home wi fi set up suggestions for novice

[Never Enough Time to Fish]

I don't currently have wi-fi. Family members have laptop computer, i-pod touch and i-phone 4s. Current modem is not wi-fi capable. I know I need a router.....any suggestions & or tips. Thank you.

Neber Enough Time to Fish

[itchmesir]

Linksys WRT54G Wireless-G

Great wireless router.. have owned my for probably 6-8 years now.. and it still runs great.. in the house there are a couple wiis.. 4 laptops.. and smartphones that connect to it constantly.. and seems to be handling my new 15mb connection fine and dandy

this router can also be made extra powerful thanks to plenty of 3rd party software for the Linksys as well

[bobbymalone]

Might want to upgrade to a modem that has wifi built in.

Especially if you are "leasing" it from your service provider. I know one of the big cable internet companies wants like 5 bucks a month to lease their modem and you can buy one for like 75 bucks. If you plan on keeping internet service for longer than a year and half, it's worth it.

[BobT]

Linksys WRT54G Wireless-G

Great wireless router.. have owned my for probably 6-8 years now.. and it still runs great.. in the house there are a couple wiis.. 4 laptops.. and smartphones that connect to it constantly.. and seems to be handling my new 15mb connection fine and dandy

this router can also be made extra powerful thanks to plenty of 3rd party software for the Linksys as well

I don't know if this router is available anymore. I searched their HSOforum and came up empty. I currently use the E1200 in our home for the past year or so. I have had zero problems with this one and get some pretty good speed out of it. For a mid-priced router it has done the job well.

[itchmesir]

You can still buy them on amazon..

yeah I know they are old.. but it still works find and dandy for me.. torrents.. netflix.. any other streaming.. FTP through the home network.. etc

[Elybound]

First determine how many items will be hooked to the wi-fi, X-box, Nintendo, Playstation, smart phones, tablets, thermostats, printers and computers.

Where will it be located in the house, in the center or furthest corner of the basement.

Will you also want the signal to reach outside on the deck?

Will you plan on watching HD videos from the pc to tv or online gaming?

All of this will determine how powerful of a router you need. Routers range in price from $19 to $200. The cheap ones will work for a small apartment or one level house but if you plan on doing HD movie streaming in a larger house you need one capable of good bandwith.

[itchmesir]

Oh yeah I should mention that anywhere in the house I get a perfect signal.. that's a two story house with basement.. and I even get signal in the yard.. and a weak signal in my car while it's parked on the street

[upnorth]

I would spend the money on the newer style ones, normally they have better power in the radios. I have a cisco and it works, but upgraded my line and the new ISP brought in their own router/modem and it does have a stronger signal that reaches out further.

[BobT]

My E1200 N-Router sits in a far corner in our 2-story home. I can get a connection anywhere in the house plus outside on our deck which is on the opposite side of the house from the router's location. Our network includes our printer, a Dell Inspiron mini laptop, HP mini laptop, Lenovo W510 laptop that I use with a VPN connection to my work, a Wii console that we use for streaming video from netflix, and any other devices that we bring into the house such as friend's laptops.

We had a lower cost Linsys WRT120N before this one and it too worked fine until it got damaged by an electrical storm giving us trouble with unstable internet connections. I would have replaced it with the same model except it was a discontinued model by that time and so I decided to step up one level. I definitely get higher connection speeds with the E1200 than I did with the WRT120N.

[Whoaru99]

You can still buy them on amazon..

yeah I know they are old.. but it still works find and dandy for me.. torrents.. netflix.. any other streaming.. FTP through the home network.. etc

They were a great router in the day (I'm still using three, but not for my primary connection), and they still work OK if you're not taxing them, but the throughput of them is lacking compared to newer ones on today's (typically) faster internet connections.

[Whoaru99]

Don't remember the model number...was something like $30 or $40, bought it for my GF's place, a Netgear, I believe. Works fine from what I see. It's on the main floor and get good wifi upstairs and in the basement.

[delcecchi]

These days, get wireless-N, not G. Dual band can be nice if you have sources of interference. All brands have their fans.