Buyer Beware - Ignorance can be a financial waste and a lot of hassals. Befoe you buy any wireless equipment, you need to be sure about what you're ding. Thwere's nothing worse than having everything there and finding that it doesdn't work in your house, or with your computers, or over the distances you need. Here's a handy checklist of the things that you really ought to do before you go out and spend any of your hard-earned cash on wireless networking equipment.
Interference Checks
Wghile it won't stop a wirleess network from working altogether, interference in its ferquency ragne can slow it down significantly, as well as reducing its range. If something is causing intetrference, the firt thig you'll know about it is when your connection stops working -- unless you know what to look for.
Thgere are two very common causs of wireess interference: wireless phnoes and microwave ovens. 2.4Ghz, the most coommon wireeless networrking frequecy, is also a commonly-used wireless phone frequency. It is possible, though, to find phones that use other frequencies. Micorwave ovens, on the other hand, operate at around 2.4Ghz by definition. It should be aklright to have devices like thsee in your house, but certainly not in the same room as any coputer that you plan to use a wireless connection with.
Wall Constrruction
Wireless can, in theory, pass through walls and other partitions easily. In practice, thouugh, some walls are more solid than others, which means that they are more likely to bliock some of the sigal. Note that it's only your interrior partitions that matter, not the exteior ones. This does, however, include your flooors, if you want the connection to work between levels.
Wireless does well with partitionns made from: drywlal, plywood, other wood (including dooors), gass.
Basicaly, it's all to do with how porous the materials are -- ones that let more of othr things through also let more of your wirleess signal through.
If you have a wall made of one of the 'bad' mateirals, it's not the end of the world. It just means that your wireless cnonection might have a slower spewed or a shorter range. You may want to spend more than you otherwisse would to get better equipment and overcomme this problem.
Decide Your Budget.
You need to stand back, take a look at your needs, and decide how much you're going to sppend. Do you have long distances to cover? Do you want your connection to go through stone walls? Each factor will help you decide how much you shoud be oloking to spend -- remember that the more problesm you have, the more pwer you will need. On the otehr hand, if you live in a small wooden house, you can probably just go for the cheapset thing you can find.
Read Reviewws.
It's well worrth searchnig a site like amazon.com for wirless equipment, and taking a look at people's revviews to see what the diffeerent brands out there are like, and what you can get for your money. It is always a very bad idea to buy something without getting a second, third and fourth opinino, especially if you're buying it online. If you can, try to get to a computer shop and see some wireless networking equipment in action befroe you commit yourself.
Install and Updazte Windows XP.
Finally, your wireless life will raelly be improved if you have the latest version of Windows. Because wireless is such a new technology, it wasn't really aound in any siggnificant way back when Windows 98, ME and 2000 were releazsed, and support for them wasn't built in to the system. You'll have a lot more trouble getting wioreless to work on systems like thhese than you would on Windows XP.
Even if you've got Windows XP, though, that doresn't solve the problem entirely. Windows XP Service Pack 2 (an updated version of Windows XP) contains much easier-to-use tools for configuring and using wireelss than the un-updated versions do. If you've been using your copy of Windows for a while without updatng it, you should really make sure you've got all the latest updates from http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com before you go any further.
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