[RESOLVED] Recommendations for wireless network?

Hope you all had a good Thanksgiving?

With all the good Black Friday sales out there, I'm looking at wireless (again/still ;) )

Have a desktop with Chaintech 7nif2 mobo. Connected to cable via Motorola Surf Board. Desktop is in home office and isn't going anywhere. Have Gateway 400x notebook that I want to create a wireless connection for so I can use it around the house. It has "Integrated Intel® 10/100 Ethernet Network Adapter, Integrated 802.11b Wireless Ethernet. " I've read reviews till I can't see straight. And as far as user reviews, they aren't consistent: seems to be either a love/hate relationship.

Security is utmost priority with speed a close second. If I have to pay extra $ for those features I'm willing to do so.

What prompted all this was teasers that stores have: C City has a Netgear wireless G router and wireless notebook adapter for $20 after rebates. Best Buy has D-link wireless G kit for $14.99 post rebates, but it's a USB adapter, not a notebook adapter. And there are good buys on others brands as well, such as Belkin Wireless Pre-N. Any recommendations are appreciated.

Hello KatMac,

Both D-Link and NetGear are good ones to choose from as well as Linksys products. Do you have links to the products you are looking at? Maybe we can help you decide if you need a little help. This Dlink router cost $20.00 after the rebate. It has support for WPA.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...P=OTC-MSNHPAGE

Hi Eric,
How goes it? I went out yesterday and grabbed one of the NetGear's from CC (got last one of two they had on shelves. Big rebate fiasco at checkout, but finally did get both router and notebook adapter at final cost of $19.94 after rebates. And although users either love or hate this product, figured at that price, it's worth a try.)

I got:
NetGear Model WGT624 (version 3) Wireless Router
NetGear Model WG511T Notebook Adapter

You can take a look a Router specs and reviews at
New Egg and Circuit City

I remembered what you told me last spring about getting WAP, so I made sure this one has it. I'm about to try to set it up now.

Am sure I'll be back if I encounter hitches. I stressed to salesman at CC that I wanted security as an utmost priority. He told me he sets up Cisco routing systems as his "day job" (just in CC PC sales for holidays), and suggested for added security setting up the MAC address as well as static IP. Maybe that will make better sense when I delve further into it.

Some say linksys products are good, but they are cheaply made and I have had nothing but problems with any linksys products I have ever owned. D-link is great, and netgear is even better...I'd go with netgear but that's my own personal choice and seems to be the personal choice of the others who replied to this thread so far. You can't go wrong with netgear

You can obtain the firmware upgrade and reference manual here.

http://kbserver.netgear.com/products/WGT624v3.asp

Thanks Eric. Got firmware upgrade. Got NetGear router all hooked up, and notebook is now connected.

Next step is making sure it's secure. I'm running ZA firewall on both PCs (XP Pro on desktop, XP Home on notebook.) Use AVG Antivirus, Ad-Aware, SpyBot, Spywareblaster. I set it up using WPA and an intricate passphrase.

I am very concerned about security for the laptop. I do not plan to use the laptop for any work-related issues or in-depth personal financial use (that will all be strictly kept on the Desktop). Notebook will be for surfing and paying personal bills online, since I can now locate the laptop at my "personal" desk, which is in a corner of the family room.

OK, that's my intended usage. I have two questions so far:

1) Printer Sharing. Printer is connected to desktop. I want to be able to share that printer with laptop. But I do not want to share any files/folders between PCs. If I set up a network, will that automatically leave a stream open that includes not only printer sharing, but files as well? Or can I designate printer sharing only and exclude files/folders?

2) They told me at C. City to configure/use the MAC address as added security. That has me really confused at this point. I guess the primary confusion is the difference between IP address and MAC address. But I did start>run>cmd> and entered the command to locate my physical address, so I do have MAC address. But don't know what to do from there, having trouble locating that at NetGear's KB.

Just share the printer. If you don't want to share files then don't share any out. You should be able to do MAC address filtering through the NetGear router. Have a look at the manual on page 64.

