Wireless Networking
& relevant Links updated
If you have a laptop computer then wireless networking is ideal. You can connect to your high speed Internet connection in bed or outside your house. It only takes a couple of hours to set up a wireless network in your home.
Don't stay tied to your desk when you can roam freely in your home with this D-Link quality wireless networking bundle. This bundle includes the 22Mbps D-Link AirPlus DWL-650+ CardBus Adapter and the 22Mbps D-Link DI-614+ Enhanced Wireless Router (Recertified).
The D-Link AirPlus DWL-650+ CardBus Adapter is an enhanced 802.11b CardBus featuring an advanced silicon chip design from Texas Instruments that utilizes their patented Digital Signal Processing™ technology. The DWL-650+ is fully compatible with the IEEE 802.11b standard, making it suitable for all existing 802.11b compliant devices. When connected to standard 802.11b devices, transfer rates can be up to 20% faster. When connected to other D-Link AirPlus products, the performance is even greater—up to 22Mbps! The DWL-650+ also features 256-bit WEP encryption, providing you a higher level of security for your data and communications.
The D-Link AirPlus DWL-650+ also includes a configuration utility to discover available wireless networks and create/save detailed connectivity profiles for those networks most often accessed.
The DWL-650+ is a powerful 32-bit CardBus Adapter that installs quickly and easily into laptop PCs. When used with other D-Link AirPlus products, it automatically connects to the network. All D-Link wireless adapters can be used in ad-hoc mode to connect directly with other cards, or in infrastructure mode to connect with a wireless access point for access to the Internet in your office or home network. The AirPlus DI-614+ combines the latest advancements in 802.11b silicon chip technology from Texas Instruments and robust firewall security features. The DI-614+ is ideal for those creating their first wireless network, as well as for more advanced users looking for additional management settings and policy-based content filtering. Filters can be set based on MAC address, IP address, URL and/or Domain Name.
Wireless networking is a great way for sharing high speed Internet connections. If you're looking at adding a high speed Internet connection, DSL or cable modem is the best way. DSL of course is dependent on the distance from you to the exchange, while cable modem is dependent on your cable TV provider's offered high speed service. Call your phone or cable provider for details on their services.
You can share your DSL/ cable modem high speed connection across several computers with a DSL/ cable modem router.
This page is all about the current range of wireless routers which allow you to share an Internet connection without having any bulky network cables around your house.
How To set up Wireless Networking At Home
At home I have a cable modem attached to a separate wireless router. My cable modem and computers simply plug into the wireless router. My laptop has a wireless card allowing it to share the Cable High Speed Internet connection with my desktop PC.
Which Is The Best Home Wireless Networking Tool?
I would highly recommend D-link. It has got the strongest range of wireless networking products. The main advantages of D-Link wireless stuff is that for the same price you get twice the data rate.
All the other cheap wireless gear use 11Mbs (megabits per second) while D-Link gear supports 22 Mbs. D-Link is also slightly cheaper than most other brands, they have been around a while and their gear is reliable.
The 22 Mbs is the peak data transfer rate of the wireless network. In the real world 11 Mbs equates to about 300Kbs (1/3 megabyte per second) while D-Link gear will do around 500 Kbs (1/2 megabyte per second).
The one catch is to get this higher speed you must use a D-Link wireless router and D-Link wireless network cards in your laptop or PC. The good news is that D-Link wireless network cards are no more expensive than cards by other manufacturers.
Have a look at this D-Link 54Mbps wireless router. The 54 Mbps is very fast and will give you about half the speed of a 100Mbps regular wired network connection.
You will also need wireless network cards in each of your computers. You need small PC cards for laptops
Buy the D-Link Wireless 22Mbps PC Card here
For desktop computers you should get a high speed 54Mdps wireless PCI adaptor card.
Get the D-Link 54Mbps 2.4GHz Wireless PC card for your notebook.
Advantages of Wireless Networking
Carrying out a neat installation using Ethernet cables to connect computers to a DSL/ cable modem router is often quite annoying. Most people don't want cables traced throughout their home and it is beyond my abilities at home DIY to conceal them in an effective way.
A wireless network means that you do not need to run cables all over your house connecting the computers to the router. If you ever have to move then your wireless router just packs up with you and is as easy to install in your next place.
It is quite common however for people to use a mix of wired and wireless solutions on their home networks. This is what I do. It is possible as almost all wireless routers also have 4 normal network ports to add wired computers to the network.
If you already have a home network the a wireless router is the cheapest way to add wireless connections.
