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I just bought an iPaq hx4700 with built in WiFi.
I want to setup a wifi network for syncing and internet on the iPaq, can a simple WiFi PCI card like this one do this and provide a good signal or should I get a router?
When I used to share the internet I used a 2nd LAN card in my PC since it was much much cheaper than a router so I'd like to do the same. Are there any disadvantages in getting a wifi pci card (other than I won't have a firewall)?
Thanks
Wi-fi systems need things called 'access points' (must have at least one - its the bridge between the wired bit & the unwired bit), & generally you find these in independent devices such as wireless routers, but you can get them to fit into a pc ..
So you will have to buy an access point, & once you are doing that you may as well spend the extra 20% or so more they cost & buy a combi wired/wireless router, which will give you a hardware firewall (as you have a seperate device showing to the world & not a windows machine & all its vulnerabilities service wise) & let you remove the bridged NIC in your desktop, thus making that 'safer' & reducing its processing load, as every packet it passes through the machine, in your current configuration, requires cpu service.
I just read the cards description and they say it can connect directly to another device, so won't I be able to conenct my pocket pc to the desktop with that card installed?
This is the one I bought actually:
http://www.dlink.com/products/?model=DWL-G520
So doesn't that mean it can connect directly to my pocket pc?Quote:
Like all D-Link wireless adapters, the DWL-G520 can be used in ad-hoc mode to connect directly with other cards for peer-to-peer file sharing or in infrastructure mode to connect with a wireless access point or router for access to the Internet in your office or home network.
Thanks
ok then .. I take that back :D - these do indeed look like you can use them like you would a pair of NIC's & a x-over cable ! (toddles off to have a read up ... yes lots of Wireless Nic's let you do this now ! Ta ! - I learnt something ! :) - but I'm not sure whether the link means you need a pair of D-links with this feature enabled for it to work ? - dunno !)
But I'm sure that'll then mean each time you want to change whats connected you need to resetup the connection, which I suppose is allright if you've only got one - but generally doesn't suit most needs &/or any expansion later - & at this point I feel moved to point out that buying a combi wired/wireless router in the first place would have been the same money 'near enough' as the way you've done it i.e extra NIC & then this to go in your machine, with room 'to grow' ..
Err why didn't you just buy a bluetooth adapter to go in a usb port ? (your ipaq has this already apparently) they are really cheap & very easily portable, slower, but fast enough for surfing.
You remind me of many clients :rolleyes: :eek2: ;) - ask/think about it first then buy !
I no longer use the 2nd nic and I dont see how a $30 nic is more expensive than a $100+ router.
I didnt get a bluetooth usb dongle because I already have like 12 usb devices so I try not to get too much more, and the signal from that pci card is most definately a lot more powerful (bluetooth is only 10 meters, on this ipaq at least).
I bought it when that description I quoted answered my only concern about it. I really don't see why I'd get a $100+ wifi router when a $29 card does what I want.
You are definately a man with your own agenda ( I think I've commented on that before ;)) who's looking at expensive wi-fi routers, I just think that you are making this difficult for yourself potentially later & maybe now as I've really no idea how all this sharing of connections & bridges is going to work in practice .. & all to save about $50 as you've also spent on an extra NIC you never 'really' needed....Quote:
Originally Posted by ClickHere2Surf.com
Personally I look at time involved to get it working & not just cost of bits, as I can see $50 worth of labour & quite a bit more in getting all this working - but I suppose your times free to yourself, I look at it as time I can't charge someone else for (he says giving out free advice ! :D)
If you get all this working 'easily' then power to your elbow :thumbs:..
I dont need the NIC anymore because theres only one PC in the house now (except for my ipaq), and when I needed it a few years ago, routers were all well over $150 when the nic was $19.
