By Stew Hirsch
stew.hirsch@nbc.com
The fine folks at Belkin sent along a new 802.11g 54Mbps wireless router, a wireless card for a desktop and a wireless pcmcia card for a laptop computer for me to test. These are full retail box versions complete with all the appropriate software and documentation. The documentation is very good.
The router (pictured, left) is pretty standard as routers go. You connect the router to your cable or DSL modem and then you can connect up to 4 hard line Ethernet wired connections.
I had a wireless Dell router already installed in my basement closet and had to remove the software for that, and then install the Belkin router. It was amazingly easy.
The documentation was complete and included color photographs for the computer illiterate. Seriously, the unit did install with no issues. I turned on my laptop computer and the Dell TrueMobile card installed found the Belkin router right off the bat and didn't need any tweaking to max out at 54Gbps.
I did, however, have a few small issues with getting the new wireless pcmcia card installed in the Dell laptop. For some reason, the Dell unit didn't want to give up the TrueMobile card. I unloaded the software for it, installed the Belkin software (it requires you install the software first and it will tell you when to install the card). The install went fine and everything seems to be ready to go, but the Belkin card couldn't see the Belkin wireless network.
In fact, when investigating what the problem was, I found the laptop was giving me all Belkin information under properties, but the header still read Dell TrueMobile and the Dell TrueMobile card was still showing in device manager, but the Belkin unit wasn't! So there was conflict of some sort between the laptop and the new software. It was quite vexing! I tried a variety of workarounds and was able to get the card to work after a quick request to the folks at Belkin.
The solution was simple enough. I disabled the TrueMobile card in device manager, and then unloaded the software for the Belkin card again. Then I rebooted and reinstalled the Belkin software and it worked!
Range: The router is in the basement on the top shelf of a closet. I was able to maintain an 11Gbps signal in my neighbor's living room across the street, about 200 feet and through two exterior walls; one stone and one brick (and remember, this is in the basement behind a concrete block wall). I'll be moving the router to a few places around the house to see the maximum range I can get out of it. The Truemobile card was only pulling 1Gbps, if it found the network at all. Best of all, I was able to get 36Gbps in the back yard while hanging in my hammock, so I'm able to stream music over the internet while sipping a frosty cold beverage and watching the kids play. If I decide to get really adventurous I might even try building a homemade range extending antennae. Patrick Norton over at Tech TV showed how to build some using an old coffee can and a used home satellite dish. Check this out, it's cool:
Next task, take the laptop on the road! Generally, we don't use our laptop for much outside the house. We use it for watching the occasional movie, checking e-mail, drafting letters and writing things like this column. I'm going to check local hotspots that are "free" for the using. They are popping up all over the place; coffee shops, bookstores, hotel lobbies -- there are even some municipalities out west that are talking about putting wifi hot spots on top of mountains that could cover vast areas and provide free access.
This is by no means a complete list of spots around Ohio since more come online every day, but here's a pretty good link:
There is more to come as the wireless desktop card is installed and I take the laptop on the road!
Links:
Belkin
Wireless PC Card (pictured, right)
If you have a question or a comment, please contact me at Stew.Hirsch@nbc.com or check out my Web site at www.netwalk.com/~hirsch.