Reccomend me a Wireless Network Kit

[CoX]

My birthday is coming up soon and I would like a wireless router as a present so I can get the internet connection on this computer to the one in my room. However, neither me nor my parents know the first thing about what i'll need to make a complete (and safe) connection.

Could you helpful chaps please tell me:

what are the terms for the complete pieces of kit I'll need (I know i'll need a wireless router but what else?)
what brands/specific models are best
what software i'll need to protect my computer from haxxors


I'm looking for something around £50, but could pay up to £70.

All suggestions will be rewarded with a plus and a kiss.

Thanks in advance.

[Mellomeh]

Well I am currently using a D-link 624+ router which is £35 off ebuyer, its good, but whatever you do, do not buy Dynamode wireless cards, they suck arse, the software wont work and they have awful connectivity. You may need a spare ethernet cable. Depending on where you live you may or may not need hacking software. My neighbours are trustworthy and I doubt the signal could reach to one of them, but I live in a large semi detached house. If you live in terraced housing or anywhere near a student then you will need anti-hacking software, if not, then all you'll need is a firewall, which you can download for free (see the freeware thread).

Then again, listen to someone who knows more about networking than me.

[Soapie]

Netgear are the win with network stuff. Easy as pie to set up, encrypt etc and you can change practically anything if you want to.

If you want to share your internet connection, it would be easiest if you plug your modem into the network as opposed to it being a USB modem on one of your computers (in which case that one will have to be on for the other to access the internet). If you don't already have a modem with an ethernet port on it, the easiest solution would be to buy a wireless router with a modem inside it and just plug the cable that was going into the USB modem into this instead. Then it'll automatically modulate and demodulate the internets for both of your computers. How nice of it.

This (http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?quicklinx=2VCD&CategorySelectedId=11005) is what we have and it's bloody good.

[Stringy Pete]

This (http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?quicklinx=2VCD&CategorySelectedId=11005) is what we have and it's bloody good.
I have the same, was recommended by those fly cats over at overclockers.co.uk (where coincidentally it is only £52, as opposed to £70 :p )

[Soapie]

I have the same, was recommended by those fly cats over at overclockers.co.uk (where coincidentally it is only £52, as opposed to £70 :p )I don't know where we got ours from, I just found it on dabs :)

[Paradigm^]

You're more likely to be looking at £70 than £50 - you'll need a router, and then wireless cards for all devices you want to be using the network wirelessly.

Netgear and D-Link are recommended brands (some may also say Linksys and Belkin) - don't go with something just because it's cheap, since it's probably cheap for a reason (this applies to most of the computing harware world, actually). Depending on whether your ISP has supplied you with a modem that has an ethernet-out or not, you may need your router with a modem too. If you've got a USB modem for your interwebs then you'll need to get a router with inbuilt modem; if you're lucky enough to have an Ethernet modem you can buy a normal router and plug the router into the modem into the wall.

NETGEAR DG834G Integrated ADSL Modem 54Mbps 802.11g Wireless Firewall Router (http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=52244) - a step down from the router I have (because I believe in bragging rights and wanted a 108Mbps network), comes with modem and also an inbuilt firewall (I'll get to that later). £64.42
D-Link DSL-902 54Mbps Wireless ADSL Router DSL-G604T + DWLG650+ Wireless PCMCIA Adapter (http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=12208251032&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=65177) - A tad cheaper, and also comes with a wireless card for laptops bundled in with it. Either of these will do if (as I suspect) your current modem is a USB one. £55.04

If you are lucky and you've got a proper Ethernet modem, the price drops a bit.
Netgear WG602 54mbps 802.11g Wireless Access Point (http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=46057) is the Netgear offering £39.81;
D-Link DWL-2000AP+ 54Mbps 802.11g Access Point (http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=54065) - and the same for D-Link. £38.30

In terms of a wireless card for your PC:
Netgear WG311 54mbps 802.11g Wireless PCI Card (http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=50127) Netgear, £29.02
D-link DWL-G520+ 54mbps 802.11g PCI Card (http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=12208489333&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=53222) D-Link, £25.61

As for firewalls - well, you may be lucky and get one as part of your wireless router (the Netgear modem one has one for sure, I wasn't paying attention to the D-Link one). If so then you'll be up and away. If you haven't got one with the router, then I'm not too sure - you may want to go for a hardware firewall option, or just stick with having software firewalls on all the computers you have connected to the network.

