Dave Posted October 5, 2005 Report Share Posted October 5, 2005 What is it wireless??, why have we been sold this bollocks.. Mine is up and down like a yo-yo.. I'm going back to cat5 cable.. at least that is stable and no-one can nick your bandwidth. I reckon wireless is a con.. ok for unsecure or non-important stuff, but when you need to count on it.. go with a wired option. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mollox Posted October 5, 2005 Report Share Posted October 5, 2005 Care to explain dave? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Posted October 5, 2005 Author Report Share Posted October 5, 2005 It's just shite.. mine keeps dropping the connection and then re-setting itself.. re-loaded the driver loads of time. Pile of poo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woppum Posted October 5, 2005 Report Share Posted October 5, 2005 I had the same problem, for X-box live I invested in wireless this, Belkin that, and it hardly ever worked! Everything interfered! So now I am back to a huge cable, stretching from my upstairs study PC to the downstairs living room box! At least it works... mostly! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frodo Posted October 5, 2005 Report Share Posted October 5, 2005 I have found my wireless very stable once the firmware got above ver. 2. I use Netgear through-out and don't like Belkin as have had loads of problems but each to their own. One thing I always try to use the built utilities of Windows XP the manufacturers utilities seem to cause most issues. My network is relatively secure, unfortunately I have to use WEP 128 bit as I am using two access points in repeater mode to get a quality signal strength through-out the house and garden. I also use MAC address filtering and personal firewalls on all the PCs. I know I could be hacked by some determined but their are plenty of easier targets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jsparkesuk Posted October 5, 2005 Report Share Posted October 5, 2005 I have wireless and now its actually been properly installed its great, two forewalls and a encrypted password to get through, no unorthorised access only by a 13 alphanumerical characters! I've got a netgear also and so far, 5 months, one problem (which was me doing it wrong ) and its fantastic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jsparkesuk Posted October 5, 2005 Report Share Posted October 5, 2005 ooops ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UBM Posted October 5, 2005 Report Share Posted October 5, 2005 Yep - ours is top too! Need to reconnect the link now and again - but very stable! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danksy Posted October 5, 2005 Report Share Posted October 5, 2005 Can honestly say I have never had a problem in the year I've had it, until last month. The PSU had burnt out in the router.. I contacted 3com, who arranged a replacement which I received from the US within 3 weeks. Then a second arrived from the US 2 weeks after that I always ensured I had kit made by the same people (3com in my case) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MOSE Posted October 5, 2005 Report Share Posted October 5, 2005 I have only recently started getting a problem with Wireless. Have got three PCs attached to it, for the life of me cannot get the printer to work over the netwrok, and only recently has the internet connection started playing up. Am with Tiscali, and have used the same account for three years. Its seems to drop connection once an hour, and also stuff like MSN frequently drops. Very frustrating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparky Posted October 5, 2005 Report Share Posted October 5, 2005 Dave, Try changing the channel to something else. All wireless equipment I've seen is always set to either channel 11 or 13. When people in my estate all started getting wireless, things went wrong very quickly - I did a quick NetStumbler scan and realised we were all trying for the same channel and everyone had the same router! Changed mine to channel 3 and it's been spot on ever since - no line drops at all. Worth a shot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sponge Posted October 5, 2005 Report Share Posted October 5, 2005 [ QUOTE ] What is it wireless??, why have we been sold this bollocks.. Mine is up and down like a yo-yo.. I'm going back to cat5 cable.. at least that is stable and no-one can nick your bandwidth. I reckon wireless is a con.. ok for unsecure or non-important stuff, but when you need to count on it.. go with a wired option. [/ QUOTE ] Totally agree! Everyone I know with wireless has some security/connection issues. Wires all the way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shark_90 Posted October 5, 2005 Report Share Posted October 5, 2005 Take Sparky's advice - he's right. Change your wireless channel in the config, make sure you have a WEP or WPA key enabled, and you won't have another problem (unless someone picks the same channel as you again, but unlikely) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chav Posted October 5, 2005 Report Share Posted October 5, 2005 [ QUOTE ] Everyone I know with wireless has some security/connection issues. Wires all the way. [/ QUOTE ] Never had a problem with any wireless stuff here, all Linksys components btw. