Router for a friend - Overclock.net

BenRK · 2 Weeks Ago

I'm going to hopefully be installing a wireless router in the near future for a friends house. There's only one computer in the house, but several people own various DS consoles, as well as owning a PS3 and sometimes being host to laptops here and there.

They recently got a cable internet connection that, sadly, has been going unused, and the main computer is stuck on good old dial-up, and is old enough to not have an Ethernet port.

I haven't talked to his dad yet, who will be making the final call, but I'm going to try my hardest to show that going wireless is the best plan for him and the house as a whole. However, I have a suspicion that he's not going to like the price of $75-100 to buy a Linksys router and adapter for his computer. Why, I don't know, that seems really cheep to me.

So, does anyone out there know of a cheaper setup? Oddly enough, their dad is sort of a gamer, but this is stuff like Civ and similar things, so it shouldn't matter to much about gaming quality. I do have an old Wireless-B router, and I might be willing to sell it to him for the cheap, but from my experience, Wireless-B isn't much of a step up from dial up (I love my Wireless-N router

). I'd be far more comfortable getting him a Wireless-G router, and I don't believe I need to go overboard with an N.

The cable connection is at one end of the house, while his computer is on the other side, stuck with the dial up. I'm unwilling to drill through the house and hang a bunch of wire (after getting him an add on card with an Ethernet port, assuming HP was kind enough to let me do so). Drilling through a house is not my line of expertise and just going wireless is just far easier as it opens up the connection for the entire house, rather then have him keep it all to him self just for doing taxes.

So yeah, long story short, what wireless routers and adapters would be a good, cheap alternative to a Linksys Wireless-G setup? For around $50ish preferably, but I hope I can convince him to go higher for a better quality router.

Oh, I forgot to mention that the adapters can be either internal or external. I'm going to present the pros and cons of both to him (internal will be faster for his machine, maybe even a little cheaper, but for someone without any computer building skill, it would be hard to replace if you ever got a new computer, while external is easy to replace and move about to find the best signal strength, but running it via USB1.1 (it's an old computer) will probably bottleneck the connection). I just hope he goes for it.

[/rambling]

TedKelly · 2 Weeks Ago

You should have no problem with giving him your Wireless B router. They usually have more throughput then most cable modems do. Stick with the USB WiFi, it will be easier to upgrade later. Hope that helps...

FREELINE57 · 2 Weeks Ago

If you decide to go with wireless G these can be had cheep on ebay the adapters too!
I have bought several linksys routers and adapters on ebay and still working to this day.
If you do go this route try and pick up routers with v.4 or lower and flash it with DD-WRT. This firmware is so much better and the options are many, including boosting the signal strength......GL either way.

BenRK · 2 Weeks Ago

I wouldn't know how to flash it.

FREELINE57 · 2 Weeks Ago

Here's a

YouTube- DD-WRT install on a Linksys WRT54G router

on utube. Google dd-wrt for more info and if you have any more questions i'll be more than happy to help you. It seams hard but it's rather very easy, if i can do it I know you will be able to.

BenRK · 2 Weeks Ago

Well, by the looks of it, if he wants to go cheap, eBay looks to be the best choice, as I could get a Linksys G router and adapter for $50ish. If he doesn't want to spend $50ish for this, it better be because he doesn't have the money at the time and will buy the stuff when he can, or else I'm just going to tell him stick with the dial up, as I'm not going to drill through his house AND get an Ethernet card or whatever for him just so he can do taxes faster.

Wow... that's awfully mean of me.

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Router for a friend

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