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Hello to all!

Does any of you use or have any experience with wireless LANs?

A friend of mine, who lives in the appartment above me, has an ASDL connection and I would like to connect my PC to his ASDL modem, so that I can have an ASDL access too.

The only way we know to accomplish this is by drilling holes to the building through the walls (!!) and feeding a digital cable (ethernet) through the holes from his ASDL modem to my PC.But we would like to avoid that!!

I went to a PC shop in my neighbourhood and they had some wireless LAN cards. But they told me that the 2 PCs should be on the same level (not in different floors as ours) and not too far away.. Do you know any way that we could connect the PCs without drilling holes to the building? Is it possible?

Thanks!

Upstairs I have pc (duh, now you know), it shares my cable connection with my mac, via a router.
I didn't drill holes in my department, but used the wooden windowframe to lead the cable to above, to drill in wood feels totally different
The same road for my phone line, in case I want someone to phone me awake

There are two standards 80211B and 80211G. The "G" wireless system is much superior at transmission through solid material.

IMHO you will be able to pick up the signal. Can't you perhaps take it away for a day "on test" ?

I've setup a small G network not long ago, having the router at ground level and computers at the 1st floor worked flawlessly. I guess it might depend on the materials involved tho, so not a bad idea to test it first if possible (or buy the router/cards someplace that'll take them back if they don't work,) but you should be able to do this without drilling holes in the floor =P.

Work here even with midioverlan, wifi G, 54mbs

Hi
go for it, should work ok
One adwise is to have the router in the upper floor (widest range)
If trouble, there is help underways:
Linksys WRE54G Range Expander

This is a 100 euro device,
and it does what it should do

I guess you yield best results if the router is positioned as close to the stairs as possible.
I know of an installation where a 6 parties house is supplied this way.

cheers, Tom

Hello guys and thank you all for your replies!

I have one dumb question and one concern.. The (dumb) question is: by "router" do you mean the "ASDL modem" (as I call it)? Or is it a different thing?

My concern is that the building is old and I dont know what kind of materials they had used. The truth is that my mobile phone has a very weak signal when I am in the building. Is the WiFi signal of the same kind of signal as the mobile phone's is? If yes, I may have a problem..

@arela: I ll try to find the Linksys card you recommended me, although I am sure that the shop wont take it back if it doesnt work.

Can you recommend me some other cards of this type? What are you using?

Thank you all very much for your help! I appreciate it!

The router I refered to/used was a Linksys Cable router, yeah, with all the fluff integrated (cable modem, firewall/nat, ethernet switch if you need to plug anything in it.)

I don't think the wireless stuff and cellphones use the same frequencies, but your weak in-home cell signal might be caused by a lack of proximity (or presence of distance =P) to the cellphone tower/antenna. Try going out the front door and see if there's a drastic difference as far as cell signal is concerned. Note tho that if they don't use the same frequencies (which I don't think they do,) they might not react the same way with the materials, so one of them could work flawlessly while the other won't. Also, since the router will be inside and the cell phone communicates with the outside, you might get a difference there too, i.e. walls vs floor materials (if there's any.)

You can get a larger router antenna and if that doesn't work, a booster, but I don't think you will need to add anything just a wireless g router. Depends on the walls and how far away.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: braincell on 2005-01-29 16:04 ]</font>

Phone reception and wireless performance are not related. I get very poor phone reception (even though I can see a tower!), but I pick up two other wireless networks from neighbours.

As for routers, often people will have two components: an ADSL modem and a wireless router. You could plug directly into the modem, buit often this will have only one outlet. So more common is to plug a wireless router into the modem. This is what gives you multiple RJ45 cable connections and also wirelesss connections.

I just recently got myself set up with a G network, and it works smoothly on both my powerbook, wife's ibook, and also my PC.

If you have to money, try to get one of the better known brands (USR, Belkin, etc.) and choose one that has a Turbo mode. The turbo mode is different for each manufacturer, and is incompatible with each other. But as long as you buy all the stuff from one manufacturer, you get turbo mode and get transfer rates up to 100mbps. So, it's a dirty trick, but it's something you can definitely take advantage of.

But the bottom line is, you can set a network up with cheaper parts if you loose the turbo mode. Also, when you buy your router or wifi network card, other than checking if it's G compatible, make sure they're all compatible with the same security feature. I got a cheap one that did only 64bit and 128bit WEP. You want one that also does WPA-PSK. PSK stands for pre-shared key, and it makes setting up a password for your network alot easier. WPA-PSK is a newer standard too.

So that basically does it I think. My cheap wifi network card costed US29.99. (so you get the general picture. Also, in case you're lost, you'll need a wifi router to broadcast the wireless network, and a wifi network card on your computer (or a card for the notebook). So as I was saying, if both these are from the same company, and are both turbo enabled, you get 100mbps. If you buy a G router and network card from different companies, or buy a G model that doesn't have turbo mode, you'll still get 54mbps which is very good I think. You don't want anything that only supports B.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: kensuguro on 2005-01-30 01:31 ]</font>

I´ll provide you with a 2 km wireless LAN cable if you want. Just write a mail to me

I can communicate with my upstairs (i.e. bedroom-bound) PCs from downstairs (connecting to my wireless router) without any problems.

My router is actually a 5-in-1 device, comprising:

ADSL modem
Router
10/100 LAN switch
802.11g access point
SPI Firewall

About £70 (approx. 100E)

Royston

Hello to all!

Thank you for your replies!

So, in order to clear things in my head (correct me if I am wrong).. My friend already has the ADSL modem, which is the Speedtouch 500 (dicontinued). In order for me to connect to his ADSL modem and have ADSL access I need the following two things:
a) a "router" that I will connect to the ethernet port of his ADSL modem
b) a wi-fi network card in my PC, that "speaks" with the "router"
Right?

I had a look at the manual of the ADSL modem and it says:

This product may be equipped with a wireless transceiver.
If this is the case, it uses Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS) radio technology. As such it is designed to be inter-operable with any other wireless DSSS type product that:
- Complies with the IEEE802.11b Standard on Wireless LANs, as defined and approved by the Institute..etc
- Is Wi-Fi Certified as defined by the Wi-Fi Alliance

Does that mean that I cannot buy and use a "G" WiFi Router with that ADSL modem? And if this is the case, then why? I cant understand.

Thanks a lot for your invaluable help and forgive my ignorance on the subject!

naw, the cable just plugs into the router. i suspect that that modem has a wireless option.

What you need is:
A wireless router, connected to the modem's WAN.
And a network card (pci, usb or ...)
And, i guess, a network card for your
friendly host,
guess he wants a piece of the cake

Speedtouch is a common modem, so no trouble there.

You can even use an other router (or hub) in your appartment,
if you need more than 1 pc connected to the "world"

good luck

Hello to everybody!

I went to the local PC shop and I bought a Linksys WMP54G wireless network adapter for about 80 euros. Next week, when I have the money, I ll buy the router too.
Is this the kind of thing I need to buy?

Yep, that looks perfect.