high speed internet help

[Wetzel]

Originally Posted by evulish

Actually, 802.11g has about a 10% shorter range than 802.11b. Also, any type of 802.11g device should work with any 802.11b device and vice-versa.. the 802.11g spec was designed to be backwards-compatible. I know this from experience since I have an 802.11b router, an 802.11g AP, 802.11g card, and an 802.11b adapter. They have all worked just fine together (the problem is between 802.11b/g and 802.11a). Also, if you're going to be using directional antennas, you're not going to get very good reception if you're moving around with a laptop.

I know from experience that there are G devices that do not work on B only devices. My roomates HP laptop has built in G, but does not work with B access points. I've heard of other people having problems, but I've seen the problems Justin has had. He got a USB B and uses that.

Wetzel

[Mike AA]

Originally Posted by Elgin Clock

Plus, to add to the b vs g wireless route, let's say you bought a laptop and wanted to connect to a wireless network at say the championship event.

G would let you connect, while B would not. (Been there, tried that )
G is the next generation wireless standard after B and is a lot more useful.

I connected just fine with my b wireless. It may have simply been where you were located. We'll see what happens this year

Originally Posted by Elgin Clock

edit: If you do ending up hooking up to the Cable line, run a speed test and let me know what your results are.. Mine is 2595.4 Kbps and I am in the middle of a city area right now.

I'm just curious as to if it is reletively the same in a rural area with a 1500' individual cable line.

316.5 ( I'm running on sDSL with a guaranteed speed, will double in two months when I upgrade)

-Mike

[Mike]

Originally Posted by Wetzel

I win Elgin.

Wetzel

666.6 Kbps - You

I always knew SBC Yahoo was evil

[Ashley Weed]

Originally Posted by Wetzel

I know from experience that there are G devices that do not work on B only devices. My roomates HP laptop has built in G, but does not work with B access points. I've heard of other people having problems, but I've seen the problems Justin has had. He got a USB B and uses that.

Wetzel

Wireless devices are back-wards compatible, whether it be like the new internal HP wireless G cards, or an external B/G/pre-N card that you have installed in PCMCIA slots. Yes, you may have to configure setting with your router, or with the computer BIOS to have everything working flawlessly (as I to know there are "bumps" along the way). But everything flows in a wireless world. With networking and emerging technologies classes under ones belt you find ways to get by obstacles. I currently manage 3 wireless networks, and one hardwired network. I run internal b and g devices, and external b, g, and pre-n devices on Cable, DSL, and dial-up from Netgear to Linksys and beyond.

As for your communication dilemma, Ben - definitely start with your cable company. Check around with more than one office in your area, and you might have to contact several people in the process to make the correct contact. If cable is available to at least the main road, you may have to pay the price, but there is no reason you cannot be "hooked up". I have also dealt with situations where cable was not available, and you can contact neighbors and petition to have it run at the company's cost.

Best Wishes.

[Nick Fury]

I think some of this wireless myth and lore should be cleared up as there seems to be much of it in this thread. Where to start:

802.11g does not go further in distance than 802.11b. It all depends on the Amps and Antennas you have connected, nothing to do with the ethernet spec.

802.11b is not cheaper than 802.11g. Seriously, I have heard this one before and it in all honestly just depends on what you buy and where you buy it.

802.11b hardware DOES work with new 802.11g hardware because 802.11g is backwards compatible, I'm not sure what the problems you had were but it wasn't because the access point was 802.11g and you had an 802.11b card.

Now back to the subject at hand. Aside from calling your cable company (which is the easy way out and is what you should do). If you wanted to set up a wireless access point at the end of your driveway and run it to your house it wouldn't be all that hard. The first thing you need to get is a cable/DSL modem. After that you need an access point of some kind on the driveway end. If you can find an older access point that was made to use with the prism2 chipset PCMCIA cards then I suggest you get it (yeah it's only 802.11b but since when does a cable/DSL connection get more than 11mbs?) then I reccomend you pick yourself up some 200mW Senaeo Engenius cards (probably two of them). Now for power, you don't need 120vac.. what you need is the combined DC voltage of the modem and the access point.. this can be done in many ways (to name two: solar and power of ethernet). You are also going to need some sort of directional antenna, a good cantenna will work excellently. Now you are done on the driveway side of things. Next up you need something to recieve the signal and split it off to your various computers but this is why you bought the other wireless card. (also probably going to need a PCMCIA to PCI adapter) I reccomend a pentium 2 machine as a router.. add about 512 of RAM and you are set. Use a crappy HD and set up a small router linux distro on it. Throw in another ethernet card and run it out to a switch/hub and you are done. Now plug the rest of the machines in.

Now if this sounds like an absurd amount of work, well it is. I have done similar setups before and they aren't much fun to trouble shoot but it does make you feel good to put something like this together. Anyway, I reccomend calling the cable company, it's a lot less headbanging and frustration.

BTW the total cost for all of this crap would be around 200 bucks... not bad I say.

[Raul]

There is another option I have not heard anyone mention - Canopy. It was designed for rural areas. Check this dealer in your state - not sure if they service your area, but worth a call:

http://www.jancommunications.com/motorola_canopy.htm

[Ashley Weed]

Originally Posted by Nick Fury

802.11b is not cheaper than 802.11g. Seriously, I have heard this one before and it in all honestly just depends on what you buy and where you buy it.

Whoops, sorry on my part, I was going to quote on that for you too in my original point. A network I set up in early Octoberish I ran into problems relating to this. The individual did not have a need or "want" for anything above or beyond a b, however I needed to make at least one desktop wireless as it was on a different floor (don't argue just play along ). With one desktop hardwired, and one wireless laptop I thought this was going to be an in and out project.

Just as a little warning to you - phasing out of b products is occurring. Depending on the company you want to work with (I personally have always favored Netgear, its all in ones opinion), you may easily pay more for a b product than a g or super-g (enhanced) product. So keep a heads up when you are shopping for what you may need.

[Jeffrafa]

I would defenitely reccomend staying away from satelite internet. We had it for a year till we could get DSL last september and its not all its cracked up to be. The latency of the connection is what stinks, it was always at least double that of regular dial-up, so it takes just as long to load pages and surf the net. Downloading is great on it once you have established a connection - easily outstripping any dsl or cable connection, but it has a rather low download limit of 160 Mb per 4 hours.

We also had trouble with it being improperly installed the first time, which led to the service cutting out regularly (daily, or every couple of days) and being easily swayed by the slightest bit of weather. Once it was reinstalled correctly, which took at least 7 months to get them to do as well as a couple hundred to cover the pole for mounting, it worked much better in that it hardly ever cut out. It still had bad latency (ping times between 1500 and 3000) and still had a very annoying download limit that you could max out in 15 minutes if you tried, then you were completely cut off for 4 hours.

Anyways, thats my experience with it.