Wireless - real world experiences please.

Hi.

I am thinking of buying the Belkin 54g wireless router (plus cards
obviously) so I can share a Blueyonder broadband connection with two PCs and
a laptop. I want each to be able to use the BY connection independently.

I used Belkin's wizard on their website, which said "you may need an
additional access point based on your environment." Additional access points
cost only £10 less than the router, taking the total cost from around £200
to around £300! Also I assume the access point needs wiring from downstairs
to upstairs, defeating the point of wireless connectivity.

I have a small 3 bed semi (25 feet approx. internally front to back). The BY
cable comes in at the back of the house where my main PC is on the ground
floor. I intend to use a wired connection for the main PC. The second PC is
in the back bedroom directly above the main PC. The laptop would be used in
the front bedroom and the rear garden.

My main question is, has anyone used a similar setup and did they need an
access point for upstairs? If so, I will give up the idea of using the
laptop in the garden and think about getting a wired router setup.

Also the laptop card is a Cardbus type. Anyone know if this definitely works
with an IBM 560E Thinkpad (old Pentium 150 laptop)?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts,
Martin.

email address already spammed to death so never checked...

If you want to use Messenger/Netmeeting or similar choose a router that has
UPnP support.


"Martin" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:bk1eiq$o4f24$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi.
>
> I am thinking of buying the Belkin 54g wireless router (plus cards
> obviously) so I can share a Blueyonder broadband connection with two PCs
and
> a laptop. I want each to be able to use the BY connection independently.
>
> I used Belkin's wizard on their website, which said "you may need an
> additional access point based on your environment." Additional access
points
> cost only £10 less than the router, taking the total cost from around £200
> to around £300! Also I assume the access point needs wiring from
downstairs
> to upstairs, defeating the point of wireless connectivity.
>
> I have a small 3 bed semi (25 feet approx. internally front to back). The
BY
> cable comes in at the back of the house where my main PC is on the ground
> floor. I intend to use a wired connection for the main PC. The second PC
is
> in the back bedroom directly above the main PC. The laptop would be used
in
> the front bedroom and the rear garden.
>
> My main question is, has anyone used a similar setup and did they need an
> access point for upstairs? If so, I will give up the idea of using the
> laptop in the garden and think about getting a wired router setup.
>
> Also the laptop card is a Cardbus type. Anyone know if this definitely
works
> with an IBM 560E Thinkpad (old Pentium 150 laptop)?
>
> Thanks in advance for your thoughts,
> Martin.
>
> email address already spammed to death so never checked...
>
>

"CWatters" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:6VY8b.19880$(E-Mail Removed)...
> If you want to use or similar choose a router that has
> UPnP support.

Thanks for that. Not really concerned about Messenger/Netmeeting though...

Martin.

On Sun, 14 Sep 2003 11:08:33 +0100, "Martin"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> My main question is, has anyone used a similar setup and did they need an
>access point for upstairs?

I have a single AP downstairs about 1/3 across the house and 1/3 from
the back. A PC sat at the front corner lives on a wireless link
(belkin usb) and my wife's laptop works in the other front corner
happily. Its a 4 bed detached.

Remember the antenna are somewhat directional (esp the laptop) and
rotating or tilting the antenna or the device can make a huge
difference, as does moving them away from noise (like the PC itself).

In your shoes I would only buy one AP.

Don't know about the IBM and cardbus, time to RTFM perhaps and see if
it supports cardbus. http://www.neilvandyke.org/linux-thinkpad-560e/
suggests it doesn't.

Phil