Wireless Networking - Wiring

Hi,

I shall shortly be changing to a wireless home network, but have a few questions regarding any necessary wiring. A bit about the network: it will be three desktop PCs, all with wireless PCI network cards.

I believe I am correct in saying the following:

  1. The Broadband modem (supplied by my ISP) plugs straight into the telephone line.
  2. The broadband modem then plugs into the wireless router.

However, I am not sure of what happens next.

Does the wireless router need to be plugged into the back of one of the PCs using a network cable and network adaptor? Or, can all necessary communication between the PC and router be done wirelessly?

Put another way, can the router be stand-alone, or does it need to be connected (using a cable) to a "mother" PC? If this *is* the case, does it mean my wireless network will only operate when the "mother" PC is switched on? If so, are there any ways of getting around this?

I am intending to use the Belkin F5D7230 router and Belkin F5D7000 network cards.

Thanks in advance, should anything (or everything) be unclear, please say so and I will try to clarify.

Chris

Reply to
Chris
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Since the OP is on NTLI.NET, I'll assume it's an ADSL system and not a cable modem system.

I beg to differ with that recommendation. I don't like all-in-one boxes, even if they are cheaper. The problem is flexability, ease of upgrade, and positioning the access point (radio) antenna. I prefer something like a hi-fi component system, where the ADSL modem, the ethernet router, and the wireless access point, are three different seperate boxes. The ADSL modem is just a brain dead ATM to ethernet bridge. $15-$60 on eBay. However, if the buyer moves and goes to some house that has a cable modem, satellite, or WISP broadband instead of ADSL, then it's easy enough to simply replace the modem part of the puzzle, leaving the router and wireless parts intact. Similarly, if the need for complex router features appears (VPN termination, intrusion detection, hot spot operation, etc), then the router could be upgraded without affecting the the modem or the wireless parts of the puzzle. You can get some very fancy routers, but they're all ethernet only, with no built in wireless. Similarly, the wireless part of the puzzle is adding new features and acronyms on a monthly basis. If the latest wireless technology obsoletes the access point, again it is only necessary to replace the access point, not the entire conglomeration.

Location is another issue. Wired devices such as modems and ethernet router tend to congregate where the wires all come together. That's usually n a basement, closet, under a desk, on the floor, or other well hidden location.

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such locations are terrible for wireless conectivity. Ideally, the access point and antenna should be as high in the room as possible, centrally located in the desired coverage area, and away from the metallic tangle of wires and cables found around most router and ethernet switches. With a seperate access point, all that's required to connect to the ethernet router is a single CAT5 cable and possibly some AC power. This arrangement also has the supreme security advantage of allowing the seperate access point to be turned off when not in use. No need to leave it on if nobody is home or using the wireless.

Therefore, may I humbly suggest you NOT purchase an all-in-one conglomeration of modem, router, and wireless, lest you blunder into one of the aformentioned situations.

Yep. Wireless is bridging and knows nothing about IP addresses, routeing, or networking. It's literally a replacement for an ethernet cable. More specifically, 802.11 encapuslates 802.3 ethernet packets making it essentially an ethernet extension cord.

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

just get a Broadband Wireless router..........don't bother with the modem.

router plugs into main phone socket...........comps talk to the router via pci, usb, pmcia, or minipci wireless adapters

Reply to
Ted

"Chris" wrote in news:sndAe.28530$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe1-win.ntli.net:

Once everything is set up, you can do it all wirelessly. However, you most likely will need to plug in upon first set up, and it's good to keep a wire handy, and a computer close by, in case of problems.

Reply to
The Chairman

I just put a second linksys wrt54g wap/router device on my home system.. At walmart this week for $59.88.....

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.. No mother pc needed, can do both wired and wireless.. Probably cheaper than the electric to leave a pc on. I usually set it to wired only to change configuration, then a hacker can't mess with my settings.

Reply to
Peter Pan

And I thought I was to only one that still liked having individual components :)

Reply to
YouCanToo

Well, even though I have the wap/router in one box, all my audio-video stuff are discrete components... I look at wap stuff as throwaway/get the cheapest, and under $60 for a wap/router at walmart was a pretty cool price.

Reply to
Peter Pan

Well, sometimes I suspect I'm the only one on the planet with such an opinion. Most of what I do lately is troubleshooting installations. I'm constantly running into problem that would best be solved by moving, replacing, or augmenting one of the basic components of the wireless system, but due to the all-in-one nature of the current commodity hardware, such a change would necessitate replaceing everything. Last week, one of the local hot spot owners wanted the ability to turn off the wireless but keep the router on for his own use. I ended up with a rather crude software solution, but it would have been much easier if the wireless access point has been in a seperate box. About a month ago, I replaced a perfectly adequate all-in-one box with components because the owner wanted to share his 5 static IP addresses with the other businesses, but because the ADSL modem was conglomerated with the router, he couldn't split off the connection to other routers.

In another case, the location of the various devices necessitated seperate boxes. The most common is insufficent RF coverage in a home where exposed cables are a problem. The wireless wants to live up high, but the wires to the switch make a mess. That reminded me of a story. Gorgeous museum quality house. The owner didn't like all the CAT5 wires climbing his wall so he bought an all-in-one conglomeration with a built in ADSL modem. He then installed a pair of Phonex (POTS telephone over power line) adapters to eliminate the phone line going to the modem. That didn't work at all. I didn't replace that one with components, but added an external antenna to get decent coverage from where he had buried the all-in-one box. Part of the fun was painting the coax cable to match the wall coloring.

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

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