Wireless has steadily evolved over the past few years to become a ubiquitous standard. Bennett Ring checks out some of the best wireless routers to link hovel and house alike.
If you’re running a simple network with only a handful of computers, a wireless router is the perfect way of getting rid of cable clutter. Not only is a wireless network much more convenient when it comes to moving your machines around, the cool factor of having a network that operates via radio waves is a sure fire way to impress less tech-savvy members of the opposite sex. Trust us, it works. It also means you don’t need to punch holes in the wall with your forehead to hide your cables.
Hot-wired
While the first round of wireless routers were as simple to configure as a Rubik’s cube, about as affordable as gold leaf toilet paper and less secure than a fly wire safe, today’s wireless routers have squished most of these issues. Sure, they’re still not secure enough for those who need to store their next-gen ICBM plans, and the bandwidth can’t compete with datasucking Gigabit Ethernet networks, but for the casual home user they do the job perfectly. The most popular protocol for today’s wireless routers is 802.11g, which theoretically delivers 54Mb/s. We say theoretically, as the actual real world performance is somewhat less due to protocol overheads and range, and that’s before throwing obstructions in the way such as walls or floors.
Many routers can now increase the maximum theoretical bandwidth of 802.11g up to 108Mb/s, and most do this by using two overlaying radio signals. They’re often named MIMO (Multiple In, Multiple Out) or Pre-N devices. Pre-N refers to the fact that they’re based on the same technology that the upcoming 802.11n standard uses. While these devices do offer improved bandwidth, there’s a slight problem. They need proprietary wireless network adaptors which are compatible with their method of transmitting the data, which means you won’t have the wide ranging compatibility of standard 802.11g devices. These devices also tend to be rather pricey – especially the wireless NICs that you’ll install into your PC.
If you’re on a very tight budget, and only need to share your net connection across multiple PCs rather than copy large files between your machines, an 802.11b network will do the job at a much reduced price. This format delivers 11Mb/s, which is still plenty for less demanding users. And then there’s 802.11a, which is really only suitable for those users who live in areas with a stack of wireless networks surrounding them, where channel conflicts are a problem.
Wireless networks still aren’t anywhere near as secure as a cabled network, but if you purchase a wireless router with a few key features it can ruin a Warchalker’s day. WEP is now standard on wireless routers, and it’s best to use the 128-bit method to make decryption that much harder. Even with WEP enabled, you’d be advised to change your WEP key at least once a week or so.
The ability to hide the SSID (the wireless network name) will also make your network that much harder to crack, but bear in mind that your network adaptors will need to be compatible with this. Arguably the best method of protecting your wireless network is MAC filtering. This means that the router will only accept connections from devices with a specified MAC address. If your chosen router includes a cable or DSL modem, a hardware-based firewall will help to keep it secure from access via the internet.
Keeping it simple
If you’re not the savviest networking guru, and don’t happen to have your Cisco cert, one of the most important factors when choosing a router is the interface. The difference between an easy to use interface and an Escher-isk nightmare of nested menus can mean all the difference between having a working, secure network and a box that gathers dust.
If one of the machines on your wireless network is going to be used for twitch-intensive gaming, Quality of Service features can be a godsend. These allow you to assign one of the machines on your network priority over the other PCs, which means its packets will always get preference. This can help to lessen lag if you’re blasting peeps in CounterStrike while your uncle surfs a foot fetish website.
If you’re still debating the move to wireless, stop beating around the bush and take the Wi-Fi plunge. You’ll soon wonder how you lived without the wonder of wireless. How we tested
We tested the speed and range of these devices by transferring a 100MB file between a laptop and a standard desktop PC. They were tested at both a three-metre range, with nothing blocking the line of sight between the units, as well as at ten metres, with a single concrete wall blocking the line of sight.
Where necessary, proprietary network adaptors were used. Quality of Service was tested by playing games at the same time as a large file download was taking place on the second PC – all routers with QoS features operated as advertised, delivering low and stable pings to the machine that was designated as having priority.
We call that ‘slick’ in the business.
Issue: 137 | June, 2012