Access Point For 10 Simultaneous Users

I'm a college student who is going to move into a house with 9 other
students. I wanted to provide wireless internet access throughout the
house because it would be a lot easier than wiring cat5 everywhere. Our
house is pretty large with 3 floors. Currently, our internet router is
on the first floor via our cable internet provider. I was looking for a
solution that would be stable, fast (low latency), and has good range
to get on the 3rd floor. I am looking to spend at the most around $200
for the access point and would like to be able to get the PCI/PCMCIA
cards for around $50/each. What type of wireless 802.11x access point
would you recommend for this setup? I'm not sure if I need to go as far
as getting a Cisco product or not. Thanks!

..

> I'm a college student who is going to move into a house with 9 other
> students. I wanted to provide wireless internet access throughout the
> house because it would be a lot easier than wiring cat5 everywhere. Our
> house is pretty large with 3 floors. Currently, our internet router is
> on the first floor via our cable internet provider. I was looking for a
> solution that would be stable, fast (low latency), and has good range
> to get on the 3rd floor. I am looking to spend at the most around $200
> for the access point and would like to be able to get the PCI/PCMCIA
> cards for around $50/each. What type of wireless 802.11x access point
> would you recommend for this setup? I'm not sure if I need to go as far
> as getting a Cisco product or not. Thanks!
>
>

I'll let others advise you on the best equipment, although I'll
comment that I sure like my Linksys WRT54G, and associated access cards.

Personally, If I were in your shoes, I'd be sure to first try the new
WAP you get on the 2nd floor, for best whole-house coverage. I'd think
you can either move your provider's router to the middle floor, too, or
just run one eithernet cable from the router up to the WAP.

Good luck.

Ed

I would suggest you check out the new MIMO routers. The claim much more
range than the standard G routers.
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) oups.com...
> I'm a college student who is going to move into a house with 9 other
> students. I wanted to provide wireless internet access throughout the
> house because it would be a lot easier than wiring cat5 everywhere. Our
> house is pretty large with 3 floors. Currently, our internet router is
> on the first floor via our cable internet provider. I was looking for a
> solution that would be stable, fast (low latency), and has good range
> to get on the 3rd floor. I am looking to spend at the most around $200
> for the access point and would like to be able to get the PCI/PCMCIA
> cards for around $50/each. What type of wireless 802.11x access point
> would you recommend for this setup? I'm not sure if I need to go as far
> as getting a Cisco product or not. Thanks!
>

I would suggest just using wires, man, I know your a student (been there
done that) but you are forever going to be 'fixing' this. how much spare
time do you want to spend on this?

Good luck, your going to need it!


<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) oups.com...
> I'm a college student who is going to move into a house with 9 other
> students. I wanted to provide wireless internet access throughout the
> house because it would be a lot easier than wiring cat5 everywhere. Our
> house is pretty large with 3 floors. Currently, our internet router is
> on the first floor via our cable internet provider. I was looking for a
> solution that would be stable, fast (low latency), and has good range
> to get on the 3rd floor. I am looking to spend at the most around $200
> for the access point and would like to be able to get the PCI/PCMCIA
> cards for around $50/each. What type of wireless 802.11x access point
> would you recommend for this setup? I'm not sure if I need to go as far
> as getting a Cisco product or not. Thanks!
>

As Charlie suggested a MIMO route, I've looked at them shortly. They
look pretty good on the speed and range side. I'm not to sure how
stable some are. The Belkin model for Pre-n seems to be the leader. Has
anyone set it up with at least 5 simultaneous users?

Although I wish I could, cat5 isn't an option for our house. It's too
large and a hassle to wire it.