[Bloopo]

I can also vouch for Netgear.

[Minted]

I've noticed that a few of these links are for access points, as opposed to routers. Access points generally don't have any sort of allowance for cabled network sharing. So if you go down that route - you'll only be able to connect to the network wirelessly. Routers on the other hand give you the option of wired or wireless, and considering theres no real cost difference (in fact, the router below is cheaper than the access points mentioned), I would go for the router every time.

I really like Buffalo network kit, I've had a Buffalo wireless router running at home for over 2 years now without being reset (yes, it's 802.11b - but with a 2meg line it's hardly a problem).

Buffalo kit starts from around £30-40 (http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=12221324284&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=86569), but as everyone else has stated - expect to pay closer to £60-70 (http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=12221307302&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=60225) if you want an adsl modem built in.

The one piece of advice I would give you is to keep the kit all the same brand as much as possible. While it shouldn't make a difference on a network with an infrastructure (ad-hoc is evil, eeevvviiiillll) it does mean you can take advantage of any proprietary speed increasing protocols - which is how SarChasm is achieving 108Mbps on a 54Mbps system.

Finally, and this is an aside really, if you plan on running linux on a laptop most Linksys pcmcia cards are well supported - Ubuntu has picked both my old 802.11b and my newer 802.11g card up with no problems at all.

[Mozzer]

Finally, and this is an aside really, if you plan on running linux on a laptop most Linksys pcmcia cards are well supported - Ubuntu has picked both my old 802.11b and my newer 802.11g card up with no problems at all.
However, if you are planning on running Linux on a desktop and you are using a PCI card, it will be an absolute bloody nightmare. I also have Ubuntu and Ndiswrapper (the tool to make windows wireless drivers work on Linux) is not an easy toy to play with. As a n00b it took me weeks to figure it all out, including help from the Ubuntu forum nerds.

Other advice: don't buy a D-Link DWL-510 because the driver smells. You will have to use a different driver and edit the code, and even then it's slightly unreliable and only b standard (11mbps). And their tech support is non-existant - I emailed them the fact that a third party driver was better than their's and asked when they would be fixing it. No reply. Willies.

I would really like to slag off every D-Link product under the sun but as I have only tried one it wouldn't really be fair :p

[CoX]

Thanks for all the advice guys, my parents told me they asked a bloke in PC World about them and he showed them all the kit I needed, I am going to go with them on their next visit to take a gander myself.

Will give you an update so you can tell me what you think.

[Ste150]

Do not buy from PC world...
Sure, take their advice, but you will end up paying over the odds for any stuff you buy. I've recently been told they have got better at it, but I’m still on a personal boycott because of how they rip off computer users who don’t know it.
/rant

I recomend looking around on the net for the stuff you need, then talking nicely to your folks and getting them to give you the cash to buy it for yourself for ur birthday. :)

[Paradigm^]

PC World a) have a reputation for being incredibly stupid b) are ridiculously overpriced. I wandered into my local the other day out of random masochism and found it hard not to hurt someone.

The interweb is your friend, if you possibly can at all.

[Youlikeyams?]

If I wanted to use my PSP at home wirelessly (say, if someone else is on the computer and I want to browse the net) would I buy a router or an access point? Would it matter?

[CoX]

Get your own thread. :p

I don't think it would matter. Both would recieve a signal from your PSP, and your PSP would recieve a signal from both. Although a wireless router could then also be use to access the internet on another computer or laptop, killing two birds with one stone (thats why i'm getting a wireless router instead of the standard USB thingy for the DS, I still have one computer which has no internets and my Dad keeps blaming me for the slightest thing that happens to this computer).