Wireless Range

[Victory]

Ok, I've been studying the wireless setups for quite a while and I've read all the posts here up to date. Here's my quandry.

I've currently got 3 desktops and 1 notebook with a docking station. I'm on cable modem currently using a Linksys Etherfast BEFSR41. It's been working great for well over a year now. Although I've got cabling running throughout the house. My home is a little over 4000 sq feet, and I'm curious as to how well people have been able to maintain connections at different distances and if I say went to the basement with the laptop while the server is two floors up?

Also I know some setups allow for file/printer sharing, what has the real world experience been with these setups. I'm not new to networking, but i'm far from being knowledgeable in this regard. My linksys was a breeze to setup and configure and I prefer things that way!!

Any recommendations would be appreciated.


Save heating costs on your home, overclock your PC!!!

 

[dstell]

Depends on the access point. If you choose the 802.11a stuff, depending on the construction of your house it might not work well. The 802.11b (or even the new 802.11b/g 22mbit) stuff has a lot better range if you are going to be moving between floors. The Intel AP 5000 802.11a that I have in my house works fine on the 1st floor and in the basement, but only gets as far as the top of the stairs on the second floor. Another thing that contributes to this issue is the placement of the access point. If you choose a more central location and use one of the enterprise level site survays, you do get better results, but normally wind up with more access points. I suggest that if you are not sure about it, then get one from a store that you can return it too if you don't like the results. Also, different brands will yeild different results. More enterprise oriented APs cost more, but have a little better range and performance from what we have seen.

Food for thought.