Help with Wireless setup in Home

[Ctsboss]

Hello

Here is my situation. Im currently networking 3 pc's and a notebook the old fashioned way with a cable router and all the systems hard wired to the router. I am moving soon to a much LARGER house where cableing all the computers ( im adding 2 more pc's to the mix ) isnt going to be practical. the house is probably 5 to 600 feet end to end. The office is almost directly in the middle of the house with bedrooms (and pc's) at both ends of the house. My questions are this.
1. What setup do i use? Add a wap to my existing setup? Get a wireless router/firewall setup?
2. what kinda of slowdown will the walls between the office and the rooms cause? I will have 3mb cable modem access where i am but one of the pc's plays Everquest and online games so speed and signal reliability are essetial.
3. Do i need antenna's or signal enhancers to make sure all my computers have decent signal strength.?

Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated. Answers here or to my regular email work. Thanks in advance
Marc
ctsboss@msn.com

[yonah]

CTSBoss,

In theory most wireless APs will give you about 300 feet of range indoors. However, depending on the walls (and what's inbetween them) you may or may not get that far. There are also several ways to extend the range of your network, etc.

My advice to you is to get a single AP for the room with you cable modem, and then using a laptop, test out its range - see how far and where you might get a signal. Based on the results of those tests, you can decide where and how to extend your coverage. One way of doing it is the centralized approach - buy a high-powered antenna to boost the range. Another approach is to put some wiring in to wire ap additional APs in places where the signal might be weak. A third option - D-Link puts out a wireless range extender which only needs to be plugged in to a power outlet. A friend uses it, and it is easy to setup and use - simply place it where your original signal starts to fade, and it will bridge the gap between the two and extend your range.

As for speed - the maximum rated speed you can get is 108Mbps. However, most tests show that not to be the case. While the 108MBps devices are fast than the regular 802.11G standard, they don't give you a full 108MBps. You also need to account that if you have 2.4GHz phones, it might effect the performance of your network as well.

Hope that helps

[mcollinstn]

Cat 5 is about $30 for 1000 feet of it.
Wireless printing is slow.

I'd use the wireless for laptops only and stay hardwired for the stationary equipment.

Your house got a crawlspace? or slab (not good for wiring).
If it is a single level, then wiring is a breeze.

An in fact, on something that large, you can run cat5 out the walls and thru plastic tubes under the mulch outdoors. It's not like it would be noticed like it will on a 1200 sf house.