wireless newbie, need some advice please!

[jonjonbear]

Hello All..
I am just starting to get into wireless as I just bought a laptop..I see they have AP's that have wired routers, then they have some that looks like they would hook into an existing router..I currantly have a DSL connection with an Allied Telesyn router that works fine..Would I be best to get one of the "non router" type? I have two base machines hard wired and working fine on the router..I should be getting my Orinoco Gold card tomorrow but want to get the AP too..Thanks in advance! John

[johnnyr]

I recently tested a Cisco Aironet 340 AP with my Asante firewall/router attached to my cable modem, and that worked fine. Then I replaced the Asante with a DLink DI-713P AP/firewall/router, and that worked just as well. So you can go either way. Maybe you can pick up just an AP a little cheaper than replacing the router you have.

Hope this helps...

[wmw1490]

That's the great thing about having a standard, if all comply you're able to mix and match any truly compliant hardware.

In my real world situation, I have a Cisco Aironet AP, LinkSysWAP11 and a mix of Cisco and linksys network adapters. All behave fine and performance is not noticably different. My wired linksys router is in the mix as well, providing DSL access to three rooms in a single level house (that's the easy part) and then a 300' wireless run to the barn (everyone needs connectivity in their barn). I use the Linksys WUSB11 out in the barn so I can position it with better line of site. The Cisco PCI card worked fine, but strength was low due to the location of the system.

Good luck!

[yonah]

The only difference between the two types is that the AP-only types simply forward your network information along to the wireless computers, where the router-based ones segment your network into two parts. Essentially, if you plug a router-based AP behind an existing router most items will work, but you will have a difficult time trying to network between the wired and wireless computers.