Computer newbies forum: Wireless Router or Hard-wire?

It's really a personal choice. Determine what your future uses will be. Are these two computers going to be the only comps you ever have in the house? Things like that..

Just some points:

1. You will need a router for either setup to effectively set up file and printer sharing..You may want to choose a "wired" router only but most newer wireless routers also have a four or five port switch will allow you to plug in multiple "wired" connections as well as use the wireless connection. Choosing the wireless router would allow you to use either option and the wireless ability can easily be disabled should you choose not to use it.

2. For connecting the second comp to the system, hard wired will be more secure from attempted uses of your wireless time...

3. Wireless is sure nice when you expect to have friends that need a quick connection with their laptop.

4. The CAT 5/6 ethernet cable for 15 ft will be slightly cheaper than purchasing a wireless adapter for your second computer but may be more work to route through walls, ceilings or along the floor..It depends on location and access.

5. Although I prefer wireless PCI cards over the USB adapters for desktops, either one will work and should get good reception at such a short distance, especially if there is only one wall separating them.

6. Although file and printer can be shared easily over networks, the scanner doesn't work so well. I've never seen scanners that can be used remotely, although clearly, the files could be easily shared once saved to the computer.

Hope this helps.

Grif

Can you expand on your printer sharing a bit. I was told that I could not share a printer conntectd to another PC unless the printer was "network ready" and was connected through the router.

I need to set up a two pc network, to share one application and one printer. The internet connection is not at all important for the second pc.
Thanks,
Dick

I've had a DLink DI-713p wireless router w/print server for years. Also I steered my brother to get a similar (but newer DLink box). Neither one of us has ever experienced troubles with dropped printer, or printers not communicating for whatever reason.

Right now, I have upgraded my router with a much newer DLink DI-624 802.11g router (much better signal strength, and speed, that my old 802.11b couldn't do) but it does not have a built-in Print Server. So, instead, I bought a DLink wireless print server. I have been using it for over a year now, and this setup is also trouble-free.

The whole point of having a print server is so that a computer connected to a printer, to share, is not needed. And that was what I wanted. I have a collection of at least 3 computers on, at various times, in my house (sometimes more).

The only thing I would avoid is the ''low buck'' or unknown brands of print servers, which usually had odd setup requirements, or special usability drivers installed on every computer to recognize the printer. But sometimes you can't tell that until you get the box home. Good luck in anyway you do go.

Easiest way is to use a crossover cable between 2 PCs and install printer software on both. One as local and the other as networked. The key here being that your internet connection is not important on 2nd PC.

...for either type. It's just a personal preference, but on almost all PCI cards I use, I make an antenna that I can move to any location I wish which works much like your USB adapter. It also allows me to either purchase and connect directional or hi-gain omnidirectional antennas. They connect by wire to the back of the of the computer at the PCI card. Home made high-gain antennas can also be made for USB adapters as well but I prefer the options for PCI cards. (I've used an old Wok with the USB adapter stuck through a hole drilled through the bottom.)

My preference for the PCI card is related to the reliabitlity of the PCI connection vs a USB connection. Especially on older computers, USB connection seem to have a lot of problems.. The PCI card almost never does.

Hope this helps.

Grif

First, not all scanners, (or printers for that matter), can be easily set up as an IP address device. So it definitely depends on the scanner and which automatic features it has.

I've always found it difficult to scan multiple page documents and other difficult items when my computer was simply "networked" to a scanner. It's not easy running a scan from your computer, then walking around the corner to change the page. Heck, I've got computers networked to my machine that are 90 miles away which are clearly not logistically feasible.. Even in situations where your machine is in a separate cubicle, it can be a lot of work if pages need to be turned over. I'd rather have the local machine user scan the document for me, then e-mail the final product to me.

But, yes, it can sometimes be done.

Hope this helps.

Grif

Like the DLink DI-724U.
You can also get a non-wireless (wired only) router with a print server.

See the link below...The cost is $15.99 after a $25 D-Link rebate at Newegg.(Must be purchased before May 31, 2006.)

D-Link DI-524

It's wireless, plus it has a four port switch on the back and if you remove the antenna, it will still work as a wired router.

Its up to you.

Hope this helps.

Grif

I was just going to post regarding the firewall protection of a router for even a user with a single computer. Definitely a big plus! However, I would strongly advise anyone not to rely solely on this protection. The router settings usually say, "block ping from WAN side." A bit too vague for my taste.

Get good firewall software for your computers as well. It might be tricky to configure your network because of it, but it's not that hard. If anyone has any proof that ping blocking is all you need for protection, I'd love to hear it so I can stop being so paranoid!

I also have print sharing set up on my main desktop. It's great, because I can print from my wireless laptop. Go with the wireless router and disable the signal broadcasting. That way you're ready for the day you get a laptop.

