My home network hasn't been altered in 3 or 4 years: the cable modem connects to an SMC Barricade router. That router feeds the main desktop, an industrial networked printer, a spare desktop, and a Netgear MA401 wireless router. The system has been rock-solid over the years, with none of the sporadic grief that seems to afflict so many wireless networks. It's used to communicate with several laptops - an XP Pro T20 Thinkpad with PCI network card, a Vista T42 Thinkpad with inbuilt mini-PCI networking, and an XP Pro Dell C610 with mini-PCI networking.
As an aside, that particular wirelss router appears to be the poor stepchild of Netgear. It never got much attention, received little in the area of upgrades, and didn't stick around very long. Strange.
I'm toying with the idea of upgrading to more contemporary equipment, to get at least .g and maybe (desireable?) .n connectivity, and the improved security beyond my current equipment's 128-bit WEP. I probably don't need any upgrade
- the speed is generally fast enough and I can always use a wired connection for anything oddball (extreme cases like, say, the XP SP2 download). But sometimes things get done just because.
Any particular equipment advice for someone in this situation? Would I keep the Barricade or go to something with Gig speed? I'd presumably replace the router, the PCI card, and the two mini-PCI cards for something that could support WPA. I don't need to spend megabucks for industrial-strength equipment, but the cost isn't really an issue otherwise.
Appreciate any discussion.
Art