Setting up wireless home network..wired?

[Glock26]

Hi all,
Hope you will bear with a real novice question. Just bought a house, and figured that when I move in, may as well go to adsl and may as well go wireless.

I have decided on a netgear DGN2000 modem/router and Belkin N Wireless USB Adaptors. There will be 2 pc's in the house (and 2 laptops, but they have wireless, so no prob there)

Since I am new to this (but learn fast) I was wondering if I need to get 2 usb adaptors, or one? I heard somewhere that one of the pc's has to be connected vie wire to the modem/router? In that case, do I only need an adaptor for the one pc, or can the modem/router be stand alone and have both pc's connected via wifi? Does the wired connection only have to be for initial setup, or all the time?

If someone could give me a brief rundown how the 2 pc's would best be connected to the modem/router, I would really appreciate it. Busy purchasing the hardware and need to know what to buy and what is the optimum setup.

G26

 

[rorz0r]

Wireless is great for laptops but it helps to connect more things with wires. Think of everything that's wireless going through one network cable as there's only x amount of traffic that can be going wireless at any time. If you do large file copies from pc to pc or maybe in future to a media center or something then it really does help to have wires.
Eg1: you have 1 pc connected (wired) to the router and 1 laptop. The laptop can access files from the pc at full speed
Eg2: you have the pc and the laptop both wireless connected to the router, now the speed is only half because the traffic is from the pc to router and then from router to laptop.
Network cables are also cheaper, give less hassles, less latency, etc etc.

No there's no need at all to have a router connected by wire to a pc. Most routers when you buy them will let any pc connect then you just log in and change the password etc.

If you do go wireless with the PC's I'd suggest proper network cards with external aerials rather than the USB adaptors. They just seem to have more power or a better signal for some reason.

 

[dj_jyno]

Hi Glock

You only need a wired connection for the initial router setup. After that you can switch over to wireless. If it's not too difficult to lay cabling to the PCs from the router, I'd rather recommend that. No hassles with range, setting up the PCs or dropped connections - it's just plug and play.

 

[shogun]

Firstly... good choice on going N. I got my Netgear N wi-fi access point in 2007, and haven't looked back. Even the G spec card in my laptop picks up the signal from MUCH further away.

I'd suggest proper network cards with external aerials rather than the USB adaptors

+1... haven't had a good experience with a USB wi-fi dongle.

If the PC's aren't going anywhere, you're gonna save money and time connecting them using wires if they already have an on-board network card. And like pointed out before, it will likely be more stable and reliable. Just please don't go pay R300 for a branded 10m cable (someone at work did this last year, and it should have cost so much less)... measure what you need and have a PC store make one up. That way you also get the right amount and don't have to coil it all up.

Hope it all works out.

 

[Glock26]

Thanks for the help guys, much appreciated.
By "network cards with external aerials rather than the USB adaptors" I assume you mean PCI wireless cards?
If so, my only concern is that they all seem to be PCI, and my sole pci slot is already used, the rest are all pci express.
You are talking about cards like these? http://www.expansys.co.za/other/networking/wireless/adaptors+cards/pci-cards

G26