Wireless Seeding

[Xtras]

I want to move my desktop upstairs into my room, and out of the study room where we have our dsl converter box. We have a wireless router that has yet to fail us, but my concern lies with the adapter. I have an Atheros USB 2.0 Wireless Adapter, and I unplugged my ethernet cable and seeded using just the wireless adapter overnight. I checked on it about 14 hours later to find that the internet had disconnected. I felt the adapter and it was burning hot (like seriously...HOT). I reconnected the ethernet cable and everything was fine (proving the router wasn't the problem).

I think I will need a new adapter so I have 2 questions:

1.) Is an on board wireless adapter better than a usb one? Is it more expensive?

2.) Recommend for me a very trustworthy wireless adapter (preferably one that was released only a few years ago and has Wireless N capability)

[BuriaL]

Its not wireless, and it prolly cost some cash.

mmmenu..
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=powerline+network&x=0&y=0

[Natheria]

I would find some way to run a hard line to the room before that. I'd drill holes in the wall before using wireless for a desktop like that, but that's just me.

[morrefule]

Its not wireless, and it prolly cost some cash.

mmmenu..
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=powerline+network&x=0&y=0

Those things work great if you are on the same POWER GRID.  So if your home has 2 grids, e.g. older home or has 2 circuit pannels, it may not work.  But those Linksys Powerline adapters work very well.  Though don't expect to get the 200kbs out of it.  Closer to 150kbs.

[Xtras]

Its not wireless, and it prolly cost some cash.

mmmenu..
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=powerline+network&x=0&y=0

I am probably being lazy in not looking it up, but can you explain how this works. Do I just plug this into a phone jacket and it will get me DSL or what? I do have a phone jack in my room. As for whether my house is new or not, it was built in 1999-2000 and it is pretty expensive (400,000 USD) and it is in a pretty expensive neighborhood (all houses here are now valued at least 600,000 USD , and most are more).

[BuriaL]

I dont have one of these things myself.

As for how they work(to my understanding).
You plug them into the power socet, like you do with all electrics.
The device sends a signal trough the power cables at a different frequency than the power (50-60Hz).
You need a router to connect to the 1st one, and you connect the 2nd one to the computer.

[morrefule]

Its not wireless, and it prolly cost some cash.

mmmenu..
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=powerline+network&x=0&y=0

I am probably being lazy in not looking it up, but can you explain how this works. Do I just plug this into a phone jacket and it will get me DSL or what? I do have a phone jack in my room. As for whether my house is new or not, it was built in 1999-2000 and it is pretty expensive (400,000 USD) and it is in a pretty expensive neighborhood (all houses here are now valued at least 600,000 USD , and most are more).

LoL, the cost of the home doesn't matter.  But if it was built then you should be fine.  As long as it isn't a very large home, with TWO circuit boxes you are FINE.  I have used these a lot with Home theater equipment, and i use the Monster Power unit on my own system, and it works wonderfully.  Just don't expect blazing 1mbs download speeds, there is a Belkin that says it will do 1Mbs, but i have never used it Professionally.

[Xtras]

Let me make sure I have the circuit box thing covered. I have one panel in the garage that has a bunch of switches that turns the power on and off in every room of the house. This is the circuit box right? If so, then yes I only have one.

Second, speedtest.net says that my download is 3.48 mbps and my upload is .5 mbps , but my torrents NEVER go that fast even when I am plugged straight into the router. I only get a max download speed of like 450 kbps and a max upload of like 70 kbps. It has never gone over that. First, why is my connection so much slower than what Speedtest is showing me and second, will the powerline system bottleneck my internet speed?

[BuriaL]

Youre concern is how many main circuits you have. And how much range does the powerline network device have.
With one main power circuit breaker you shouldnt have to worry.

Using this type of network will bottleneck youre speed if it have lower capasity than youre connection.
Looking at the newegg stuff, they should have plenty of bandwidth.
If youre connection is only around 4Mbits i wouldnt worry. just read some reviews of the different brands and models and decide on one that seems reliable.

And the actual speed of an internet connection in kilobytes, is speed devided by 8. So for 3500Kbit / 500Kbit you get 437 KByte /  62 KByte. This is a rough estimate.
Mbps means "Mega bits per second", NOT mega bytes.


For speed you need to open the ports of youre router.
Configure the client(like utorrent) correctly.
Configure youre computer hardware and software(network cards, firewalls..).

And you have to consider the seeders youre connected to. If theres 5 seeds with crappy bandwith it wont matter if you have a 100Mbit fiber cable connection.

[Xtras]

But considering that my room is right above where we keep the router, is the whole powerline network thing really any better than just a plain old integrated wireless controller?

[Arveene]

I want to move my desktop upstairs into my room, and out of the study room where we have our dsl converter box. We have a wireless router that has yet to fail us, but my concern lies with the adapter. I have an Atheros USB 2.0 Wireless Adapter, and I unplugged my ethernet cable and seeded using just the wireless adapter overnight. I checked on it about 14 hours later to find that the internet had disconnected. I felt the adapter and it was burning hot (like seriously...HOT). I reconnected the ethernet cable and everything was fine (proving the router wasn't the problem).

I think I will need a new adapter so I have 2 questions:

1.) Is an on board wireless adapter better than a usb one? Is it more expensive?

2.) Recommend for me a very trustworthy wireless adapter (preferably one that was released only a few years ago and has Wireless N capability)

Depending on the direction of the study room  in relation to the position of your computer you might run into some issue. You're going to need to take into account how many walls, giant metal things, and just general distance is between your desktop and your wireless card. I've been running into issues myself with trying to wirelessly connect my HTPC to my network. I finally managed to get a decent signal when I used a Linksys PCI wireless card with a Zonet high-gain antenna that has a base stationed away from the card / computer itself. Your desktop itself will most likely cause a lot of interference.

With that being said, it's probably one of the easier / cheapest methods to try. I personally would suggest running a wire through the walls if at all possible, but you will also run into a distance limit there as well.

Edit: I'd highly suggest wireless-n if your router is capable. I get 2 bars on my HTPC but it's a 80 mbps signal. If it was running g there's no way I'd be able to do any streaming, using N I've been able to stream 1080p with no issues on a fairly bad signal.

[billlanam]

Distance with wires is no problem I have a 100 ft. cable connecting a computer to my router.

[Arveene]

Distance with wires is no problem I have a 100 ft. cable connecting a computer to my router.

Actually the limit for CAT-5(maybe CAT-6 as well) cables is about 300ft.

[Viseroid]

I'm using a wireless card with my desktop and its doing just as good as a hardline. You can find good reliable wireless desktop cards on Newegg and other compy hardware sites. Don't use a usb adapter, they're horrible - -. You can also just buy ethernet cable and put the plugs on yourself for cheap, however, you'd have an obnoxious blue cable running all over the place .