up so much that I can't resist or improve range a lot more, I will look at upgrading again. Thanks for the report.

Yeah, I think many companies get a good product/name, then ruin it and spend many resources building it up again - only to repeat their past failures.

So far the D-Link is working well. There are some quirks (like taking forever to open an explorer window for my server shares). Also, playing mp3's off my server starts well, but then winamp freezes (losing data stream?) but my connection is still there.

I will probably end up with a Netgear solution. Shortly after posting my post above, I noticed BUY.COM had the b/g netgear units for $80 after rebates (which is what I paid for the D-Link b/g).

Jeff, I do understand your point on seperating the router/access - and I may do that when my current setup fails. I've also filled all four ports, so I might get a 8-port router and a seperate AP... next time.

-myrkat

Sorry if i am slow on responding to this post, but:

You can get internal G cards.. you just gotta go to a second vendor. But Dell sells some for cheap, and there are a few other good ones out there too.

Once my 5680 gets here, i can tell you how the Dell TM1300 and linksys WTR54G goes...

Avoid the Dell cards if you are going to use Linux. The company who makes those cards is refusing to support linux.

Bah.. no use for linux for me. I like being able to run things..

I has exactly the opposite experience, the D-Link router I had was total garbage & the companies tech support was virtually non-existant.

I replaced it with a Linksys wireless G & it has worked super ever since. I don't think it took 10 minutes total to install the Linksys & get it up & running. I have stayed connected to my 8890 from half the way down my street, I don't know exactly how far it was but it must have been 250 to 300 feet.

I have a netgear 802.11g router with built in firewall that I'm very happy with. *shrug*

Getting a bit off-topic, but did you guys know that the Linksys Wireless-G router (WRT54G) runs Linux? Theres actually a linux distro available that will allow you to run a variety of stuff on it.