Looking for wireless adapter

[rolf]

Hi folks. GF has bit the bullet and is getting internet for her and nephew: ATT Uverse 6M w/Linksys wireless/wired router. Desktop, running 32-bit Mandriva 2010.2, is about 20' down the hall from the router location, so thinking wireless. Nephew likes games and, although I don't run into wireless issues in my limited experience of 1.5M dsl over wireless, I've seen some comments that suggest the N protocol might be a wise choice. I'm leaning toward PCI card as my hunch is:

• Out of the way of damage potential.
• More reliable tx/rx, perhaps.

As always, advice appreciated.

WINSTAR WS-WNP671N

[viking60]

I think this is b1o stuff. I am told that gaming and wireless is no good by the "purists". Me ? I have never had a problem with it. So I agree. PCI card 20" whats that in meters? Seems ok in my very rough calculations.
Now let's se what thinks

[Joste]

PCI with external aerial or usb adapter on an extension cable - especially if the front of the PC is facing the router - may be ok if the rear faces the router though it will be low down and may be susceptible to problems if there is wiring plumbing or radiators in the way. If it is only 20" I would use a cable.

[rolf]

It's 20 feet, aka approximately 6 meters, berserken. There will be almost clear line of site to the computer, which is in a cabinet, near the floor, so back of pc is facing the wall. Nephew is not a hard-core, "purist" gamer, just has the bug as a beginner. If antenna of pci card being shielded by the pc is a serious problem, I noticed good reviews for this usb-connected adapter:
Rosewill RNX-N180UBE IEEE 802.11b/g/n USB 2.0

[Joste]

If you can get a laptop there (or a smartphone even) and check for other networks and there are a lot, more than 5 say then you will likely have problems especially if they have strong signals. Though if router and adapter will both do 5GHz that would probably solve that issue.

I would still prefer a cable.


PS, I fix broken wireless connections for a living.

[rolf]

ruh roh. Well, it's an apartment building. I don't know what the wireless environment is except the cellphone signal is lousy inside the brick building, which brings up another factor. One stimulus for getting broadband is that Sprint gave us the airave: http://www.sprintenterprise.com/airave/tellMeMore.html and that will talk to the cellphone wirelessly, cdma, it appears, 1900 MHz, iianm, sending voip through the dsl connection. The airave plugs into the router, which plugs into the dsl modem. So, using the wireless capability of the Linksys router just seemed convenient, considering the 20' (6m, berserken) distance. Do you think 5GHz is advised?

[Joste]

5GHz is advisable if there are a lot of networks on 2.4GHz, there are likely to be fewer on 5GHz and there are more channels to choose from as well.

It is also advisable if there is interference from other wireless devices such as cordless phones, video senders, baby monitors and the like.

[rolf]

She is in the ground floor of the building to the right, masonry exterior walls, just below the fire escape where the shadow begins, a bit beyond #132. The building is occupied by low-income young families and older retirees, primarily. She doesn't even have a landline phone service and neighbors don't seem to be doing a lot with wireless devices, afaict.

That said, it might be better to extend the phone line from living room to bedroom next to pc, maybe 40' (12 berserkens) max run, and connect a short ethernet cable to the computer. How about that?

[dedanna1029]

That's what I have. Straight ADSL, with a 27" phone line, and 10" eth cable, and it does just fine.

And OMG, I even know where that is. Shut up, ded. o.O

[rolf]

That's good to know. What is your DSL bandwidth on that lash-up.

[R_Head]

I have Netgear WG 113 has been a great NIC for me.

So far Netgear works really well with Mandriva.

[dedanna1029]

That's good to know. What is your DSL bandwidth on that lash-up.

Qwest Comm, 7 Mbps down/880(?) Kbps up. Older modem - M1000 model, Actiontec. Eth cable very simple plugged into the eth port (eth part of the chip on this computer)

They've gone fiberoptic now too, *I think* up to 50Mbps down, but I can't afford it.