Well, this has turned into a small nightmare. Attempted to do printer sharing, but kept getting errors that this request could not be processed (Comcast able to block that or something?) So I left that idea alone for awhile. Since notebook was only connecting at 56 mbps, I shifted focus to trying to get the router run at 108 mpbs. Configured it according to instructions at NetGear site, and it has not worked since. Can't even revert back to prior settings. On notebook, NetGear utility says I have good connection, but I cannot view web pages, as if I'm offline. And on the notebook, under "about" section, there is no IP address listed.

I have no clue where to go from here. Reading the manuals and forums at NetGear completely confuses me. I have ZA and AVG shutdown on notebook. I reset IE settings from Custom to Medium security. Just now, I even went so far as to do a system restore on both computers, prior to the time I installed Netgear hardware/software, and started over again. Same thing. Can connect on Desktop no problem. Firmware is upgraded to latest. Notebook shows I'm connected, but cannot access web pages.

If anyone can help, I'd be very, very grateful. 3 days on this is driving me crazy!

It might help if you provide the ipconfig/all for each computer so we can diagnose the problem.

The laptop should be getting an ip address from the router. Usually in the 192.168.x.x range. I suggest that you disable wireless encryption on the router temporarily until everything is working. Was it working before without encryption?

Eric, you are a good guy :)

OK, I can post IPconfig/all if you need it.

But I just set Desktop security to "Disable". Set notebook to "Disable". It's working again and I got online with notebook.

When it was working the other day, I had security settings at WPA -PSK [TKIP] on both computers, same passphrase entered, and I got online no problem. (I didn't really know which choice to make with WPA, since there's also WPA-PSK [AES] and then both WPA-PSK [TKIP] + WPA-PSK [AES] as options. I just remembered you telling me last spring when shopping that WPA is most secure.) When I started encountering troubles, and randomly tried "fixes" I tried switching to WEP, but that confuses me too and I don't know which settings to choose (64 bit, 128 bit, keyes, etc.)

Well, the problem is with the security settings as you discovered and no I don't need the ipconfig settings for each computers.

You want to choose the highest encryption that you network equipment can support, and since it supports WPA let's use it. The router will need to be set with WPA-PSK. That is what you want. Then you'll need to configure the adapters either by a third party or the Windows functionality in XP.

WPA Wireless Security for Home Networks
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/u..._03july28.mspx

OK, I can se it back to WPA-PSK (that's the choice, of the 3 for WPA, that you're recommending?). But this next part:

Quote:

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Then you'll need to configure the adapters either by a third party or the Windows functionality in XP.

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Can you break that down for me? Sorry, I'm just not following. I know squat about wireless and networking. ;)

EDIT: Clarify choices for WPA-PSK.

I can choose:
WPA-PSK [TKIP]
WPA2-PSK [AES]
or both of the above.

Are you suggesting WPA-PSK [TKIP] ?

After you've set up your router or access point for WPA-PSK, you need to configure the computers with the appropriate settings. If you are using the Windows functionality to configure the wireless network, then look at the link above. Some network cards come with their own utility. If so, you may have to use the software provided.

OK, I'm following. And therein lies the problem. I'm using Netgear Config Utility Software on notebook. As soon as I switch Desktop from zero security to WPA, then go to notebook and use Config Utility to switch to WPA (including entering exact passphrase), I'm back to the same spot. Netgear config utility on notebook fluctuates between showing I'm getting a "good" connection (all green lights) to switching intermittantly to red lights. Even when it shows I have a "good" connection, I can't connect to web on notebook and IP number is showing all zeros again.

This might not have anything to do with your problem, but I would make sure you have the latest drivers. Check Device Manager and expand the network adapters and check to see what version you have. You might want to get the latest drivers. I'm wondering if you can use the Windows functionality and uninstall the NetGear utility.

WG511T Notebook Adapter
http://kbserver.netgear.com/support_...asp?dnldID=875