Ok, heres the question. Lets say i wanted to create a wireless hotspot. Would it be better to have a wireless router near where the hotspot will be located or should i get an access point and run cable back to a wired router? I really want to know if there is a speed advantage of having router near the hotspot or if the access point will be just as good as that. Person experience would be great!

As far as speed, performance and range. It would make no difference as to which hardware you use. However, the location of the router/AP will. If running a cable out from a router to an access point allows you to locate the Access Point in an optimal, high central location, that would be best. Placing the Access Point in the center of a room at or near the celling will give far better coverage than sitting on a table in the corner of the room. I would go with the access point. Also, you could add an additional Access Point later on if you find you need increased coverage.
Location-Location-Location

p.s. The wireless router is just a router and an access point in one. You can run it as just an access point if you want.

Ok, so how about this. What if i do use a access point instead of the router with one built in. Let's say for superior coverage of a specific area i use two AP's. Will i have a problem with the AP's fighting? They would both be on the same network, subnet, and sharing the same connection. Would it create a problem or be more trouble than its worth. My initial thought would be that each laptop in the mobile environment would just select the AP that it had the strongest signal from. Am i going in the right direction with that one? Thanks for your help!

There are a number of ways to set this up depending on how large the area is, the number of users you plan to have using the system and how fast a connection each user needs. If your needs are large, then you may have to go with a professional system instead of the typical home systems. You can set up two access points on different channels. If you did not cae too much about bandwidth and the number of users is small, you could also use a repeater.

I would have to know more about your specific needs and the layout of your location to really give you some ideas.

For example: If you had a fairly open room of lets say 30' x 30' and planned to have a dozen or less users at one time who only need to access the internet for some general surfing and email. Then a single Access Point with an omnidirectional antenna placed at the ceiling in the center of the room, would normally be just fine. You could even get away with a corner directional antenna mounted high on the wall in one corner.

Give me an idea of what you are trying to do.

Ok, say i have a coffee shop or small sandwich shop. And I wanted to give my customers free OR fee-based wi-fi. Dimensions would be relative to the ones you suggested. I may have as many as 10-20 people on the network at max at any given time. Cable would be a natural goto in our area. Usually 3.0 Mbps and more. I would definitely stick to 802.11G or better with some of the nicer pre-n specification equipment now out. If two access points were used would it be preferable to have them on seperate channels? So as not to cause interference on the same channel? Also, do you know if there is software available that you could implement fee-based surfing with soho equipment? I have also heard very mixed results about using additional attenna's with the routers. Thanks for your help this far!

Sorry, busy day yesterday and I did not have time to respond.

Yes, you are correct about using some of the external antennas with home wireless equipment. You have to be very careful due to the fact that the output from most home models is so low you can lose most of your signal in the cable before it even reaches the antenna. But I have had some good results with some of the directional antennas for specific applications.

Anyway, for your senario, I would try a single Access Point near the center of the room if possible. That should give you plenty of coverage. I just installed a Belkin Pre-N router yesterday and was impressed with the coverage when compared to a linksys G router that was being replaced. Even when used with regular B and G laptops the reception was excellent. Far better than with the linksys installed. I set up the Pre-N router in Access Point mode and works very well.

I do not know of any software for setting up fee based hotspot, but I have to say that I have never looked for it. Must be something out there.

Check out this article on the Hawking website http://www.wififreenet.com/free.html

If your shop is fairly open, you should have no problem with single unit with it's own builtin antennas. It is certainly cheap enough to give it a try. Just mount the Access Point as high up as possible. From my findings this weekend, I would not hesitate to spend the extra $50 for Pre-N.

If you find you need to add an additional AP, it is fairly simple. Check out http://linksys.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/linksys.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=622&p_created=1084218456&p_sid=K_8HrGvh&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9NTE4JnBfcHJvZHM9MCZwX2NhdHM9JnBfcHY9JnBfY3Y9JnBfc2VhcmNoX3R5cGU9YW5zd2Vycy5zZWFyY2hfbmwmcF9zY2ZfbGFuZz0xJnBfcGFnZT0xJnBfc2VhcmNoX3RleHQ9c2V0dGluZyB1cCBtdWx0aXBsZSBhY2Nlc3MgcG9pbnRz&p_li=&p_topview=1

Good Luck!