[PANTUG] [PANTUGGeneral] Wireless recommendation?

[Paul B.Toms]

We have a cheap little D-link wireless router that was a freebie
bundled with something we bought at work. Laptop or something,
probably, it was a few years ago. It doesn't work great, has to be
restarted often in order to function, and the range is limited enough
that it doesn't reach the entire office. Nobody really seemed to care,
we have cables in the conference rooms, but now we have a guy who is
into the latest and greatest toys and is insisting that we have wireless
N throughout the office. Anybody have a recommendation for a decent
wireless AP/router/something? Security is important (as least, as much
security as is possible with wireless - I still have Troy's powerpoint
thing from a few years ago - "The number one rule for secure wireless -
don't use wireless", and have been trying to live by that for as long as
possible), but reliability is key, too. I've been poking around at
newegg, etc., and I'm seeing a lot of complaints about dropped
connections, or having to try a few times to connect. I need something
that "just works", because lawyers and clients don't put up with having
to try a few times or having to restart the router. Anybody have a
brand/model that they're happy with and would recommend?
I'm going to try putting our cheapo router in the board room, or
reception desk, to see if it can reach the conference rooms better, but
we still have an ongoing issue with it not handing out IP addresses
correctly until it is restarted, and that's kind of the same as 'not
working'...





<http://photos.imageevent.com/thetomsfamily/posting/RRKD-Logo.gif>
Cira Centre, 13th Floor
2929 Arch Street
Philadelphia, Pa 19104
Phone: 215.495.6500
Fax: 215.495.6600
Web: www.regerlaw.com <http://www.regerlaw.com/> Paul B. Toms
Manager, Information Systems
pt...@regerlaw.com
Direct: 215.495.6539






NEW IRS RULES RESTRICT WRITTEN FEDERAL TAX ADVICE FROM LAWYERS AND
ACCOUNTANTS. WE INCLUDE THIS STATEMENT IN ALL OUTBOUND EMAILS BECAUSE
EVEN INADVERTENT VIOLATIONS MAY BE PENALIZED. NOTHING IN THIS MESSAGE IS
INTENDED TO BE USED, OR MAY BE USED, TO AVOID ANY PENALTY UNDER FEDERAL
TAX LAWS. THIS MESSAGE WAS NOT WRITTEN TO SUPPORT THE PROMOTION OR
MARKETING OF ANY TRANSACTION. CONTACT THE SENDER IF YOU WISH TO ENGAGE
US TO PROVIDE FORMAL WRITTEN ADVICE AS TO TAX ISSUES.
THIS E-MAIL MAY CONTAIN PRIVILEGED, CONFIDENTIAL, COPYRIGHTED, OR OTHER
LEGALLY PROTECTED INFORMATION. IF YOU ARE NOT THE INTENDED RECIPIENT
(EVEN IF THE E-MAIL ADDRESS ABOVE IS YOURS), YOU MAY NOT USE, COPY, OR
RETRANSMIT IT. IF YOU HAVE RECEIVED THIS BY MISTAKE PLEASE NOTIFY US BY
RETURN E-MAIL, THEN DELETE. THANK YOU.

_______________________________________________
PANTUGGeneral mailing list: PANTUG...@lists.pantug.org
To remove your address or change your delivery options see:
http://lists.pantug.org/mailman/listinfo/pantuggeneral
For the searchable archives see:
http://groups.google.com/group/pantug/

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "PANTUG" group.
To post to this group, send email to pan...@googlegroups.com.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to pantug+un...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/pantug?hl=en.

[William Bilancio]

Paul we use the 3 D-link cheapos here at my company to cover the whole
office with wireless. The thing I found was that you need to make
sure you have the most recent firmware. When we first got them
installed they ha many problems dropping connections, not talking to
the DHCP server sometimes. I upgraded the firmware on all 3 and they
started working fine.

I am probably going to upgrade to N next year, I have 2 VPs who must
have the latest and greatest as well. I am looking at a more
enterprise system this time instead of a bunch of consumer APs.

Good luck.

