wireless help

PhantomOG

ok all you wireless gurus, here's your chance to help a wireless newb.

my apartment neighbor and I would like to share a broadband connection. he has a linksys G wireless router. what is the best and cheapest way for me to hook up to his wireless network?

i thought i would buy a bridge and plug it into my wired router and be able to have a local wired network while using his wireless network for net access. sound ok?

i was going to buy this because i can get it for cheap, but it looks like it won't hook up to a router and furthermore won't connect to a non-broadcast SSID.

so what device will do this?

THIS is really expensive AND gets horrible reviews.

should i just get PCI wireless cards for each of my computers? sounds like a pain, and I've been told the signal might not be as good.

-justin-

I don't understand, if HE has the wireless router, then all you need is a wireless card to connect.

BAM! Internet.

~JB

avelanchefan

Gotta go with Justin.

If he is right next door to you then the wireless G should be strong enough to reach.

Do you have a desktop or laptop computer?

avelanchefan

http://www.circuitcity.com/detail.jsp?c=1&b=g&u=c&catoid=-10265&qp=0&oid=73701&m=0

Or


http://www.circuitcity.com/detail.jsp?c=1&b=g&u=c&catoid=-10265&qp=0&oid=72887&m=0


Either one shoould be just fine as long as he is near by.

PhantomOG

I currently have two PCs in a wired network (same room) using a Linksys router. woiuldn't mind eventually getting a lappy.

He's close but not next door. He lives on the third floor, I'm on the first. I'll have to scrounge up a PCI adapter and try it and see how the signal strength is. I was looking at the bridges because someone told me they would pick up a stronger (faster) signal.

If I just use wireless adapters, is it still possible to share printers and files between my two PCs? I can't even get that to work with my wired network God I hate dealing with software!!!!

Shizelbs

Is he directly above you?

PhantomOG

nope, he isn't.

we've tried running the wireless router from my place and used a laptop in his place. it worked but the signal was pretty weak. still need to try it the other way around. since it is a pretty good distance i was thinking a device like a bridge would pick up/send better signal strength to/from the wireless router.

Shizelbs

You could try getting a signal booster as well.

Strong Bad

Your problem comes down to distance indoors. Wireless G will go about 100-150 feet indoors, but is subject to wall/floor thickness and material, which will shorten that distance considerably. Apartment buildings usually have thick concrete floors. You're going through 2 of them essentially.

Do you guys share the same building stairwell?

If it's feasable, try relocating his router closer to his front door and you setting up a wireless bridge positioned close to your front door. This may shorten the distance. Then you set up your 2 PCs with wireless cards to access your bridge. You'll be able to share resources (files, folders, printer, etc..) on both of your PCs by creating user accounts (with passwords) on the PCs and sharing out the resources.

Make sure he enables his router for wireless encryption (WEP or WPA) and enables MAC filtering. You in turn will have to match the wireless encryption scheme on your 2 PCs. This will keep the rest of the neighborhood OUT!

Hope this helps.

John

HBombToo

Buy a yagi for his end and see if that does the trick. Sounds like you have signal so a little gain may be the trick.

John nailed it though with the waveguide effect.

1/2Twin

PhantomOG

what's a yagi?

HBombToo

its a directional antenna... pretty small at about 18" long and 6" wide and flat shaped like a slice of a christmas tree. The "fins" are dipoles and most are stacked passive arrays but some could be active arrays.

1/2Twin

HBombToo

Originally posted by HBombToo
its a directional antenna... pretty small at about 18" long and 6" wide and flat shaped like a slice of a christmas tree. The "fins" are dipoles and most are stacked passive arrays but some could be active arrays.

1/2Twin

btw some may look like a small cylindar.

PhantomOG

Originally posted by anonymouse
Get a Dlink DWL900AP+ and use it as a client. It is extremely sensitive - more than most cards I have used. I can see 3-4 access points from my neighbors with that, but only my own access point with my laptop wireless cards.

You can then either wire the DWL900AP+ into a wired or wireless router to set up your own network.

would it be better to get a Linksys WAP rather than DLink since the wireless router is a Linksys? or does that not really matter?

PhantomOG

Originally posted by anonymouse
Get a Dlink DWL900AP+ and use it as a client. It is extremely sensitive - more than most cards I have used. I can see 3-4 access points from my neighbors with that, but only my own access point with my laptop wireless cards.

You can then either wire the DWL900AP+ into a wired or wireless router to set up your own network.

would it be better to get a Linksys WAP rather than DLink since the wireless router is a Linksys? or does that not really matter?

dthomps

Hey OG
This is what you should do.
Either buy an 802.11g USB adaptor (so you can play with the placement for the best signal) or but an 802.11g PCI card. My recommendation is to swing by your CompUSA and see if they have any Buffalo brand G stuff, all of it is marked down at $30 for clearance. They have a PCI g card there with an antenna on a 6' (I think) pigtail, so you can play with placement ect. I think you will be OK, as I 'piggyback' off a neighbor across my street and a house down with an 802.11b usb adaptor, and get signal strengths of about 70-80%.
Let me dig up a link for what I am talking about.
Mike


EDIT-
Here's the linkClick

Shizelbs

CC has Microsoft networking stuff on clearance too.

Pablo

I have a wireless G at my house and have a weak signal. But it does seem to work ok even with that. You should place the wireless router as close to each other as you can. If you get a constant signal all the time, leave it at that. Otherwise the bridge may help (but I'm not sure how much stronger the signal is out of it that a normal PCI card). If you do set up the bridge, again put the bridge and the router as close as possible.

Wireless G seem to have a weaker signal than other formats (A & . Some cordless phones run at the same 2.4GHz, so sometimes the conflict. I had to set up my router in a specific location to be able to get it at both ends of the house (it's a farily large house). I will be going the bridge route in the near future ($149 is a good price. They were over $200 a little while back).

It's a total pain in the butt that's for sure. Also, like mentioned before, make sure that encryption is on or the whole building will start getting free internet access.

PhantomOG

I think I'm going to pick up a Linksys Wireless Router (WRT54G). On sale today for under $60 and it is supposed to be hackable to act like a bridge.

PhantomOG

woohoo! it works! my new wireless router is plugged into my wired router into my computers and I've get net access (as my cable modem sits unplugged). that's $45 a month less time warner will be getting out of me!

now if i could only get this crappy MS network neighborhood crap working i'd be in business.

Steve@3dai

Networking newb

PhantomOG

Originally posted by Steve@3dai
Networking newb

yeah yeah yeah... i spend enough time in front of a computer every day at work that i really really hate trying to learn how to debug and make M$ work for me at home. Maybe I should just run Linux at home and be done with it.

Steve@3dai

Originally posted by PhantomOG


yeah yeah yeah... i spend enough time in front of a computer every day at work that i really really hate trying to learn how to debug and make M$ work for me at home. Maybe I should just run Linux at home and be done with it.

True, I've been getting away from the PC lately. Well, sorta, doing a HTPC/PVR box.

Heh, if you thought working out M$ bugs was bad, just try installing drivers for wireless for Linux