Going wireless, many questions

[helmers]

Hi!

I'm planning on moving away from normal networking, and over to a wireless solution.

Here's the setup now:
1. Router/firewall (attached to switch)
2. Switch
3. 3 PC's attached to the switch on same floor
4. 1 PC with a 50 M cable in the basement, attached to the switch
5. One older laptop, attatched to the switch sometimes.

The main reason I am going wireless, is because I don't like that wire hanging out the window, and I want freedom with my laptop.

Only problem is, I have never done this before, but here's what I want to do:

1. Buy a 54Mbps wireless router
2. Plug it into the switch
3. Add a 54Mbps PCI card to the basement PC(running WinXP)
4. Add a 22Mbps PCMCIA card to the laptop.

My first question; do you see any flaws in my reasoning/setup here? Because I would like to aviod any bad surprises afterwords.

Second question; I need a well-supported and well working PCMCIA card, can someone recommend a card that have served them well?

Third question; Will I be able to get the PC in the basement on the net? It will be about 8 meters directly below the wireless router, through two floors. Or could someone comment on how far away one can be from a router and still get a decent signal?

Phew!
I think that's about it. Sorry about any misspellings. Hope you can help me out.
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[ady]

5 points that might be worth considering:
1) You don't need a wireless router. These tend to have a wireless access point and a 4-way switch/hub in them. All you need is an access point that has a single ethernet port that you can then connect to your existing switch.

2) 54Mbs (802.11g) linux drivers seem fairly rare at the moment.

3) IIRC mixing .11g and .11b (22Mbs) standards tends to mean all devices run at the lower speed. This may be fixed in the future though.

4) I have used a Netgear MA401 with no problems on my laptop using the linux-wlan-ng drivers.

5) The range depends on the type of material between the devices and the properties of the device itself. With some cards you can use an external aerial to improve the reception. I run my laptop about 7m away from the access point with a plaster board wall and two solid brick walls in the way and just pick up enough signal.
Probably your best bet would be to get the access point and a laptop card and see if that works from your basement. If it does then a decent pci or usb card with a better aerial should work.

[Dracnor]

Hi helmers,
I agree with ady in that there is no need to buy a wireless router, just an Access Point. I have an Access Point that uses 802.11b that runs at 11 MBPS. Note that I believe that the protocols are capable of mixing (i.e. you can run a 54 MBPS Access Point with 11 or 22 MBPS cards), but it makes more sense to ge the full bandwidth out of your hardware. In other words, I would use all 54 MBPS equipment.
I've used the Orinoco//Lucent product line with little to no problems. This is an 802.11b, 11MBPS wireless solution which is well supported (both in terms of documentation and drivers). This hardware should make the trip 8 meters from upstairs to the basement no problem.
So with this solution here's what your setup should look like:

1. Router/firewall (attached to switch)
2. Switch
3. AP attached to switch.
4. 3 PC's attached to the switch on same floor
5. 1 PC with PCI-->PCMCIA adapter with wireless PC Card//Wireless PCI Card
6. One older laptop with PC Card.

Note that I would encrypt the network with 104-bit encryption key and change the default ESSID. Also note that the Orinoco card has a patch to put it in monitor mode for kismet, AirSnort and the like.

BDP

[helmers]

Thank you!

I now feel quite confident, and I will read up on mixing different speeds, as well as range of the various access points.
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