William

--
William Bilancio
SysAdmin and Network Admin
Conference Chair - LOPSA-NJ Professional IT Community Conference
Lawrenceville, NJ USA 08648 | http://bilancio.org
609.658.9005 | E-mail: wbilancio (at) bilancio.org
Jabber: wbil...@bilancio.org | Gtalk: wbil...@bilancio.org

[Paul B.Toms]

Thanks, I'll check the firmware thing. I'm not entirely sure that the majority of people who come in here would actually have "N" adapters anyway, and if the signal's decent, G is plenty fast enough for internet access, which is all they need it for anyway. If I can relocate our cheap G, and firmware updates make it more reliable, we should be good to go. He wants "N" because it's "better", but with my IT budget what it is (or what it isn't), I'm quite happy to settle for "works"...

Paul B. Toms
Manager, Information Systems
pt...@regerlaw.com
Direct: 215.495.6539

Reger Rizzo & Darnall LLP

Cira Centre, 13th Floor
2929 Arch Street
Philadelphia, Pa 19104
Phone: 215.495.6500
Fax: 215.495.6600
Web: www.regerlaw.com

NEW IRS RULES RESTRICT WRITTEN FEDERAL TAX ADVICE FROM LAWYERS AND ACCOUNTANTS. WE INCLUDE THIS STATEMENT IN ALL OUTBOUND EMAILS BECAUSE EVEN INADVERTENT VIOLATIONS MAY BE PENALIZED. NOTHING IN THIS MESSAGE IS INTENDED TO BE USED, OR MAY BE USED, TO AVOID ANY PENALTY UNDER FEDERAL TAX LAWS. THIS MESSAGE WAS NOT WRITTEN TO SUPPORT THE PROMOTION OR MARKETING OF ANY TRANSACTION. CONTACT THE SENDER IF YOU WISH TO ENGAGE US TO PROVIDE FORMAL WRITTEN ADVICE AS TO TAX ISSUES.
THIS E-MAIL MAY CONTAIN PRIVILEGED, CONFIDENTIAL, COPYRIGHTED, OR OTHER LEGALLY PROTECTED INFORMATION. IF YOU ARE NOT THE INTENDED RECIPIENT (EVEN IF THE E-MAIL ADDRESS ABOVE IS YOURS), YOU MAY NOT USE, COPY, OR RETRANSMIT IT. IF YOU HAVE RECEIVED THIS BY MISTAKE PLEASE NOTIFY US BY RETURN E-MAIL, THEN DELETE. THANK YOU.

[William Bilancio]

Paul I feel the same way about N. Good luck.

--
William Bilancio
SysAdmin and Network Admin
Conference Chair - LOPSA-NJ Professional IT Community Conference
Lawrenceville, NJ USA 08648 | http://bilancio.org
609.658.9005 | E-mail: wbilancio (at) bilancio.org
Jabber: wbil...@bilancio.org | Gtalk: wbil...@bilancio.org

[Drew Lehman]

One thing you need to look at is who needs to use it. If visitors need
to use it, you will want a separate wireless for them to make sure they
don't have access to your network. Wireless N has the advantage of
distance and speed and will downgrade to G/B if they don't have N.
If they don't give you enough in your budget to buy a cheap N router you
have other issues because you are unlikely to have the resources to
implement it correctly.

Paul B.Toms wrote:
> Thanks, I'll check the firmware thing. I'm not entirely sure that the majority of people who come in here would actually have "N" adapters anyway, and if the signal's decent, G is plenty fast enough for internet access, which is all they need it for anyway. If I can relocate our cheap G, and firmware updates make it more reliable, we should be good to go. He wants "N" because it's "better", but with my IT budget what it is (or what it isn't), I'm quite happy to settle for "works"...
>
>
> Paul B. Toms
> Manager, Information Systems
> pt...@regerlaw.com
> Direct: 215.495.6539
>
> Reger Rizzo & Darnall LLP
> Cira Centre, 13th Floor
> 2929 Arch Street
> Philadelphia, Pa 19104
> Phone: 215.495.6500
> Fax: 215.495.6600
> Web: www.regerlaw.com