If speed is an issue, suggest you go hard-wire althoug wireless is very good.
In either case you will need a router in order to connect multiple computers at the same time.
So if you are purchaseing a router you may as well go with the wire-less router's as the cost diff is small.

Should you decide to use the wire-less capability you will have the additonal expense of a wire-less NIC card for the computer.

Be aware most laptops today come with built in wire-less capability thoug you still need the wire-less access point (Router).

There are so many security problems with wireless that it is not even practical at this point in time, unless you just don't care about security. Wireless from room to room requires wireless connections that depend upon radio waves rather than light to carry the signal containing the data that travels between the computers on the network. That means that anyone with a little knowledge of radio frequencies or an identical system can tap into your network and intercept data, even gain access to your computers. Therefore, in my humble opinion, your best bet to date is a hard wired network.

First of all, although it may seem to be only 15 feet or so between your two machines, keep in mind that aside from drilling holes through the base of your wall (which requires drilling through the rat seal--a 2x4 nailed to the floor to which the wall studs are nailed), you may prefer to run the cable along the ceiling or along the floor from one computer to the room where the other computer resides. Figure at least 18 additional feet if you run the cable along the ceiling. To get an accurate measurement, use a 25-foot measuring tape or measure in increments: from each computer to the wall, along the wall to the doorway, distance from the floor to the top of the door frame, distance along the wall and/or across the ceiling from one room to the other, etc.; then add all the measurements and round up to the next foot.

Next, you do NOT need a router for the network connection between two computers. However, if you decide to add a third computer or wish to provide access to a friend with a laptop, you will need a router. Since all routers today have a built-in hardware firewall, they are relatively secure. Since you stated that you are connecting two computers, I will concentrate on that fact and not speculate about further or future connections.

The only thing you need, other than ethernet cards for each computer, is a crossover cable. A regular networking cable will NOT work for direct connections between two computers. It must be a crossover cable. Crossover cables are available in 25-foot increments, beginning with 25 feet in length. That is the least you should use. If your route between computers (see earlier measurement info) is more than 25 feet and you cannot shorten the distance, either go to the 50-foot cable or have a local computer tech make you a crossover cable the length you need. I would opt for the prefabricated cables to be sure the crossover is done properly.

Once the crossover cable is connected, decide which computer is to be your primary, or host, computer from which your Internet connection and printer sharing will come. It is usually the host computer that is connected to both the Internet and the printer (about the scanner in a moment). However, if your Internet is connected to one computer and your printer to the other, that is no problem either.

When you have decided which computer is your host computer, use the Network connection wizard to establish the network. You will then be asked to make a disk containing the necessary files to set up a compatible network connection on the other computer. To save time and aggravation, you should do this. Insert the disk into the drive of the second computer and then run the setup from the disk.

For the printer sharing, simply opt to share your printer with the other computer on the network.

As for scanners, Grif is absolutely right. Scanners do not do well as shared peripherals. The only satisfactory option there is to dedicate the scanner to one computer and use that machine for all scanning operations. You can, however, easily set the scanner settings to save the scanned images to either computer. It is far easier to share image files than it is to scan from a remote scanner.

Oh. Crossover cables can be purchased at any computer store and from Staples and Office Max. Wal-Mart only carries regular network cables, and despite the manufacturer's assurance on the package that you can directly connect two computers, that is not true. Again, you must have a crossover cable to get a proper and satasfactory connection.

I hope this helps.

Al

Your router-less connection using a crossover cable was what I wanted to do. Simply connect the to PCs with the cable via the ethernet ports. But how do you complete a broadband internet connection? Will adding a second ethernet card get the job done?
Thanks
Dick

Sorry for the confusion, but I have a crossover cable connecting the two pcs via network cards. I have a cable modem connected to the internet and a cat5 lan cable connected to the cable modem- where does the other end of this cable connect to the pc? There is no port available.
Dick

A possible alternative to adding another ethernet card to your machine would be an Ethernet-to-USB adapter. D-Link and others have adapters at half the cost of an ethernet card, and the adapters render the true 10/100Mbps connection that you would get with an ethernet card. That would be a cost-efficient alternative to adding an ethernet card for the modem.

Your local computer supply store should have one or more brands. If not, a variety of adapters can be seen--and purchased if need be--at tigerdirect.com. The full URL is:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/Category/category_slc.asp?CatId=589

I hope this helps.

Al

I purchased a wired router. I ran a 25' cord from the router into a closet, up through that ceiling, down through the ceiling of another closet and into the other computer and had about two feet to spare. Everything works fine.
This might not be the perfect solution but it works for me. More important is ''She who must be obeyed'' loves the new set-up. She thinks I am a computer genius. Being the humble guy I am I had to admit to her it could not have happened without the input I received here at Newbies.
Many thanks!

DC