Slight rant, then asking for suggestions. Wireless networking.

[Myk Rian]

Rant on.
I've always owned D-link equipment. Have never had problems.
I want to join the Dlink forums to ask a question about their USB N dongles.
I went through their signup process a week ago. You need to be approved by an admin of the forums, before you are deemed worthy. It's been a week, and no word of my worthiness.
What? OK stupidity reigns at D-link. I sent their support channel an e-mail describing how stupid that is, and that I'll sell all my Dlink equipment, and buy a competing brand.
Rant off.

OK, question time.
All I want to do is connect 2 laptops with wireless N. One of them has native G, the other has no internal circuitry. So, I need two dongles and a router.
I do not want Cisco, period.

What say you for suggestions?

[Howard Garner]

First, you need no dongles, these are security devices.
You do need two wireless adapters, being laptops, probable USB.

No recommendations from me on brands.

Howard Garner
(ex-computer tech - now retired)

[Bill ThompsonNM]

No dlink and you already object to Cisco (and presumably linksys?). Seems like you've backed into Belkin or NetGear or one of many unknown brands on that large auction site. I've ha good luck with Belkin, NetGear and linksys. Not so with dlink anyway. Don't expect the little USB connector models to last forever though. Seems they get bunged up sooner or later. Long skinny ones seem the worst

[Jerome Stanek]

I have been using Trendnet equipment now for the past 4 years d link, Belkin, Linksys, and a few others and the Trendnet seems to work just as erwell or better. I got it from Microcenter on sale

[Curt Harms]

I have pretty decent Wifi coverage throughout the house so I don't know how this lil' fella would do with marginal coverage but it works well for me and is great for notebooks. Only sticks out about 3/8".

http://www.amazon.com/Edimax-EW-7811...edimax+ew-7811

If I were looking at desktop solutions I'd consider this:

http://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-TL-WN7...pd_sim_sbs_e_2

TP-Link seems to have a pretty decent rep and this adapter has an external antenna. I imagine you could use a USB extender if necessary.

As a desktop Linux user, wireless networking is a subject that rewards careful selection. The trick is not the brand, the trick is the chip set. Some adapters are every bit as easy to install as Windows or Mac; plug it in, the little light comes on and you're good. No drivers, no discs, no kidding. Others are ..... not .

[Rich Engelhardt]

You need to be approved by an admin of the forums, before you are deemed worthy.

That's not uncommon. The delay isn't common though.
Some forums blacklist some email addresses - Hotmail being the primary one. Everything w/a Hotmail address is denied automatically.
My wife has a yahoo address and I use gmail. I've also had denials on one and not the other. I've also had approvals get sucked into the spam filter of one or the other.
Before getting too worked up over it, you might want to try registering again under a different email address.
Before doing that though, try to register again under the email address you used and see if it accepts it or tell you that address is already in use.
If it says it's already in use, the try to reset your password and they should email you a link to do that.
if it doesn't tell you the email address is already in use, then some sort of glitch happened on their end and your registration didn't go all the way through - I've had that happen before also.

Can't help you at all on the wireless....
I'm using an old Microsoft G that refuses to die. It's got to be a dozen years old or more.

[Jim Matthews]

I use a cheapo Motorola SURFboard wireless router/cable modem gateway.

I've got adequate coverage in a stickframe house up to 15m.
There's an online registration to change your admin passwords, which YOU control.

It's been flawless, but I don't stream video wirelessly.
For that, I dropped a CAT5 wire.

[paul cottingham]

We used to source netgear for everything, and I believe a lot of that gear is still in place. Sold my company a while ago, so impossible to confirm, but netgear is pretty damn nice equipment.
That being said, I hard wired my house. Hate wireless.

[glenn bradley]

Not many home users are going to pop for enterprise level hardware. I would pick the consumer-grade brand of your choice and buy matched units as you will probably have better luck that way. I am not sure why you want to bridge two devices exclusive from other connectivity but, I imagine you have your reasons -or- do you want them each to connect to some other device? We operate over 1200 wireless acess points used by many thousands of students and streaming video is a large part of that (remote learning and all that). We do not allow peer to peer or ad-hoc connections which is more of what it sounds like you are after, yes? If you are just looking to extend a connection point, these guys have been getting a lot of good buzz from the students who live on campus in the older housing that we do not supply wireless service to.

[Bryan Rocker]

I just replaced my 8 year old Dlink with a new Dlink and it works like a champ. I connect my wifes laptop to it, all my iphone/pads to it with no problem. It actually improved Facetime when I upgraded. Stick to Dlink and you won't go wrong. Mine is a 655....I would highly recommend it.