That's the main reason I got the pci wifi card, Most of the people I know that have a router have all sort of connections problems in programs like msn and others. I know this is because they haven't configured it, and I don't want to spend more to have to configure something I wont have to do by speending less, so I'm not only saving money, I'm saving time, and I'm sure establishing the wireless lan with the pci card can be done in minutes.Quote:
Personally I look at time involved to get it working & not just cost of bits
I'll let you know
You can use the wi-fi card for an "Ad-Hoc" card-to-card network or buy a router, either one will work. But keep in mind that every added wireless device will be sucking CPU time and network bandwidth from YOUR computer ... and of course your computer must be on any time you want the network up.
A router, on the other hand, will remove both these conditions. :)
For that very reason, I initially got me a 4port router/wi-fi/dsl modem, that way I can now share inet to wired/wireless pc's in the house.
I was gonna make an ad-hoc network, but that requires the first pc to be on all the time, you want access from the 2nd pc.
I wont be using my pocket pc and desktop at the same time, so cpu usage (minimal at the most) will not be a problem. My desktop is also on 365 days a year so that isn't a problem either.
Mine just got turned off for the first time this year because I'm in Chicago. :devil:Quote:
Originally Posted by ClickHere2Surf.com
Alright, perhaps I should have listened to you guys.
Although the wireless connection works extremely well, it does only "when it feels like it".
For example, if I turn on wifi on my ipaq and my desktop detects it and connects, it will work flawlessly until I manually turn off wifi and I can even watch very high resolution videos stored on my desktop over wifi on my pocket pc (which plays them perfectly smooth thanks to its 624mhz cpu and ATI Imageon 3220 video accelerator). But other times, I turn on wifi on my ipaq and the desktop sits there as if nothing happened, even when 3 feet away from the card so it isnt interference or weak signal (when it works I can go far with no problems at all even when streaming high res video from the desktop), when it doesn't work, it's normally like that for a while (15 minutes or a few hours), but if I try again later it can work perfectly again.
I've read of others having the exact same issue using ad hoc wifi connections.
Is there a way to solve this? Why would they advertise this feature if it's so unreliable? Would a router have these issues?
Also, is it true d-link routers dont offer enough settings to fully allow P2P programs like kazaa from working and linksys' do offer the required settings?
Thanks
I just found this router with a built in cable modem:
http://www.linksys.com/products/prod...id=35&prid=579
Does this have any advantage over connecting my cable modem into a normal router? Is it possible the modem could be faster than my pretty old cable modem? Would it be better than just getting a router and connect my current cable modem to it?
Also, doesn't the ISP authenticate you from the cable modem's mac address? Does this mean I can't get another cable modem or can I just call them and tell them I got a new modem or what?
Thanks
Alright, now I found this one with technology to increase the range even when used with normal 802.11b/g devices:
http://www.linksys.com/products/prod...id=35&prid=670
Would this really allow me to go further with my pocket pc?
I dont know if there was somethign wrong, but from the restaurant about a mile away from home, it said it connected to my home desktop with a weak signal, can it really get that far from a normal pci wifi card? Would this enhanced router allow me to go further? The thing is that the signal transmitter the the pocket pc isnt going to be any stronger, or is the router also more sensitive to pickup signals from further away?
I think this might be the best choice since I could access the internet and my pc for free not to mention at high speed in stores or parks nearby, I'd really like to avoid the expensive cellular internet fees when possible. Not to mention I could use the wireless for entertainment, I use the cellular internet mostly only for business use due to it's high cost.
How many different questions all at once !?! .. are you practising to be me ? :D
My Isp works like that ;) - you clone the mac address from your old appliance into the router to get around this :) or simply reset up your account as if you were doing it the very first time with your new kit (I dunno how well I'm describing that, but you almost certainly should be able to easily enough!)Quote:
Originally Posted by ClickHere2Surf.com
The 'range extender thingee' you showed us, will most likely work as advertised, as really its like having two APs working on two channels yet able to read both at once (again I'm no so sure I put that very well !)
& on range questions - I've got a 'bog standard' wireless router with an expected range of 300m .. but its in my loft - & it works in the pub :drink: :thumbs2: 1/2 a mile away or so (so that's about 850m?) - it just depends on interferance & antanae efficiency..
