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How to Buy a Wireless DSL Router
Setting up a wireless home network can help make sharing the internet in your home or office a breeze. Any one in your home or business with a wireless network card can hop onto the network and share files and internet. Your first step towards seamless file sharing and internet throughout your building is buying a wireless DSL router.
What to Look for in a Router
When you are buying a new wireless DSL router, you will want to make sure that what you purchase is most compatible with the wireless cards that the network users have in their computers. This is as simple as pulling up the network information on each of the computers that you want to add to your network and figuring out which type of network that each one is manufactured to be used with. The great majority of network cards will work with any type of wireless router, but they interface best with the type that they are intended for. After you have figured out what types of cards the majority of your network users have, you should begin looking for a wireless DSL router that utilizes the network that the majority of the cards work best with.
The Fastest Wireless DSL Routers on the Market
For most applications, a wireless router will not be nearly as fast as a hardwired connection would be. Most wireless routers have been developed to the point where they can process data at a speed of nearly 4 megabytes per second, but that is still roughly half the speed of a high-end hard-wired connection. If you require both speed and locational flexibility in your network, a wireless DSL router will typically contain 4 slots in which you can hard-wire a computer into your network. This will allow you to take advantage of higher transmission speeds when you require them and use your internet in a roaming fashion when that suits you better.
Security in Your Wireless Network
If you are running an unsecured wireless network then anyone within a few hundred feet of the router will be able to gain access to your network. In your home or business you could see your network performance decrease drastically if your neighbors are stealing your bandwidth without your permission. The majority of wireless DSL routers that are now on the market come with a rudimentary security program that will prevent many who are not well versed in networking technology from gaining access to your network connection without your permission. This security technology will provide a slight decrease in the overall speed of your wireless network, as everything will be required to pass through a security protocol before it reaches either the computer or the internet. This decrease in speed is much less than the drain you would see with even one neighbor leaching off of your internet connection.
A better security protocol is required if you want to protect your network from more sophisticated intrusion attempts. For a few dollars on top of a basic router’s price, you can gain the added protection of WPA2 encryption and protection. This will ensure that no one will be able to gain access to your network without knowing a very specific encryption code that you will create when you set up the network. Any signals that are intercepted from this router will also be encrypted using the same key, so this will prevent any one from gaining access to sensitive business or family information by monitoring your wireless signals.
Local Interference and Preventing this Problem
The largest problem that faces a home or small business network is local radiation sources interfering with their wireless routers. This can stem from radio transmissions, wireless hardware such as keyboards and mice, and even stereo equipment. When you are choosing your wireless DSL router, be sure to determine which operating frequencies its Wi-Fi signals will be sent at and whether or not these signals are variable. You will want to make sure that the signal range is either above or below the standard radio frequencies in your area or else your interference problems will be nearly un-fixable. If you do experience any interference problems after you get your new wireless DSL router set up, then you will be able to consult the user manual for information on how to alter the transmission frequencies and eliminate interference problems. If you live in an area where it snows or rains frequently, then you will want to choose a router that utilizes higher frequencies than typical, as these signals will be of a much higher energy than their lower frequency counterparts. This extra energy will allow the signals to penetrate the snow and rainfall rather than being reflected back towards the source which would cause interference that would decrease the efficacy of your signal.
With the vast increases in wireless technology getting ahead of the curve and installing a wireless DSL router in your home soon will help prepare you and your business or family to utilize the most cutting edge technology currently on the market and keep you at the ready for integrating imminent innovations into your home or business.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 31st, 2010 at 10:41 am and is filed under Computers, Internet. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.