Bought these? which to use, or upgrade?

Hmm_Messiah

Hi

I have tried google reviews etc of each options but i'm not too savvy
re wireless, and the reviews seem old; one concern is is this stuff outdated.

Basically I've cable bband and i want to use it o my laptop and my new pc in different rooms from where the cable is.

I got a D Link DWL 900AP Wireless Access Point and a D-LINK DWL650+ pcmcia card. these seem to work fine (tough I've to reed up on encryption/secuirty etc)


Last week on Ebay I bought Netgear MR314, ME102, MA101. Have not done anythign with this yet.

I was hoping some one would be familiar with both and e able to suggest

1. should i stick witht the DLINk and just by DLINK usb adaptor for the PC?

2.Or is the Netgear better, it seems very old to look at, even though reviews at the time seem excellent

3. both are 802..11b , should i just get rid and go with 802.11g?

I really just want net access on both lappie and PC, and maybe PDA, for study etc, but also might want to play around with DivX and bittorrent and other such wonders.

Would either option be reasonably fast (dloading)

thanks for any help- like I said I did try find answers on web, but can't determine how obselote they are (or not)

Foxwood

Hmm_Messiah wrote:

1. should i stick witht the DLINk and just by DLINK usb adaptor for the PC?

Not necessary, unless you're buying the not-quite-standard "Rangebooster" or "RangeMax" gear that includes some proprietary extensions. You shouldn't have any interoperability problems between standard (802.11b or 802.11g) gear from different manufacturers.

2.Or is the Netgear better, it seems very old to look at, even though reviews at the time seem excellent

No, the DLink gear is generally pretty good too.

3. both are 802..11b , should i just get rid and go with 802.11g?

G is faster than B. The major concern that I'd have with B gear, though, is that some older versions of B hardware only support the old, weak WEP wireless security standard, and don't work with the better WPA security.

Would either option be reasonably fast (dloading)

Under optimal conditions, 802.11b at 11mbps is faster than your broadband connection, so on paper, you won't benefit from faster downloads with 802.11g hardware. But. (There's always a "but"!). You won't be working under optimal conditions, so it's quite possible that your 802.11b signal will be slightly slower than your broadband signal, if you've got a fast package. And if you want to share files between the computers, you'll be a lot happier with 802.11g.

If you've already bought 802.11b gear, just go ahead and use it.

Hmm_Messiah

seens needs support WPA

how big an issue is that ?

Foxwood

Hmm_Messiah wrote:

seens needs support WPA

how big an issue is that ?

How long is a piece of string? WEP won't prevent a fairly technical person who wants to from breaking into your wireless network. WPA will. In the real world, it's probably not very likely that anyone will actually try to break into your wireless network anyway, so it probably doesn't matter too much.

The MR314 is "end of life" (no longer being actively supported by Netgear), and doesn't support WPA. The ME102 and MA101 are still supported, but only support WEP.

The DWL-900AP is also "end of life" and only supports WEP. Version C of the DWL-900AP+ is still supported, and does support WPA. The DWL-650+ comes in a couple of different versions, some of which are "end of life", and none of which support WPA.

I doesn't sound like any of this stuff is likely to be in sealed boxes that can be returned to get your money back, so I'd suggest you just go ahead and use it. But o plan on replacing it with more up to date gear when you get a chance.

Hmm_Messiah

cheers for that