Can anyone recommend an EASY 2 USE wireless accesspoint or router?

[IpaqMan2]

I am trying to set up an WiFi network in my home to use with (amongst other things) my new iPaq 4355, but I am having a heck of a time. I purchased an el cheapo access point of which Ihave never heard the company before, and tried setting it up in my home, but when I use a couple of different programs on my iPaq to detect the network mine never shows.. Instead I am getting like 6 different wireless networks all from my neighbors 8O

I've consoled in my Access point and the interface to configure it just plain sucks... No real instructions came with the device and I don't want to get my Phd degree to understand the concept of wireless networking just to set up a simple WiFi.

So my question....
Can anyone recommend an easy to use Access Point or even a Wireless router that can be used with 802.11b? Perferribly one that can be HTTP'ed into instead of just console or even telnet'ed if nothing else.

THANKS A MILLION for any suggesstions. :mrgreen:

[Cybrid]

linksys, Netgear, D-link in that order. be sure to enable wep and have the password to the router itself changed from the default.

[the Sender]

be sure that the ap send out its ESSID or you wil not be able to 'see' it with your PDA
choose the right channel to reduce chance of interfering with your neighbour's devices. keep at least 3 channels in between
so 3.......7.........11.........15
if you 're connecting through a broadband xdsl router (ti the internet) be sure dhcp is off on your ap so your pda will receive an ip adress from the router.
(dhcp on the router must be on) set the default gateway to the router's ip adress)

[frankenbike]

be sure that the ap send out its ESSID or you wil not be able to 'see' it with your PDA
choose the right channel to reduce chance of interfering with your neighbour's devices. keep at least 3 channels in between
so 3.......7.........11.........15
if you 're connecting through a broadband xdsl router (ti the internet) be sure dhcp is off on your ap so your pda will receive an ip adress from the router.
(dhcp on the router must be on) set the default gateway to the router's ip adress)

This is sort of confusing. When I was using a Linksys wired router and Asus WL330g AP, I had both set to DHCP. The Linksys acquired an IP from the cable company, and the AP acquired an IP from the Linksys router (an "in network" 192.168.x.x address) and the AP assigned yet another IP to my Axim. Kind of a DHCP bucket brigade.

Unfortunately, there's no "dummy's" way to set up a WAP with security. Eventually, you have to go into a configuration menu to enter at least a WEP key so other people don't sponge off your connection. I think they all have a web page based configuration utility, and if you're going by pure wireless it's a PITA to get to if you don't know what the factory settings are.

Even if you're pretty computer savvy, it can take hours to solve a "try everything and use what works" problem that may be simple, or not.

[Jerry Raia]

On my linksys wireless I set up a MAC address list so only the numbers I have there can access the router.

[Sven Johannsen]

This is sort of confusing. When I was using a Linksys wired router and Asus WL330g AP, I had both set to DHCP. The Linksys acquired an IP from the cable company, and the AP acquired an IP from the Linksys router (an "in network" 192.168.x.x address) and the AP assigned yet another IP to my Axim. Kind of a DHCP bucket brigade.

Most likely the Asus DHCP setting was so that the AP would get an IP from the Linksys, not that it was providing addresses. The Linksys would provide an address in network to the AP so you could talk to the AP. Any requests for addresses from wireless hosts would still be serviced by the Router.

If the router and AP were handing out addresses in the same network, you can easily create conflicts, unless you limit the scope of addresses each hands out. Possible, but not something the average user needs to be saddled with.

If the Router handed out an address to the AP in one network, say 192.168.1.x, and the AP handed out addresses in another, say 192.168.10.x, then the AP would have to serve as a router between those two networks.

To answer the original question though, it would surprise me if you couldn't take either a Linksys Router/AP or a Linksys AP, out of the box, follow the quick start card and be up in 15 min (including openning the box). Once that is done though, you would want to go back and set up some security, passwords to the router, WEP or WPA.

I also was surprised at how easy it was to set up ASUS's little travel router first time. I plugged in the power and cat 5 to a switch and was able to connect to it without reading nary a word of the instructions. Going beyond that, took a bit more effort.