Shopping For A New Wireless Router?

When looking for a new wireless router forget the latest trends, buzzwords or whiz bang features in all the advertisements. Otherwise you may end up paying for features you'll never need. Your focus should to be on how you expect to use your wireless home network. Start by recognizing which type of wireless network user you are.

Network users generally fall into one of three categories:

1. Surfers
2. Streamers
3. Gamers

Surfers

Surfers generally do not put a big demand on a wireless network. They simply want to sit comfortably in a remote location on the couch or by the pool, surf the web, send emails and print out a document or two every once in a while. A basic Wireless G router is more than sufficient for this type of network user. Wireless-G (Max 108 MB per second) routers and adapters are inexpensive and backward-compatible with wireless N. 

Streamers

While streamers do their fair share of surfing they are mostly into sharing files from computer to computer. They spend a lot of time searching for and downloading large movie, music and video files to a central computer and streaming out to multiple PCs on the network. Video and multimedia files put a heavy load on a wireless network and should not be interfered with by other activities.

The best type of wireless router for Streamers is a wireless n router (Max 320MB per second) which uses MIMO (Multiple antennas) to fill the room with a signal that seemingly comes in from all directions. Many wireless N routers also have a features called QOS which allows you to optimize your network for video.

Gamers

Many Gamers feel the only useful purpose for a computer is running the latest games and hanging out in chat rooms with their friends. Games are timing sensitive applications which need the fastest, strongest signal possible to run without lag or hanging.

Gamers can typically be found in close proximity to other Surfers and Streamers who can easily become frustrated about the lack of bandwidth left over by Gamers. The type of wireless router needed in a household filled with Gamers, Surfers and Streamers far exceeds the capabilities of your typical wireless G or even N router.

The best type of wireless router for this household is a dual band wireless router which allows you to run two totally different networks from the same router. Dual band routers allow you to run your networks on totally different frequency bands to keep them from interfering with or "stepping on" each other.

Dual Bands

You can set up your dual band wireless router as follows:

SSID #1 2.47 GHZ Band. (Wireless G, N) Surfing, printing and file sharing.

SSID #2 5 GHZ Band. (Wireless N, A) Gaming and video, music streaming.

Of course a dual band router is much more expensive than a wireless-G or wireless-N router but they are coming down in price. If you,your friends and family are serious about getting the most you can from a wireless network a dual band wireless router is the way to go.

Wireless Security

Another consideration when purchasing a wireless router is wireless network security. The types of wireless security do not vary from router to router but the way you set it up does. Most routers come with the traditional setup CD which you can pop in and follow and hopefully end up with a secure wireless connection. A new feature called WPS or Wireless Protected Setup is designed to make setting up security even easier for consumers. It involves simply typing in an 8 digit pin or pressing a button to activate. Your wireless security parameters are then automatically generated for you. There are minor caveats involved with WPS and the way it works on networks that have been set up in more traditional methods. So a good understanding of setting up wireless security is still helpful but not always necessary.

Hopefully after reading this article you should know what to look for in a wireless router, what to avoid and what is best for you.

The Magic Of MAC Cloning

Many people excitedly rush home with their shiny new wireless router and follow the easy setup instructions to the tee only to be frustrated to find their Internet connection seems to disappear as soon as they plug in to their modem. Many times a simple setting on your router called MAC Cloning can fix this issue in about two minutes.

Many ISPs require your computer to have a certain computer name and MAC address in order to connect to their service. If you plug a different computer into your modem you may find you lose your Internet connection. This is a good indication that your ISP wants you to have a specific MAC address in order to access their service.

Since the MAC address on your router is different from the MAC address you had on your computer your ISP does not allow a connection unless you call them and tell them that you now have a different MAC address and ask them to reset your connection. This can involve a lot of wasted time on the phone with your ISPs Tech Support.

MAC address cloning is a feature that comes with most wired and wireless network routers. You can use it to duplicate or clone your computers MAC and computer name on to your router. Once this is done your ISP sees your router as being the same machine as your computer and allows a connection.

To access this feature you'll need to know the IP address of your router and the password to access the Web interface. Simply type this into your web browser to connect. Once you're in the Web interface you should be able to locate the MAC cloning feature without much difficulty. It usually involves simply typing in the MAC address and computer name of the computer you want to clone and clicking on a "clone" button. Some routers have a utility that enters a computers MAC for you when you type in that computer machine name.

To find your computers MAC address simply open a command prompt and type in "ipconfig /all" (Without the quotes). You will probably see several different sets of numbers depending on how many network adapters you have installed on that machine. You want to make sure you use the "physical address" of the local area connection you were using to connect to the modem.

Next time you purchase a new wireless or wired router and you find you're having problems connecting to the Internet be sure to try the MAC address cloning feature included on your router before a spending a lot of frustrating time on the phone with Tech Support.

J Richard Jones