Hi, i currently have an ethernet network in my home, and am looking to go wireless.

I have the following configuration in my home at the moment:

A desktop PC running XP home (downstaris), this has my broadband connection (using a pci modem), my printers, scanner and other stuff, plus its running as a kind of home server, holding several gigs of music, pics and vids. The desktop has an eithernet socket, but no embedded wifi technology.

My laptop is in the bedroom (upstairs) is also running XP home. It is connected via an eithernet hub to my desktop.This allows me to surf the web in comfort or do a spot of online gaming, any music i wish to listen to is sourced from the desktop to keep the laptops hard disc relatively empty, and any printing from the laptop is sent to the desktop. The laptop has 2 PC Card slots and a eithernet socket, but no embedded wifi technology.

My PDA is currently connectects to my desktop by USB using MS active sync, but has an 802.11b radio embedded. This is mainly used both as a PDA and satnav system when mobile, and travels pretty much everywhere with me.

The spacing between the desktop and laptop is bout 30 feet. I want to keep the desktop as the only computer physicly connected to the internet using the pci modem, and share my connection from there, also keeping the printers / scanners & media files centralised. The laptop and pda need to be able to connect to the desktop to use the centralised facilities. I sometimes hold small gaming LAN parties (up to 3 other computers) which would be nice if i could offer wifi, though would not be stricly necesary, as we get by using eithernet quite well.

So what do i need? is it as simple as fitting a PCI wifi card to the desktop and a PC card to the laptop? or do i need an access point? although the pda is on the slower 802.11b standard, is there a multi speed adaptor, so i could get higher speed adaptors (802.11g) to communicate with the slower speeded pda? or should i buy all 802.11b equipment?

Hi Eviltwin,

Well, as you said, you have two options:

1. Infrastructure network (with AP)
2. Adhoc Network (without AP).

If you go for the Adhoc network, it will be the less expensive of course. You will just need 802.11 b/g cards for your PCs and that's it. However, you will face problems like area coverage and traffic handling when you ask your network for more resources (like you will if you plan to do gaming). In adhoc networks, every computer (or device) is a router, so there's a lot of traffic going around. In infrastructure is all organized by the access point. Also, I don't know how your handheld device will support adhoc... Unfortunately I haven't have the pleasure of having one for me!

If you are short of money, you can start with buying the cards (you will need them as well if you chose to go infrastructure).

Yes, you can buy 802.11b or g, they are totally compatible. Of course, 802.11g allows higher speeds (up to 54MBps, against 11MBps of 802.11b).

That's my own opinion... what do the rest of the people think?