I have a question regarding router placement and obstructions. If I centrally locate the router on the 2nd floor of my home, there will be a ceiling over where I use my laptop. I don't believe there's insulation in the ceiling. Also, the desktop PCs will be in another room from where the router will be. There will be 3 walls in between: two parallel with the router and one perpendicular to it. Does this sound like there will be any issues with connection and speed? Laptop will be using 802.11g and desktops will be using 802.11n draft. As an aside, when I enable wireless for my laptop I can pick up other networks in my neighborhood...this may be just a function of the internal antenna...but I was thinking, if the laptop can pick up external networks, then it should be able to pick up a router signal from inside my own home, correct? This may be misleading because laptops have stronger antennas and the desktop PCs will be using USB adapters, which are not as strong. I mean the fact that the laptop can pick up external networks doesn't guarantee I will not have problems with obstructions in my own home? Am I thinking correctly?

Normally, the router will handle all the connections in the house. If the walls were poured concrete with steel beams, you might have a problem but it should he fine. Yes, your laptop can see other routers on the block & other laptops can see yours. If you want to make sure that no one is using your service, use encryption & MAC filtering to block it. You can also use static IP addresses. You want to make it as hard as possible from them to get an IP address from your router. WPA2 is far better than WEP. How do you know when a politician is lying? His mouth is moving.

Thank you! I just found out about another possible problem. I have XP which has the Windows Zero Configuration service. I read where this has caused headaches for some users, causing their connections to drop. I have the TrendNet 639BRP router. Does this router has it's own connection manager? From what I read WZC is a problem waiting to happen. Diabling it seems good advice; hence, my question about the vendors own connection manager.

I've used wireless zero before. I didn't have a problem. Setup the network first, then see if there are any problems. How do you know when a politician is lying? His mouth is moving.

I want to disable broadcasting of SSID. They say if you do this, WZC will try to connect to another network which is using broadcast and cause interruptons in your service. To resolve this, they say keep broadcast on and enable encryption and MAC filtering. But what if you want broadcast turned off? Then they say you can enable WZC upon boot, log into your network, then disable WZC. The whole thing revolves around wheter you broadcast your SSID or not. If you broadcast your SSID, WZC is happy. If you don't, it will roam to another network that IS broadcasting. You say you used WZC before; did you have SSID broadcast turned on or off?

You're way to far ahead of yourself. Setup the network & try it both ways. See what happens. How do you know when a politician is lying? His mouth is moving.