Adding a Wireless Access Point (Question)

[Islena]

Okay, here goes:

The house I am currently in is hardwired to all the bedrooms, the home theater, and study. I would like to get access to my laptop in the family room, but my roommate/the home owner is NOT going to run more wire, nor change the house to wireless. I have been doing a bit of reading on wireless and would like to know if I am way off-base.

-- Add 1 wireless access point on the LAN. (Linksys or D-Link 11g)
-- Get a wireless card for laptop.

Am I missing something or is it that simple?

Card--->WAP____>Switch
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Giasta
Stormwarden of Tunare
"Dispell is my friend...NOT yours"
Mostly Retired
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Islena
Dark Princess of the 65th Gloaming
Retired

[Miuu Miuu]

Seems bout right to me. Toss an access point on there, set it up for infrastructure mode (might not have that) and get card for laptop and you should be good to go. Just need to find a spot to plug the access point into both power and the exsisting network.
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[tenri]

sounds about right BUT keep in mind the footage between the base and the card for your laptop the farther away the slow the speed !!
install one for roladoc at his house worked good till the other pc went a little hay wire
but then again his was a cable modem wireless so it was a snap


Sorry doc LOL didnt mean to tell the walkers your info
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Tenri Death

Ya Ya i know shut up skinny necro boy

[papyscott]

I got the DLink wired/wireless router. Worked way better than the Access Point for me.

But I'm a newb so take it with a grain of salt

Papy

[Jiminie]

Your right on track.

Get the DLINK if you can, I find it works better as well.

GL
Jiminie
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[Islena]

Thank, all, for the responses

I do have one more question: Am I going to get any odd lag issues playing EQ over wireless if I decide to play from downstairs?
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Giasta
Stormwarden of Tunare
"Dispell is my friend...NOT yours"
Mostly Retired
_________________
Islena
Dark Princess of the 65th Gloaming
Retired

[tenri]

How far away are you from the base unit when you get this lag ?
The farther away you get the slower the speed gets till you loss link
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Tenri Death

Ya Ya i know shut up skinny necro boy

[ZigonZagoff]

I use a linksys - primarily for my xbox connection because I didn't want to run yet another wire in my house.

I do notice that when I was testing the speeds the way the attenae faced on the transmitter and receiver did make a minor difference. But I also got a wireless port that had 4 ports on the transmitter and 2 on the receiver. So I can hook up multiple systems at both ends.

I don't have a card yet for my laptop, I use my work system at home. But I will probably get one just so I don't have to sit at a table when working - maybe I can sit in front of the xbox and still be productive

Try to find a central spot for your transmitter. Then make sure you don't have alot of interference. If you find that you do have issues try moving it to another port. Alot of the transmitters (access points) do have wired ports too. That way you and roomie won't lose connectivity for what is currently wired.

[Islena]

Tenri - The distance would probably be about 20ft in a straight line, upstairs to downstairs, one wall inbetween.

Zigg - The switch is an 8-port unit with 6 ports currently used so there is one open one and one shared with the WAN port. That port is almost never used unless there is a LAN group over, so it should not be an issue.
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Giasta
Stormwarden of Tunare
"Dispell is my friend...NOT yours"
Mostly Retired
_________________
Islena
Dark Princess of the 65th Gloaming
Retired

[fieni]

and if you are concern about everyone accessing your wireless network, change at least the default config NOT to advertize the network name and/or limit access by MAC address. should be easy to manage if just one or two wireless cards.

BTW, using WAP as acronym for wireless access point is confusing as WAP is a protocol used over wireless device as phone

[tenri]

Ok here come the tech questions
1 is the house older or newer
2 do you live by a airport /radio station or have a lot of florescent lights ie.


The newer the house the more signal drain there is do to proper grounding of all metal pipes for electrical and water

Living by a radio station will kill signal strength as will a air port (kind of like having your fm station playing in your car as you pass close to a am radio transmitter it will over ride the fm signal by strength alone)

And 1 and ½ million other reasons we won’t cover

But then again it may just be that the settings are not right
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Tenri Death

Ya Ya i know shut up skinny necro boy

[Islena]

House if quite new. About 1.5 years old now.

Airport is about 5 miles away.
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Giasta
Stormwarden of Tunare
"Dispell is my friend...NOT yours"
Mostly Retired
_________________
Islena
Dark Princess of the 65th Gloaming
Retired

[tenri]

well the house being new may give a 2-5 % loss but you shouldnt see that in the speed you connect

does the system you are useing show a signal streght ? at the laptop
and can you point the attenae towards the base unit ?
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Tenri Death

Ya Ya i know shut up skinny necro boy

[fieni]

get one at best buy... try.. return if doesn't work...