Posted: 12/26/2009 5:34:19 AM EDT
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my g/f needs a wireless router for her laptop, ( dell ? i think ? )
i was going to sneak off and pick one up for her but i dont know shit about them, are they universal or do you have to buy them according to computer brand ? are some WAY better than others, or are they pretty much all the same ? |
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Linksys or DLink most anything will do, If there is nothing too secure she's worried about you don't NEED to change IP or set ip a WPA or WEP code for security but it isn't hard. How old is her laptop? What standards it works on will make SOME differnece in what you get, like i said, they all pretty much are backwards compatable.
You probably don't need to spend more that $40-$60 and without setting up security, it's pretty much plug, discover and play |
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Whatever you get, just remember that the fastest speed advertised may not necessarily be what you get.
If you get a router rated up to 802.11g speeds (54Mbps) but her computer is only 802.11b capable (11Mbps) then she's only going to get the slower at best. _MaH |
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Quoted:
Whatever you get, just remember that the fastest speed advertised may not necessarily be what you get. If you get a router rated up to 802.11g speeds (54Mbps) but her computer is only 802.11b capable (11Mbps) then she's only going to get the slower at best. _MaH True, but you'll find the bottleneck isn't the router, it's the internet. I've got a Linksys WRT54G, which is (IMO) the gold standard. |
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Quoted:
Quoted:
Whatever you get, just remember that the fastest speed advertised may not necessarily be what you get. If you get a router rated up to 802.11g speeds (54Mbps) but her computer is only 802.11b capable (11Mbps) then she's only going to get the slower at best. _MaH True, but you'll find the bottleneck isn't the router, it's the internet. I've got a Linksys WRT54G, which is (IMO) the gold standard. I have this router as well. When the admin pages gets slow, unplug the power from the back and then plug back in. That cures it. |
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It is a "no-brainer" to set up a wireless network if you're the normal computer literate 15 year old who grew up with this stuff. However, if you're a few generations down the road and grew up in the slide-rule age, its a colossal PITA to set it up properly including the security provisions, which I think are pretty important. I can tune in and see all of my neighbor's networks up and running and they're all secured.
I found a free-lance expert who works by-the-hour ($50) and is worth every penny. I bought a laptop as a gift for Christmas and paid him $100 to configure it with the secured wireless, e-mail, transferred files, etc and it worked properly out-of-the box on Christmas Day. The hardware is inexpensive, reliable, and easy to hook up. Its the settings and security that's the issue in my opinion. |
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Quoted: Quoted: Whatever you get, just remember that the fastest speed advertised may not necessarily be what you get. If you get a router rated up to 802.11g speeds (54Mbps) but her computer is only 802.11b capable (11Mbps) then she's only going to get the slower at best. _MaH True, but you'll find the bottleneck isn't the router, it's the internet. I've got a Linksys WRT54G, which is (IMO) the gold standard. When I bought mine back in September at best buy, they told me that the WRT54G was discontinued and the the WRT310NV2 is the replacement, so thats what I picked up |