About Wireless Networks

[Kastuvas]

Hello,

Just a simple question.

My and my house mate are thinking of connecting our computers together for some multiplayer gaming. The problem is that our rooms are about 25 meters apart. So i was thinking of going wireless. My motherboard supports that asus wireless dongle so if we just get one more wireless card we would be able to set up a network as with a network cable?

[az]

This wireless dongle.. isn't that Bluetooth?

AZ

[Jammrock]

No, some Asus boards have built-in wireless 802.11b. They also have a PCI card with 802.11b/g plus bluetooth in the same card/antenna.

PCI card: http://usa.asus.com/products/mb/bwpci-card.htm

Mobo list with WiFi: http://www.asus.com/products/mb/even...ome/model.html (Scroll down to bottom)

If you just have 2 wNIC's all you need to do is set them up on AdHoc mode, set the channels the same, the workgroups the same, and manually setup the IP address (something like 10.10.10.x with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0) and you should be good. Both card will need an external antenna if you are inside like a dorm room/apartment building. Otherwise the signal probably won't make it.

Some WEP security keys would be nice to setup as well.

Jammrock

[rylan]

One thing though.. is it a straight shot between the computers, or do you have to go though a bunch of walls, and especially power lines and pipes?
What Jamrock said should work, but it just depends on what you have to go through if you'll have any signal left. Usually the pci card wireless have relitively poor reception. Not sure how wel those dongles pick up signal.

[Tjalfe]

D-Linkmakes a directional antenna which works really well .. I have one on my Linksys PCI 802.11G card.. made the signal go from poor@ 2Mbit to excellent@54Mbit

[Wombat]

That, or use a Pringles can.

[Kastuvas]

Hmm sounds like we will need that directional antenna. Its an 8 bedroom mansion and our rooms couldn't be further apart :/

tjalfe could you give a mobel number of the one you use.

Thanks,

[Taz]

Originally posted by Kastuvas
Its an 8 bedroom mansion...

It's alright for some

Another solution would be to use WDS enabled AP's that way you could stick one in the middle to in effect boost the signal.

[Ssin]

Wombat is right. If your card comes with an external antenna you could probably make your own antenna and hook it to a Pringles can or any tin can should be able to do it. otherwise you risk having bad signal or signal loss. Of course, doing your own antenna means that you're going to hack into the cable the card shipped with wich will inevitably void the garantie. There a belgian group called "Réseau Citoyen" who are famous for doing their own antennas.

Or you might want to try network over power current. It should work a bit slower than 54g and you need to be in the same power structure (when power goes off does your roommate have the same problem?).

[Kastuvas]

Gosh sound lots of haslle, maybe we should just get 50m of Cat5 cable

[Tjalfe]

Originally posted by Kastuvas
Hmm sounds like we will need that directional antenna. Its an 8 bedroom mansion and our rooms couldn't be further apart :/

tjalfe could you give a mobel number of the one you use.

Thanks,

OK.. I am an idiot.. I was thinking SMC, but typing D-Link..

http://www.smc.com/index.cfm?sec=Products&pg=Product-Details&prod=337&site=c

this is the one I have" SMCHMANT-6 - EZ Connectâ„¢ 2.4GHz Directional Home Antenna"