Generally as long as your router can do 'port forwarding' you should be able to work it out - I wouldn't have thought that's a brand thing, but a features issue..Quote:
Also, is it true d-link routers dont offer enough settings to fully allow P2P programs like kazaa from working and linksys' do offer the required settings?
As for your 'ad hoc' issues .. my guess is it doesn't like being bridged & some latency somewhere's is causing you the issues..
Please as a small piece of advice, stay away from Linksys till they get their act together, its been horrible for me and a few others. Theres a small chance your piece might work great, but their support stinks, so do drivers and lack of updates.
Spend the money, get a 3Com/USR. I would if I could go back in time.
How do you get that kind of a connection down the road. I'm trying to increase the range from inside my house. The reception doesn't stay high for a consistent 54g connection.
Anyhow, the new router with booster should work great. I would stay away fromt he ad-hoc only because it will complicate things when it comes to Internet connection sharing, pendingon how you use it. If you use ICS from MS it sucks on just about anything and then you have to tweak the settings and open ports pending on what is needed.
Routers tend to have the easiest use when dealing with a firewall.
There is connectivity issues with various brands of routers. My netgear has been working great. All the options and more i think. I have a linksys at work and each day the wireless side locks up on me, I have to power it down and back on, and might have to boot one of the PCs in my lab for them to get back online. Otherwise works great.(very annoying none the less)
Ad-hoc I have setup on two PCs that don't have an extra jack to connect the printer to a jack, so I have a wireless printer(works great) and 2 PCs that are connected through it via WIFI PCI cards, and then they are connected to my network via jacks. The ad-hoc is causing some of the issue when my router acts up, but otherwise it works fine. It does cause my lab machines to try and in some cases connect to it, even after I remove it from my list of connections. I haven't found a way to disable trying connections to certain wireless AP/Ad-hoc with certain SSIDs. IF you know how, let me know.
Routers dont need drivers so how could I have driver problems? Even though the box said "INSTALL CD FIRST" in many places including stickers on the network ports, but I didn't because routers don't need drivers ao I have no idea what is on the CD other than the advertised virus (Norton Suite) which I dont want to get infected with.Quote:
Originally Posted by TechZ
Anyway this is the one I got finally and it works better than I could have hoped for:
http://www.linksys.com/products/prod...id=35&prid=601
Many people recommended linksys, I dont know if you guyswith problems bought the products before they were bought by Cisco, but my router says cisco on it.
Theres only one tiny configuration issue I need help with, if I tell Windows on the pocket pc that the wifi connects to the internet, the internet works but I can't access my PC if I type \\pc\, if I tell Windows the wifi connects to "work", I can access \\pc\ but the internet doesn't work.
What do I need to configure and where (pocket pc, pc and/or router) to be able to access both like I could over ad hoc?
Thanks
Routers dont need drivers yes. Some have connectivity by usb, they need some drivers I think. When I said drivers, I actually meant firmware ;)
My Linksys is a Cisco branded one too, the very latest revision. Ask some more people, Linksys were really good once, nowadays lots of people have problems with it. Even Linksys are working on a DHCP problem that they know is plaguing their routers.
If it doesnt act funny, then your good to go, if you see a hint of problems, trust me, youre in for more. Good Luck, and hopefully, youre router will work fine.
Yours is the WRT54G, mine is the same w/o the two antennae :( just one.
How far can I expect my signal to reach and does it also depend on my pocket pc? Am I asking to much if I want it to work from a park or by the river about 200 meters (600) feet away from the house? I guess the signal from my ipaq also has to make it back to the house also, does anyone know how the range is on pocket pcs or more specifically the hp ipaq hx4700?
200m? Depends on walls, interference levels, surroundings.
Microwaves/cordless, really affect the signal.
http://www.radiolabs.com/Articles/wifi-antenna.html
http://www.smallbusinesscomputing.co...le.php/3489266
http://compnetworking.about.com/cs/w...elessspeed.htm