New connection needed

I just moved into the basement of a buddies house and there is no ethernet cord that is long enough to connect my computer to the router. So I am now in the market for a wireless card. I have no clue what i'm looking for. I know that there is a wide range of prices. I don't know if there are wireless cards that are faster than others but I want one that will be fast enough to play UT04 and 07. I won't be buyin one for a week and a half, so I don't need to decide it immediatly. If anyone got any ideas let me know. Thanks.

802.11g = 54 Mbps spec
802.11b = 11 Mbps spec

If the wireless access point/router that you're connecting to wirelessly supports 802.11g, and everyone else using the wireless connection is using 802.11g, then get an 802.11g card - you should be able to find something that does it cheaply.

Anything that does 802.11g also does 802.11b (unless configured not to) - the issue is that if anyone using the access point has an old card that doesn't do g, the *everyone* gets stuck using b.

There are card and router combinations that support either the 802.11n (I think it's n) spec (which is not finalized yet, near as I know) or a special 108 Mbps spec, but I have no experience with either.

Honestly, even 802.11b should be able to handle the bandwidth needed for UT2004 - the 11 Mbps it's theoretically capable of is well over the usual 3 Mbps down/384 Kbps up of most cable systems, or the slower speeds of some ASDL. However, if you've got 20 people using the same access point at the same time, you'll notice some slowness in response. It's basically the same principle of using cable with all of your neighbors - you're sharing that signal.

So, I guess the short answer is ... it really doesn't matter too much. It depends on the capabilities and usage of your current wireless access point and router, but if you get a b/g capable card, you should be set. I can't imagine that they're that expensive.

I had a similar problem when I was wiring in the LAN at my workplace.

If they don't supply a CAT5 cable at your local computer store that's long enough to do the job, all you need to do is go to a electricial store (possibly wholesalers), order the required length of CAT5 data cable and 2 RJ45 connectors and ask them to connect them together.

It's gonna be much more reliable and a far simpler solution (and probably less expensive) than worring about wireless cards.

Best of luck.

MD

I have a box of 1000' of Cat5e in the garage and a package of connectors. Steelace and I networked 16 connections throughout the house. It is the only way to fly. I'm sure we can work something out if you have a length you need, I would be willing to make it and send it you but you're gonna have to cover postage.

I was talkin to my roommates about our connection and the router that we have is through qwest which I was told is a 802.11g.

BotFodder:
Anything that does 802.11g also does 802.11b (unless configured not to) - the issue is that if anyone using the access point has an old card that doesn't do g, the *everyone* gets stuck using b.

My 3 roommates all have wireless cards and it turns out that one of them is using a b.

MeanDevil

If they don't supply a CAT5 cable at your local computer store that's long enough to do the job, all you need to do is go to a electricial store (possibly wholesalers), order the required length of CAT5 data cable and 2 RJ45 connectors and ask them to connect them together.

I was lookin online for some CAT5e cable and it looks like I could get 100ft for $20 http://www.computercablestore.com/SearchResult.aspx?CategoryID=167 . I haven't decided yet if I want to drill a whole in the floor and cut the length needed to 20 ft or if I want to get the 75 or 100ft cable.

Another thing that confussed me is that last night my roommate told me that used to be connected to the router through a cat5 but it was slow so he had to get a wireless card. I don't think that he knows what he is talking about but it really confused me, cuz I thought that connecting through a cable was faster than wireless. The people that I have talked to today have said the opposite. There is more latency with the wireless and for gaming it isn't the best. This is what I tought, but I don't know.

Thanks for the help.

Thanks for the offer cpl, I'll measure it out to see exactly how much I will need. Right now it looks like it would either be about 60 feet or 85 feet (I don't know how long my cable is and i'm about 10 or 15 feet short). If it is close to 75 or 100 then I'll just buy it, but If it's not close to 75 or 100, it would be nice not to have an extra 20 feet jammed behind my computer. I'll let you know what I find out.

CAT5 is really reliable, and faster, up to 25-30 feet. Longer than that and you start getting some packet loss. Some people say you can go up to 100 feet without loss, but that hasn't been my experience. I know some engineers who refuse to go longer than 16 feet without a repeater hub. Of course all these things depend on how reliable your connection needs to be. Similar to buffered and nonbuffered RAM. For solid gaming I wouldn't recommend longer than the 25 feet. Longer than that and you might as well be using a good wireless connection.

$7 for 100ft. Cat5E cable
http://microbarn.com/Network_Cables_NCB-100--51-164-100130.html

This is where I bought my 100ft cable from. It doesn't look they have 75 ft cables anymore though. I'm not having any problems with packetloss, nothing noticable anyway. You could go with the Cat6 cable if you want to make sure. It's only $5 more.

So I just found out that our connection is not cable but is actually DSL. Does the speed of the dsl effect wether i should use the cat5, cat6 or a wireless card?

Nop, it has no impact. Cable is fibre optic, DSL is piped in via a phone line. Both produce the same results to the end user.

I would suggest you go with the CAT5 cable, I've never experinced any problems with mine and I have at least 100ft stashed under my floor boards! With the wireless connection you are much more likely to get signal interferance and disconnections. Go get your drill and punch a hole in that floor of yours! It'll only take 5 mins

Sour_Grape wrote:

CAT5 is really reliable, and faster, up to 25-30 feet. Longer than that and you start getting some packet loss. Some people say you can go up to 100 feet without loss, but that hasn't been my experience.

You must have some crappy cable. I have a spool with exactly 200 feet of CAT5e on it and I use it to bridge my router and my switch together at LAN parties. We have never once noticed a hitch in network performance.

From Wikipedia (because I couldnt think of a faster source)

CAT5e...horizontal cables are still limited to a maximum of 90m in length...

90m = approximately 300 feet (guaranteed to be at least 292 feet)

Yup, I figure that if you have to go any farther than a cat5 will work, you just need to go on and build a house there and get a cable drop put in or some such.

Cat5 is good for almost the length of a football field for those challenged in distance recognition.

The wireless would be fine, but it's up to you if you want to go through the hassle with wired. 80211b is fine (like Bot said). But you might as well buy a G card. A generic rule of thumb is to buy the same brand of card as the wireless router.

Our house has a 16 connection hub plugging all the machines together. Every cable on that hub is more than 50' long. The one I play on is about 150' long because I had to go down into the basement with it and then up into the attic and then down through my bedroom wall to the wall plate. Basement is half drywalled on the ceiling (the half under my room) so I had to make the run up through the attic. To further degrade my connection I actually spliced into the existing 50' in the basement. No problems no packet loss no nothing, just good wholesome gaming.

cplmac wrote:

Our house has a 16 connection hub plugging all the machines together. Every cable on that hub is more than 50' long. The one I play on is about 150' long because I had to go down into the basement with it and then up into the attic and then down through my bedroom wall to the wall plate. Basement is half drywalled on the ceiling (the half under my room) so I had to make the run up through the attic. To further degrade my connection I actually spliced into the existing 50' in the basement. No problems no packet loss no nothing, just good wholesome gaming.

I wish I lived in a house full of gamers, it would be so much more fun than living with my brother...who can't even burn a CD! Bah, I feel like I'm missing out. CPL - can I come round your house for tea tonight?