Going for BT Broadband plus

hamster

Hi Everyone,

After looking at our opinions we have decided to plummet for BT Broadband Plus (2Mb). Smart Telecom is not enabled in our area. I believe BT use ADSL

Scenario:

1. Our setup is two WinXP home laptops. Both have PCMCIA and integrated NICs
2. We need to connect to our modem via wireless.
3. BT offer a dual USB/Ethernet modem. We can not use this - laptops in different rooms.

What equipment would we need to connect to BT's offer? I'm imagine we need two wireless pcmcia cards and a router of some kind?

Questions:
1. Has anyone been able to use BT with a wireless modem and Router combo?

2. Would the router respond equally between both laptops? For example, user 1 starts a heavy download - would user 2 suffer if he started 2 mins later - or would it equalize?

3. I heard a lot of routers and modems clash - Is there any recommendations (like in Q1)? Maybe from Komplett.ie ? I see quite a few but it seems like a lottery.. for BT specific.

4. Would I need to get the wireless modem and router first and connect to these directly by a usb/ethernet means rather than BT's to get started - if I want to use wireless on these? ie, the initial setup.

Thanks!

1: Yes, with a couple of different brands of wireless router

2: I dont think you will get load balancing / QoS type stuff on a basic router
but you'll probably not notice a huge change in general e-mail and browsing if someone else is downloading heavily. If you are going to be using file sharing programs then be aware that you will have to conserve your upload speed. For example i cap my maximum upload speed at 5K during the day so other users in the house can browse etc.

3: Yes, you wold need a wireless router or access point, an ethernet cable to connect the BT modem to it, and whatever type of wireless cards you decide to go for (They come in usb also).

I've never had a clash. You see you probably dont want the wireless router to actually route, so if you turn that off then you are leaving the BT modem to perform the routing and the setup will be much simpler. Personally i have used belkin and fujitsu wireless routers.

4: Not sure if i understand you.

You need to connect the BT supplied modem to an access point or wireless access point / router. Then you hook up your wireless network cards and that should be it. Dont forget to secure it, or else you'll be giving your neighbours your broadband too.

DemonOfTheFall

Find someone who bought the eircom wireless modem and doesnt need it. It's a grand little wireless router with some basic QoS features and easy configuration. People should be selling them cheap aswell.

It works no bother with BT, even though it will say "connecting to eircom broadband" etc, it works away happily. Had it at home for 6 months now, not a hiccup.

hamster

baz8080 wrote:

1: Yes, with a couple of different brands of wireless router

2: I dont think you will get load balancing / QoS type stuff on a basic router
but you'll probably not notice a huge change in general e-mail and browsing if someone else is downloading heavily. If you are going to be using file sharing programs then be aware that you will have to conserve your upload speed. For example i cap my maximum upload speed at 5K during the day so other users in the house can browse etc.

3: Yes, you wold need a wireless router or access point, an ethernet cable to connect the BT modem to it, and whatever type of wireless cards you decide to go for (They come in usb also).

I've never had a clash. You see you probably dont want the wireless router to actually route, so if you turn that off then you are leaving the BT modem to perform the routing and the setup will be much simpler. Personally i have used belkin and fujitsu wireless routers.

4: Not sure if i understand you.

You need to connect the BT supplied modem to an access point or wireless access point / router. Then you hook up your wireless network cards and that should be it. Dont forget to secure it, or else you'll be giving your neighbours your broadband too.

Thanks for the info baz8080 appreciated! I think I'll ask Komplett if they could recommend any brands of wireless router and pcmicia wireless cards that would co-operate with BT. If anyone reading has a wireless going for BT please let me know. I would be curious!

DemonOfTheFall, this might be worth a go....thanks again
Thanks Guys!

hamster

Hi Folks,

I asked Komplett for a recommendation of wireless router for BT BB Plus... and I was offered this:
3Com OC Wireless 11g Cable/DSL Gateway 802.11g 54 Mbps, WPA, WDS, Nitro

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=302154&view=detailed

It has an ethernet connection for the modem obviously.
Anyone ever have one of these? Seems to be going for €79.

jm2k

In general most wifi routers should work fine with BT. I've used a near identical 3com model with BT and also used a Linksys model like this one:
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=306148&cks=PLC

Much of a muchness between them, but I found the Linksys gave marginally better signal than the 3com

Any access point or wireless router will do you really. Like i said before you are no likley to even use the routing on the wireless box, unless you want to which would give you something like:

<internet>--<BT Modem>--[private network a]--<wireless router>--[private network b]