Fred,

Kind of a hard question to answer without knowing your specific needs.  So, 
I'll make two answers.

First, for the average person, a wireless G router will work fine.  It is a 
relatively fast router, with speeds of 54MBPS.  Any router made within the 
last five years or so will have WPA, which is more secure as you don't want 
to run an "open" network.  WPA passwords can use letters, numbers and some 
symbols, and can be quite long so they are very hard to crack.  The old WEP 
security only used letters A through F and numbers, and they can be hacked 
in seconds by an experienced hacker.  The G standard should work with almost 
any device, as it also is B compatible; 802.11B is the old wireless standard 
that is much slower.
Now, the G range is nominally 100 meters in free space, but it decreases 
significantly with the more walls you need to penetrate.  Some routers have 
removable antennas so you can replace the existing antenna with a higher 
gain antenna if range is an issue.  You can get a good G router like the 
Linksys WRT54G for $40 or so.

Now, if your needs are more demanding, then go for a N router, which is the 
new standard 802.11N.  It may still be a draft standard, but it is pretty 
well settled, and any router can get a firmware upgrade over the Internet if 
necessary.  N routers have considerably faster speed if you need that for 
sharing video files over a network, for example.  Many N routers have better 
range because they employ signal diversity techniques through multiple 
antennas.  Of course, if you want that Nano capability, you'll pay more for 
the wireless cards that have the multiple antennas on them.  A good N router 
will likely cost around $80 and up.

I have my wireless router next to my HF rig and have not noticed any 
degradation.  I do notice some speed degradation when the computer located 
nearest to the microwave oven is on and somebody heats up a cup of coffee. 
The routers use the 2.4GHz band, so if you have a cordless phone, that will 
also degrade it unless you get a phone in the 5.8GHz band.

Programming is straightforward, for the most part.  It's no different than 
setting up your cable router, except that you have to configure the wireless 
network and set it up as a secure network.  On the N type routers, you will 
also have a few different channel choice options, you can choose to use a 
double-wide channel in essence, which sacrifices a bit of range for much 
higher data speeds.

Again, the Linksys routers, which are made by Cisco are good choices.  After 
that, I'd go with DLink, although at least with my older DLink router, Jaws 
read the links as graphics.  You can label them in Jaws, but other screen 
readers read their links fine.

The only complaint I have with Linksys is their webpage isn't worth a piece 
of crap.  If you try to go to upgrade the firmware in your router, it was, 
at least as of a few months ago, completely impossible to select your router 
model because they employ some kind of weird spinning combo box.  I've tried 
it with Jaws, Window-eyes 7.2, and System Access, and none of the 
screen-readers will negotiate that site.

So, if you have any more questions, feel free to fire away.

Take my advice, I don't use it anyway.

Steve, K8SP
Lansing, MI


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Fred Adams" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, September 08, 2010 9:12 PM
Subject: Wireless router


>  Could some of you guys suggest the best wireless computer router that you
> think is best?   Are wireless routers hard to program and does ham radio 
> RF
> get into computers any easier with wireless routers?  I would appreciate 
> any
> info or suggestions on this as I am thinking of changing from a cable 
> router
> to a wireless router.
>
>
>
> Best wishes,
>
>
> FRED C. ADAMS W4HC
> THE HOUR IS LATE AND
> THE NIGHT IS FAR SPENT
> VOTE IN NOVEMBER