My daughter is looking for a wireless router to use at school this year. They will be in a 4 bedroom apt. What kind of range do they have & what are some things I should look for or stay away from?

I prefer the Linksys brand of routers. Most are rated for 50 to 150 feet range. They may go beyond that, but it may or may not be reliable. More than likely she will be limited not much more than the apartment, regardless of the router brand. The biggest factor on range is what else is in the area. Is this on a campus, because many already have wireless networks established throughout the campus.

Some of the things that will effect how much range (and how good) her reception is how many others in her immediate area are running wireless. The more different wireless you have running in the same area, the greater chance for interferrence and slowdowns.

What ever you/she does, secure her wireless. Don't let it open for anyone to join in on.

Palf is correct, many campuses offer wireless already.

If not, Linksys is great, that is all I have used at home for many hears and it is rock solid. You don't need the latest and greatest technology either.

Head to Best Buy/Circuit City and pick one out under $60 or so. Go online and price that unit at Amazon.com - they tend to have the best deals on items like that.



I strongly agree, follow the instructions and enable the WEP encryption as well as the SSID setting to anthing but the default selection.

Here is a good choice:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00007KDVI/sr=8-1/qid=1156084043/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-3438320-0289625?ie=UTF8

She is going from a dorm to an off campus apt. building this year so there is not wireless there. As far as how many people in the apts. I am not sure (it is a smaller quiter building that only has about 10 or so units.I was concerned about the router being in one room & not getting signal to the other girls' rooms.
The security thing is my biggest concern.None of the girls are computer savy so the eaiser the better.

It should work fine within the confines of the apartment. A unit that small you probably won't have too worry about the interference thing, unless the other apratments are loaded with techno geeks boys, which you wouldn't want that either ;)

The linksys is a quality router. They are even being built by Cisco now. The one that I have at my house has is just a little guy but it has a 4 port hub and the option to use an external antenna if you need to get a longer distance. If you get one that has the option to put a antenna on there I can get you a 5.5 DB antenna for free you just pay shipping.

And like everyone else said make sure the security is set. There is also an option to where it will only allow certain MAC address to get on the system. That with the WEP key and hiding the SSID. They will be safe from anyone trying to sneak into the system.

I prefer Linksys and the new SRX-based units are great. I like the WRT54GX as a good all-around unit.

what about a card for wireless

Most laptops have the wireless card built in, if hers does not, checkout the lastest availble by Linksys.

One thing to watch for is if the house is old enough to have plaster walls, signal strength will be less, depending on the size of the place and how far she works from the router.

Most laptops have the wireless card built in, if hers does not, checkout the lastest availble by Linksys.

One thing to watch for is if the house is old enough to have plaster walls, signal strength will be less, depending on the size of the place and how far she works from the router.

She has a wireless card & the apt. building is only a couple years old. As far as how far anyone will be working from the router I don't know where it will be at(if she buys it I'd say it goes in her room)

.........(if she buys it I'd say it goes in her room)
Absolutely!!!

She should be fine with just about anyone you want to buy in that case. Check out the one shifty mentioned, it is about the best far as I'm concerned in the home market.

One thing to watch for is if the house is old enough to have plaster walls, signal strength will be less, depending on the size of the place and how far she works from the router.

That's where Linksys' SRX technology comes in. It helps boost the signal to allow for better range - The downside is, to reap the full benefit, you need both a linksys card that supports it an a Linksys router that supports it.

I've seen it work firsthand - you get about 33% signal boost (at least I did), so I could be three houses down and still get a great signal versus previous times when I was lucky to get a signal at my neighbor's house (immediately next door). It's quite a difference, surprisingly.

...I could be three houses down and still get a great signal...

A friend of mine gets a strong signal from a linksys wireless router 300' down the road and I can take my lappy to the opposite end of the house and still have a good enough signal from my Linksys to do some online gaming...and thats thru at least 4 plaster walls.

I have an old school Linksys WRT54G (v2?). It was on the top floor and I got a strong signal in the basement three floors down. I was happy with that. Some strange reason, I get half a signal at the neighbor's house and two houses down, I get next to no signal (constantly drops). With the SRX400 technology (card and router), I was getting a strong signal three houses away...that's around 300' also. Sounds like I'm having about the same results.

how do you know if the laptop has a card built in ? im computer idiot i only use this thing for forum and football fantasy leagues
compaq 2529cl is the model

if you have windows XP or windows 2000, just go to the start menu, go to settings, then click on Network Connections.

if you have a wireless connection, it should be listed there. often times people will have a Local Area Connection (regular network cable) sometimes a Modem, sometimes a 1394 Network Connection (firewire) and sometimes a Wireless Network Connection.

so i dont need to buy a wireless card if i got the 1394 network ?

So correct me if I'm wrong here. I don't really want a wireless router that will carry the signal all that far? My thoughts here are a stronger one will allow students in ajoining apts. to latch onto her signal? This will be prevented by the proper security set up?

so i dont need to buy a wireless card if i got the 1394 network ?

Incorrect. Firewire connection is like a beefed-up USB connection.

So correct me if I'm wrong here. I don't really want a wireless router that will carry the signal all that far? My thoughts here are a stronger one will allow students in ajoining apts. to latch onto her signal? This will be prevented by the proper security set up?

That will be prevented by using the proper security setup. There is a thread stuck to the top of this forum which covers securing a wireless router (Linksys, I believe) which should discuss all that.