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarMad Posted October 6, 2005 Report Share Posted October 6, 2005 [ QUOTE ] Dave, Try changing the channel to something else. All wireless equipment I've seen is always set to either channel 11 or 13. When people in my estate all started getting wireless, things went wrong very quickly - I did a quick NetStumbler scan and realised we were all trying for the same channel and everyone had the same router! Changed mine to channel 3 and it's been spot on ever since - no line drops at all. Worth a shot. [/ QUOTE ] Yep I did the same. Lots seem to have got it in the houses around and I was on the same number as 2 other people. Installed Netstumbler and all has been fine ever since. Have Netgear as have quite a few friends and family and have had no problems at all other than mentioned above. Linksys are good as well as they are now owned by Cisco and have a few high level features filtering into them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mb Posted October 6, 2005 Report Share Posted October 6, 2005 I have had wireless for a while now - never got WEP working properly (use MAC filtering for security) but all has worked well - it is a domestic environment so only used for internet & streaming mp3s to Soundbridge Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thorburn Posted October 6, 2005 Report Share Posted October 6, 2005 I have to do wireless setup at events for Intel and there are a few things that always hold true: 1) Take decent kit - cheap wireless equipment doesnt work well, buy a good quality access point and if they are available fit stronger aerials. Do a little research too as some wireless access points don't work well with certain transceivers for laptops or desktops. 2) Do some research into what channels those around you are using, Netstumbler (or a Cisco Airmagnet) is your friend. Pick the least crowded channel and one with no strong signals in your area. Some good quality access points can even switch automatically to the least congested channels. 3) Experiment with positioning of the access point - line of sight isn't a requirement but it'll help as any obstacles degrade the signal quality, try to minimise the distance (i.e. mount on the ceiling of the ground floor if you want to be able to use it upstairs as well). If you have the resources, wire in a CAT5 backbone, so you have a standalone ADSL/cable router, and then 2 wireless access points cabled into it and set up on different channels, positioned to give optimum coverage. I personally have been using wireless for over 2 years now and very rarely have any disconnections, and thats simply using a fairly basic £100 Netgear wireless ADSL Router with carefully chosen configuration. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rachel Posted October 7, 2005 Report Share Posted October 7, 2005 [ QUOTE ] Netstumbler (or a Cisco Airmagnet) is your friend [/ QUOTE ] Tom, I'll be you friend forever if you can get me one of the latter... They are a bit "rich" for the average geek to go and buy. If you have a Cisco Aironet card and an Intel-based laptop - download Kismet (or better yet, the Knoppix distro that runs off CD) and get ALL the info you want on the WLANs you can see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaunty Posted October 11, 2005 Report Share Posted October 11, 2005 I'm with you on this one Dave, if you don't need wireless use wires! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frodo Posted October 11, 2005 Report Share Posted October 11, 2005 Yes the security functions of wireless are not easy and I guess this is an area for improvement. Maybe Chris or Rachel could comment on the new "i" ratification? Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rachel Posted October 12, 2005 Report Share Posted October 12, 2005 My only comment would be: Don't hold your breath. Bigger issues are the "n" variant, the split in the industry over Wi-Fi and Wi-Max... The rule of thumb for Wireless networking is - if you have ANY security concerns (real or otherwise), then DO NOT USE wireless. Also - it cannot (for the forseeable future) get anywhere near the data rates of cable and fibre (and don't start on UWB). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve2 Posted October 28, 2005 Report Share Posted October 28, 2005 OK i have read all the posts and am still confused, all i want to do is use my laptop in other parts of the house so i want to go wireless. I have seen some Linksys stuff at Tescos, which seems to be a good price, by my reckoning i need a card for the laptop and a adsl router. I am running XP with 1 gig of ram, do you guys think that linksys is ok? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarMad Posted October 28, 2005 Report Share Posted October 28, 2005 Linksys are good as they are now owned by CISCO who are about the biggest maker of network devices on the planet. But Tescos aren't necessarily the cheapers and far from it when it comes to things like this from what I have seen. Have a look at places like dabs.com and savastore for how much they are selling for and if its a current model. I have Netgear and its never let me down. As for cars you need to get either a USB or PCMCIA card but check it doesn't have wireless already as most newish laptops now come fairly well equipped for the wireless world. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve2 Posted October 28, 2005 Report Share Posted October 28, 2005 Wireless-G 4-port ADSL2+ Gateway Main Features £47.50 ex. £55.81 inc. Itemcode: 10284404 Linksys Part Number: WAG354G-UK Availability: 5 in stock (available now), 645 (2-5 days) Add to my PriceWatch this is one of the ones i am looking at Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarMad Posted October 28, 2005 Report Share Posted October 28, 2005 Looks fine to me. They do faster ones now for a little more but if you are only doing ordinary surfing then that will be great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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