Guys, I've looked at a coupe of wireless network adaptors and have narrowed it down to these two (if I go this route, which is very likely). Opinions and suggestions would be appreciated. http://www.amazon.com/Medialink-Wir...=UTF8&coliid=I16AC6TM7V3AF&colid=NPAX3RSPANCD http://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-TL-WN...UTF8&coliid=I3UE3EMWXFO4A3&colid=NPAX3RSPANCD
What? You are a Mac guy??? I will take back all the advices I had given you!!! LOL I haven't used those wall-wire Ethernet gadget before. I don't have any first hand experience. Years ago I had tried those for telephone extensions over the power lines. It seemed they got a lot of statics so I was not a big fan. But that was long ago. Maybe the technology had improved quite a bit. Do they have any customer satisfaction guarantee? Any way to test them out and send back if not satisfied? Because the real test is your own test. Any review is just an opinion. They may or may not work for your situation... That goes for wifi solutions too. There might be limiting factors but for me, my wifi solution works great. I have a dualband (N and G) wireless router + Comcast cable modem. D-Link. And I put 3 computers on it. Desktop 1 and 2. And my HP laptop. Desktop 3 is on DSL hardwired. My wifi setup works okay. My computers are about 15-20 feet away from the wifi router. They stood the acid test on chaotic market conditions (Aug 9, 2011). Most of my Speedtests showed about 18Mbps on each computer. That's about as good as it gets when I hook up via a RJ45 Ethernet cable to the router. Youtube and video (e.g. Netflix) are not good connection tests. Because... it takes two to tangle. They may have issued on their server end at the moment you are using it. Speedtest.net is usually a good test. Also you should do some huge file copies from one machine to another over your home wifi network to read the throughput. This way it will eliminate the server factor.
It looks very likely that I might go with one of these cards after much research. Once I get a little time, I will put up a lengthy post on connections esp. going in depth on the new powerline adapters. For now, I need an opinion on my last bit of Amazon/Newegg/TigerDirect shopping . Any preferences on the above network cards?
I have a couple of Ethernet over power plugs and they work quite well (240V power) and are very reliable. They out perform any wireless options. Performance can depend on your house or building wiring, so you have to actually try the things. On the down side, I bought two more - ostensibly exactly the same model from the same manufacturer. Each pair come with a factory set encryption key. Unfortunately the firmware has changed and the crappy software provided to change the encryption key just doesn't work with one pair. After endless email exchanges with the manufacturer's tech support I have given up. Very poor support IMHO. I have no reason to believe that other manufacturers would suffer from this problem. In general Ethernet over power is possibly a faster, more secure and more reliable option than wireless.
For desktop PCs I always have a preference for cards rather than USB gadgets if you have a slot available for the simple reason that they are physically more secure. Less likely to be accidentally damaged or knocked loose etc.
They work fine, you can pick them up for $20. on sale. I have a Scythe 4 fan/temp controller in the antec 900. http://www.scythe-usa.com/product/acc/028/km01-main.html If things warm up a little I turn up the fan and cool it down. The leads are adhered to differnt section of the interior box. So one at the cpu heatsink, one at the hard drive bay, one monitors ceiling temps of the box and one to the rear exhaust. Some cases already have 3 speed fan switches on the outside for easy access and you can just turn up or down the fan according the the room temp. Just remember this is internal case temps and not the cpu at the mb temp/ or the cpu temp at the cores.
Easy way to pass a wire directly through a wall for two adjoining rooms ( one plate to each wall ) neatly and keep the wire one single run no breaks. Cheap and efficient. Requires drilling a small hole through the sheetrock which is very simple. http://www.apexcamera.com/PowerBrid...e-Bulk-Wire-Cabling-Each-White-B003CJTQ6U.htm http://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-m...JTQ6U/ref=cm_ciu_pdp_images_0?ie=UTF8&index=0
Sam, I use Fastone Simple, easy to use, and takes up no space on desktop when open. http://www.faststone.org/FSCaptureDetail.htm