I have a D-Link Wireless router at home (paid $110 at Bestbuy and then got a $60 rebate check back) and a Cisco Card in my laptop.

I have not had any problems connecting at home or at the office. As a matter of fact, I can take my laptop to Starbucks in NYC and be connected.

My wife's desktop is hardwired to the router and her system is no faster than mine.

Jim

 

Cable/DSL Routers:
Any SOHO router/firewall you install will slow down your speeds and increase latency - the device needs to read, translate and re-transmit each packet. Depending on the speed of the firewall that can certainly take several KB/s off your transfer rate.

Wireless:
Wireless is a great advancement and I use it in my own home, however it >IS< slower than it's wired counterpart. If you are going for pure speed, stay away from wireless. If you don't mind sacrificing some KB/s for the convenience of not having all these wires everywhere...

DSL Connection:
Keep the number of filters down...AND make sure all phones/devices are filtered (besides the modem). I know this sounds in opposition, but just realize that each visible filter will add resistance to the line (ie: distance and DSL is distance-sensitive...the farther out you are, the less your speed). Also each phone, fax and other such device will add resistance...same story. If you are skilled enough, or can have someone do it for you, try this: Where the phoneline comes into the house split it into 2 runs. the first will run directly into the DSL modem. The second will run through a single DSL filter (Suttle makes some great ones that are not too expensive) and then splits after the filter and runs to each phone in your house. This way you only have to worry about a single filter and all your phones are protected. Plus the upshot is you only have 1 filter to increase the resistance.

Cable:
I am not terribly familiar with cable, however since it doesn't use your phonelines (unless it is only 1-way service) you should not need any filters... I have not heard any drawbacks to inside wiring other than have current spec coax and good solid crimps on your connectors.

Now, all that said, if at all possible use a switch that can run at wirespeed instead of a router. Most of the time this is not a viable option as the service provider will not let you attach more than 1 device to their circuit. So in those cases just go ahead and get yourself a linksys cable/dsl router and call it a day.

 

A lot of the suggestions in WinGuide deal with connections that are crappy to begin with, such as the case when your ISP has provided you with a marginal connection (like not dropping the line if the computer doesn't get an immediate response...in those cases, that can help a lot). I dinked around with the registry settings, but none had any appreciable effect...still running at just over 2,000. I'll give AT&T this, they sure provide me with decent speed that's rock-stable.

 

I have a netgear wireless at home that works fine and allows me to watch TV and surf at the same time (assuming you have a laptop). Just remember to actually turn on the encryption features so your neighbors don't access your network.

 

I'm pleased to say that my personal IT consultant (Jenner) was able to install my multi-platform and gaming wireless hub/switch/router network and I am now running on wireless with no problems. I sit corrected!

 

I knew you were just setting yourself up there Chip. Jenner was probably in and done as fast as a virgin on prom night.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Pinky
[B]I knew you were just setting yourself up there Chip.

 

YOU ARE EVIL!!

 

Pinky, I'm using a Netgear RP614 router. It is also a hardware firewall. In addition to that, I'm also running Norton's Personal Firewall (software).

Depending on the site, I can download up to 250k. My cable speed is usually between 2.5 to 3 mb.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Pinky
[B]http://www.winguides.com/registry/display.php/645/
Ran through the registry to "optimize" the connection.