Wireless Home Network

[nfuz]

Situation:
4 household comps (all desktops)
3 of them have "Gigabit Lan" ethernet cards
Router is a a Linksys Wireless N router, BUT our network is fully wired...
The wiring in the house is capped at 100mbit.

So transfer of files between comps goes at the 9MB/s (100mbit).

1) If I get 2 "wireless" cards to access the Linksys ruter rather than going through wires, can I still have 1 comp connected via wire, and 2 via wireless?

2) What brands/price range should I be looking at for each one?

3) Is it true that the network will still go at the lowest link, ie: even though 2/4 comps will have wireless gigabit connections, since 2/4 still have 100mbit wired, the entire network will run at 100mbit, even if I'm transfering files to and from the ones with the wireless gigabit ones?

Thx

[silentio]

Yes u can have a mixture of 4 wired, and 250ish wireless, or a combo of those 2.

As for prices go check canada computers and futureshop.

[Avatar]

Since you got all PCs wired and 3 of them has Gigabit LAN card, whether you can have gigabit speed is depend on the kind of router/switch you have. You can have gigabit speed if you have a gigabit router (ie.DIR655).
Light color in front of router tells you about the speed it detacts and will use it accordingly.
In case you don't have a gigabit router, you can get a gigabit switch (ie.DGS-1008D) and you can all 3 cards will talk to each other in 1Gb/s.
Since all PCs are wired, no point use the wireless option since it's slower due to interference.

[flyz]

Since you got all PCs wired and 3 of them has Gigabit LAN card, whether you can have gigabit speed is depend on the kind of router/switch you have. You can have gigabit speed if you have a gigabit router (ie.DIR655).
Light color in front of router tells you about the speed it detacts and will use it accordingly.
In case you don't have a gigabit router, you can get a gigabit switch (ie.DGS-1008D) and you can all 3 cards will talk to each other in 1Gb/s.
Since all PCs are wired, no point use the wireless option since it's slower due to interference.

He's on CAT5 (it says in his post) so no, he wouldn't get gigabit speeds.

I don't see the reason why you would want wireless since everything is wired already. I can see why if you're starting off from scratch and have to do the drops.

[nfuz]

Well I really don't care about wireless, but I do want to get gigabit speeds...

My linksys router is gigabit capable, and as mentioned so are the majority of the comps on the network.

So I'm just trying to get the gigabit speeeds, wireless, or wired...

[macuser]

He's on CAT5 (it says in his post) so no, he wouldn't get gigabit speeds.

I don't see the reason why you would want wireless since everything is wired already. I can see why if you're starting off from scratch and have to do the drops.
Cat5 is perfectly fine for short runs. I've tried running gigabit with one of the old Cat5 runs in my house, that worked fine. Cat5e is a recommended minimum though - everything running at gigabit speeds in my house is connected via Cat5e.
Well I really don't care about wireless, but I do want to get gigabit speeds...

My linksys router is gigabit capable, and as mentioned so are the majority of the comps on the network.

So I'm just trying to get the gigabit speeeds, wireless, or wired...
Wireless, you will never achieve the throughput of gigabit ethernet. What do you mean by your router is 'gigabit capable'? The only Linksys consumergrade routers that have a gigabit switch in my recent memory are WRT310N, WRT320N, WRT350N, WRT610N.

I'd get a gigabit switch.

[nfuz]

I have Linksys WRT150N router.....

[Gee]

There is no such thing as wireless gigabit.

802.11n in real world tests have gone as fast as 160 mbps and that is if you are sitting next to the router with no encryption.

Nothing beats the security of a wired network.

I am not sure what you have to transfer between your home computers that will require gigabit speeds. But you have two options

A. Get a small Gigabit switch, you can get a D-Link for about $50, connect the D-Link to port 4 on your existing router. Plug all the computers into the switch. Your speed between the computers are now at gigabit speeds. Your uplink to the router will be at 100 mbps.

B. Transfer your large files late at night when you are sleeping.

Wireless sucks, I only use it when I am not at home. I would never trust my network to anything with an antenna. If it is in the air, then someone else with an antenna can grab it.

Wireless N is a joke, they have not even ratified the standard yet. Once you enable encryption to protect your data, you will be lucky to get 54 mbps.

Use the money that you ear marked for buying wireless N cards and buy a small gigabit switch. Follow option A and you will get the desired effect.