Chris F Posted April 6, 2004 Report Share Posted April 6, 2004 Pretty new to this whole wireless thing, so I'm having a hard time choosing a router. The main things I'm concerned with are: 1. Speed. 2. Reliability. 3. Ability for 2 Xboxes to be connected to Live at the same time. 4. Ability to "throttle" the bandwidth, so that my folks (who do a LOT of music downloading) don't eat up all my gaming bandwidth. Anything is going to be faster than the 28.8 connection they're using now. Are there any mainstream cable routers (Linksys, MS, D-Link, Netgear) that will do such a thing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
General Zot Posted April 6, 2004 Report Share Posted April 6, 2004 Ruff- 1 - yes 2 - yes 3 - yes 4 - no, not any that I know of Basically, you can get an 802.11b or an 802.11g router and/or system right now. 802.11b gets ~5 Mbps transfer rate and g typically will do ~25 Mbps. The boxes are rated to 11 Mbps and 54 Mbps respectively, but I'm talking real world performance. Since even a cable modem has only about a 3 Mbps max download ability, 802.11b is probably all you could want. The problem with your kids sucking bandwidth won't go away though, since the bottleneck is your internet connection and not the router. If they are just transferring within your network, 802.11g would be better but I'm assuming they are on eDonkey or something over the internet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris F Posted April 6, 2004 Author Report Share Posted April 6, 2004 The problem with your kids sucking bandwidth LOL. I meant my parents! :lmfao: I'm the only user of my cable modem in my apartment, my parents still use their 28.8 unless they're on Xbox Live. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baiter Posted April 6, 2004 Report Share Posted April 6, 2004 Originally posted by Ruffneck@Apr 6 2004, 11:10 AM my parents still use their 28.8 unless they're on Xbox Live. those poor folks. :shock: I went w/ the cheapest router I could find, netgear, and it works great. :tu: I've read good things about the linksys game adapter. i don't think any of the reasonably priced routers are going to allow you manage bandwith usage like you want. And I'd go with a g router, they're reverse compatible, and from what I understand they're better at encrypting your data. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris F Posted April 6, 2004 Author Report Share Posted April 6, 2004 If you're a nice guy, you'll buy ur parents a wireless card and at least bring them upto the 20th century. LOL. Since I pay for the cable modem, I'm deathly afraid of them "raping" my bandwidth with their music downloads. You guys should be too! Since I host a lot of game thanks to my precious bandwidth. You don't want my folks infringing upon RtCW, RS3 and SC : PT games do you??!! I'd only want to limit them a little, since anything I give them would be faster than their 28.8 connection at the moment. I've had decent experience with Linksys so far, so I'm looking towards a G router by them at the moment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Failsafe Posted April 6, 2004 Report Share Posted April 6, 2004 To quote Joey from this thread ... Get a new router. A few of you may remember i had the problem of having two live accounts on 2 seperate xbox's online at the same time. So my brother and I could never be on at the same time. I had a linksys wireless router and it seems they have a problem with multiple live/xbox accounts. I tried every single thing i could think of when i finally decided to just get a new Router. Bought the D-link 624 and it works perfectly. Both live accounts can stay on without getting disconnected every 5 minutes. Just thought those of you who helped me last time would like a update I also have the D-Link 624 and have no complaints whatsoever. Great price too! :tu: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrJames Posted April 6, 2004 Report Share Posted April 6, 2004 I don't know of any residential grade wireless routers that offer any kind of bandwidth management. Zyxel may have a router coming out that does BM but it probably won't be cheap. You may want to try installing BM software. Try this or this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angel P Posted April 6, 2004 Report Share Posted April 6, 2004 I have the D-Link 614+ wireless router with 2 D-Link bridges (X-Box on each) and haven't had any problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kelley Posted April 6, 2004 Report Share Posted April 6, 2004 I HIGHLY recommend the Buffalo AirStation 54mbps. It doesn't have the prettiest face on the block, but once its up and running it has been nothing but ROCK solid. http://www.buffalotech.com/wireless/produc...ion/WBRG54.html You can also get these neat repeaters for it that pretty much just configure themselves. http://www.buffalotech.com/wireless/produc...on/WRBG54K.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishepa Posted April 6, 2004 Report Share Posted April 6, 2004 How about just asking them not to download music while you're playing on live? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamsappel Posted April 6, 2004 Report Share Posted April 6, 2004 And they're paying for that music, right? It would suck to be the first person sued by the RIAA because his parents were illegally downloading music. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robot Monkey Posted April 6, 2004 Report Share Posted April 6, 2004 Originally posted by adamsappel@Apr 6 2004, 02:32 PM And they're paying for that music, right? It would suck to be the first person sued by the RIAA because his parents were illegally downloading music. :lmfao: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris F Posted April 6, 2004 Author Report Share Posted April 6, 2004 Thanks for the replies everyone. I'll take my time in considering which to go with. Allen - You've given me yet another reason not to share my internet connection with them. Thanks. Does anyone know anything about interference with the wireless stuff with 2.4GHz phones? I have a 2.4GHz phone I use at home, and I wouldn't want it to interfere with my connections. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishepa Posted April 6, 2004 Report Share Posted April 6, 2004 Originally posted by Ruffneck@Apr 6 2004, 01:44 PM Thanks for the replies everyone. I'll take my time in considering which to go with. Allen - You've given me yet another reason not to share my internet connection with them. Thanks. Does anyone know anything about interference with the wireless stuff with 2.4GHz phones? I have a 2.4GHz phone I use at home, and I wouldn't want it to interfere with my connections. No problems at all for me. If you end up having a problem you can always change the channel of the router. You have 11 options. :tu: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeyN Posted April 6, 2004 Report Share Posted April 6, 2004 Chris go with the Dlink 624 Xteme G Router as i just got one. Works with 2 live connections on at the same time and at the moment you get some rebates back capt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
