Airport Extreme Basestation vs. Linksys

[Tommyg117]

Hello! I have a technical question about wireless networking for everyone out there. At college, I had a wireless network set up with my airport extreme basestation. Now that I am home for a few months, I am using my parents network, which is a linksys 802.11b router. I was wondering if it were possible to just replace their linksys router with the 802.11g Airport Extreme basestation without having to set up a whole new network etc. The reason I want to do this is because I can either get no service or very slow connection from my room through their Linksys and I want to be able to use the internet while I'm home. I believe that the airport extreme basestation as the router would fix this problem. Any suggestions?

 

[Fleetwood Mac]

I'm not sure which flavor you have, but I don't think any benifitts from an Airport Extreme would be worth the money, specaily over something in Linksys 802.11b family which really aren't all that bad. How many rooms away is your room from the router? Are the walls thick? Most importantly, have you tried to change the channel yet?

 

[Tommyg117]

well, I have the airport extreme basestation already, but it is not hooked up because I didn't want to go through the trouble of making a whole new network on my parents computer. I wanted to know if I could just switch the router and leave the same network. How do I go about changing the channel? Thank you!

 

[Makosuke]

Replacing the network, if you set up the ABS similarly, shouldn't be a problem (although that said, using WEP keys I've had issues getting Windows to recognize an Airport network; WPA is fine). Just look at how the Linksys is set up (type of security, passwords, network name, etc) and set the ABS with the same values, and it SHOULD work. No promises, but in theory, anyway.

That said, it sounds like you've got a signal strength issue, which I seriously doubt switching routers would fix, unless you're putting a nice, big external antenna on the ABS--their built-in antennas aren't anything spectacular, and I doubt much better than the Linksys.

Going b to g would be nice, but it's not going to speed up your browsing. I'd suggest looking at a better antenna for the Linksys, personally--they're not that expensive, and may well give your connection the boost it needs.

 

[Tommyg117]

Replacing the network, if you set up the ABS similarly, shouldn't be a problem (although that said, using WEP keys I've had issues getting Windows to recognize an Airport network; WPA is fine). Just look at how the Linksys is set up (type of security, passwords, network name, etc) and set the ABS with the same values, and it SHOULD work. No promises, but in theory, anyway.

That said, it sounds like you've got a signal strength issue, which I seriously doubt switching routers would fix, unless you're putting a nice, big external antenna on the ABS--their built-in antennas aren't anything spectacular, and I doubt much better than the Linksys.

Going b to g would be nice, but it's not going to speed up your browsing. I'd suggest looking at a better antenna for the Linksys, personally--they're not that expensive, and may well give your connection the boost it needs.

Thanks for the advice! would the b to g switch help my Xbox 360 connection be faster? Because I connect wirelessly to the network on that as well as my laptop.

 

[Fleetwood Mac]

Thanks for the advice! would the b to g switch help my Xbox 360 connection be faster? Because I connect wirelessly to the network on that as well as my laptop.

Switching from b to g might increase your signal strength a bit, and would increase intranet (you home network) speeds, but not those that your xbox would use (your playing games over the internet to other homes, correct?).

Changing the channel on your router is quite simple, simply enter the admin panel by typing in the router's address into your browser (you should do this on a LAN connected PC if possible)[the address is usually 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.1.100], enter the wireless tab, and change the channel. The best channel is generally 11 if your looking for signal strength. Detailed instructions for changning the channel are included in your router's documentation. Changing the channel can make a VERY big difference depending on your home enviornment.

 

[tessla]

I second this!

I'd suggest looking at a better antenna for the Linksys, personally--they're not that expensive, and may well give your connection the boost it needs.

Saved me on more than one occasion in big house setups