wireless router

[isomaniac]

I am about the buy a wireless router. I have no idea at all about the wifi router. Would you tell me some advice/tips when I am browsing for one? I am using Ipaq 4150 and NOT OTHER of my device have wifi.

Which kind of wireless router should I use? g? b? n?

[rcknrbn]

Isomaniac, I just purchased a Linksys "Wireless G" router from Walmart last night. Locally, I couldn't beat the price at $59. They sell the "Wireless B" for $49. I'll be the first to admit that I'm ignorant on this stuff. My 18 year old son was telling me what to buy.

I know that installation should have been a piece of cake but I have been on the phone with tech. support with my ISP (Bellsouth) and Linksys 4 different times since last night. The guys at Bellsouth just seemed clueless. The guys at Linksys (obviously outsourced - the last guy I s/w told me he was in India). Anyway.....my hat is off to the Linksys folks. The last guy I s/w told me that the Westell wireless modem and the Linksys router were trying to work off the same IP address (?) so he stepped me through changing a few simple settings (hey, Bellsouth...I said 'simple'). Voila. Everything is working fine.

I only say this because, even though it took over 6 hours, the Linksys tech folks came through in the end. Wish I had started with them.

:twisted:

[ADBrown]

I am about the buy a wireless router. I have no idea at all about the wifi router. Would you tell me some advice/tips when I am browsing for one? I am using Ipaq 4150 and NOT OTHER of my device have wifi.

Which kind of wireless router should I use? g? b? n?

Any B or G router. Make sure it has enough wired ethernet ports for whatever non-wireless computers you need to plug into it. I've had good results with Netgear.

[jimski]

The Linksys Wireless G Router is rock solid. Only one reboot for me in about a year. I wouldn't bother with the Wireless B (although that's all your PPC can see) as the "G" is backward compatible and will better prepare you for the future. I wouldn't worry much about Wireless "N" just yet (needs time to mature).

The Linksys "G" has 4 ethernet ports for direct connections. In addition to my wirelessly connected laptop and PPC, I also have two wireless cameras monitoring my house. My desktop and a wireless print server are directly connected to the router.

If this is your first router, connecting through your cable/DSL modem may be a bit tricky as rcknrbn experienced, but when setup, it should serve you well.

[Sven Johannsen]

Only point to make is that there are no G PPCs at this point. B runs at 11Mb and G runs at 54Mb. G is newer and backwards compatible with B. You can normally set a G Wireless Access Point (the part of a Wireless router that actually does the WiFi part) to only talk to G clients, which would make it not work with PPCs. They normally work in dual mode and will talk to either though.

You can at this point buy a G CF WiFi cards, but I don't believe you can get a G SD WiFi card yet. Your 4155 has 802.11B built in so that isn't really a consideration for you. Which to get, B or G, is also not a big concern, either will work. If you think you are going to get any other WiFi stuff, PC card for a laptop, for instance, you might lean towards G. If you have mixed B and G clients in a network, the G clients will not run a at full speed though.

The prices at this point are not too different, though you may be able to find a B system much cheaper if you look, since it is 'old' technology. Not by any means obsolete, just not the newest thing.

You also won't see any appreciable difference between B and G on a PPC. There are many other things that limit the performance of a PPC besides whether the data gets to it at 11Mb per sec or 54.