Hey everyone. We are looking to put 3 pcs online and figured wireless would be the best way to go cuz we just couldn't find a good way to run the cables to the suite downstairs.

Or we were thinking of putting the one downstairs on wireless and the 2 upstairs wired as we already have a reg. router. Is it possible to have both wired and wireless from the same cable modem?

So we are looking for advice on the best configuration and deals on a wireless router and 1 to possibly 3 wireless PCI cards.

Originally posted by Ivy Is it possible to have both wired and wireless from the same cable modem?

Yes. You need a WiFi router connected to the modem. All such routers have several (usually 4) wired Ethernet ports so you can have a combination of wired and wireless PCs connected. (In fact I usually have 2 PCs wired into my router in the basement and my wife's PC on the 3rd floor is WiFi.)

So we are looking for advice on the best configuration and deals on a wireless router and 1 to possibly 3 wireless PCI cards.

NCIX usually has good deals. Both they and FS have been offering the Linksys WRT54G router for about $50 after rebates. They also offer lesser brands for as little as $5 or $10 after rebates.

TigerDirect also has good deals, especially on refurbished routers and cards. I've bought various WiFi cards (PCMCIA, USB and PCI) from them for ~$20 each. They've all worked fine.

Thanks that is awesome! Sounds like it will work exactly as we need it to. I was looking at the linksys stuff at FS after instant and mail-in rebates the prices are very reasonable. Thanks for you input.

Originally posted by bylo NCIX usually has good deals. Both they and FS have been offering the Linksys WRT54G router for about $50 after rebates. They also offer lesser brands for as little as $5 or $10 after rebates.

Be warned; the latest hardware revision of the WRT54G has hobbled if not crippled it. For the little extra, I might suggest looking at the WRT54GL variant.

Originally posted by chdude3 Be warned; the latest hardware revision of the WRT54G has hobbled if not crippled it.

Only to the extent that you can't load any of the open-source firmware into it. The router itself works just fine and the WiFi signal is noticeably stronger than on the non-Linksys router it replaced. (I bought one a couple of months ago when Dell was selling them for $40 delivered. That was a great deal.)

One more thing. If you're on a tight budget and need the router mainly to share a broadband connection (as opposed to copying files from PC to PC), you'll find that the older 801.11b WiFi routers will do the job just fine and can be bought quite cheaply. They'll only do 10Mb/s (in practice closer to 5Mb/s) speeds, but that's more than most people can get on cable or DSL.

Originally posted by bylo Only to the extent that you can't load any of the open-source firmware into it.

That's due to a reduction in flash space from 4meg to 2meg, but in addition the RAM has been cut from 16meg to 8meg. I thought it had further reaching consequences, but it seems the biggest effects are not being able to load 3rd party firmware, and a smaller limit on the number of simultaneous connections (which will be a problem mostly for heavier P2P users).

We got this one:
http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/pr...=&langid=EN

And a wireless card and so far its great. My moms notebook connected right away and her old pc took to it once installed as well. Soon as we find the space, we are gonna hook up our other 2 pc, so hopefully that will go smoothly as well. We were really happy with the price after rebate, so hopefully they come.

Ivy