exile Posted April 7, 2004 Report Share Posted April 7, 2004 Stay far away from linksys. I've owned one for the past 2 years and its been a real headache. I had to reboot atleast once a week and that was "normal". When I finally lost access to the router thru wireless the tech told me to reformat my drive because that was the only solution. Needless to say I hung up and moved on. I have since replaced it with a Netgear. I haven't had to reboot it once(nor touch it). I would highly recommend you stay away from Linksys. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kelley Posted April 7, 2004 Report Share Posted April 7, 2004 Originally posted by exile@Apr 7 2004, 07:50 AM Stay far away from linksys. I've owned one for the past 2 years and its been a real headache. I had to reboot atleast once a week and that was "normal". When I finally lost access to the router thru wireless the tech told me to reformat my drive because that was the only solution. Needless to say I hung up and moved on. I have since replaced it with a Netgear. I haven't had to reboot it once(nor touch it). I would highly recommend you stay away from Linksys. We've gone through two Linksys routers in my house. We had a netgear that was rock solid, but one of the switch ports went bad and thats when we discovered the joy that is Buffalo Tech's AirStation 54mbps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris F Posted April 7, 2004 Author Report Share Posted April 7, 2004 Thanks for even more info guys. I've got another question for you: I'm currently using the Pelican System Selector Pro, with my 3 consoles connected via Cat6 cable to the System Selector Pro. My System selector then is plugged directly into my wired router now. If I go wireless, I can just remove the cable from my router to my System Selector Pro, then just plug the Bridge/Adapter/etc. to my System Selector Pro, correct? This won't pose any sort of problem? The basic way I'd like to set up my network is: Computer directly connected to router. Pelican System Selector Pro (Xbox, PS2, Gamecube) is wireless. Second Xbox is wireless. I want to make sure my network is secure, but I need to have all ports open on my PC for gaming, etc. so my PC will be in the DMZ, with a software firewall in place. Apparently I can't have my consoles wireless if I have decent security set on my router? i.e. WEP, SSID, etc. Can anyone confirm this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
General Zot Posted April 7, 2004 Report Share Posted April 7, 2004 Apparently I can't have my consoles wireless if I have decent security set on my router? i.e. WEP, SSID, etc. Can anyone confirm this? No, you can do it. Mine works fine with no alterations, but you can open specific port addresses for your xboxes to work with live. Somewhere in the FAQ on the xbox live support site the ports are listed (buried?) If you have issues, just look up the ports there and make the changes then. Typically you can configure a wireless router to be as wide open or as tight as you wish. What I do for my D-Link is to set it to allow only known MACs to access the router and it supplies them with their network IP. Since your game consoles will report a MAC this might be a fast and loose security for you to avoid port tunnels and such. You never know what your specific system will require until you set it up, but there is almost definitely a way to get online with your PC/consoles without too much trouble. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris F Posted April 7, 2004 Author Report Share Posted April 7, 2004 My main concern is stopping people from utilizing my connection. Plus making sure they can't get any information that I may be sending to my parents PC, and vice versa, when I set it up to be wireless. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishepa Posted April 7, 2004 Report Share Posted April 7, 2004 Originally posted by Ruffneck@Apr 7 2004, 11:25 AM My main concern is stopping people from utilizing my connection. Plus making sure they can't get any information that I may be sending to my parents PC, and vice versa, when I set it up to be wireless. The best thing you can do is disable the SSID broadcast. By default, wireless routers broadcast their SSID's so anyone with a laptop and a wireless NIC can get on your network. MAC address authentication also helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris F Posted April 7, 2004 Author Report Share Posted April 7, 2004 The best thing you can do is disable the SSID broadcast. Yeah, that's what I've been reading. I'm thinking I'll disable SSID broadcast, choose a weird SSID name, then enable 64-bit WEP or 128-bit WEP, depending on if theirs a performance decrease or not. I'll look into the MAC addressing thing as well, since I haven't seen too much about that when reading the manuals for the routers I've considering. I think I'm almost ready to pull the trigger on this setup, maybe early next week if I can. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris F Posted April 7, 2004 Author Report Share Posted April 7, 2004 Before I can pull the trigger here, I need to know if I can attach the wireless bridge to my System Selector Pro. Anyone know if this will be a problem? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishepa Posted April 7, 2004 Report Share Posted April 7, 2004 Originally posted by Ruffneck@Apr 7 2004, 01:39 PM Before I can pull the trigger here, I need to know if I can attach the wireless bridge to my System Selector Pro. Anyone know if this will be a problem? I don't see why it would be a problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buck Posted April 7, 2004 Report Share Posted April 7, 2004 Originally posted by Ruffneck@Apr 7 2004, 02:39 PM Before I can pull the trigger here, I need to know if I can attach the wireless bridge to my System Selector Pro. Anyone know if this will be a problem? I wouldn't think so, it's just like any other network connection. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.