Noobie wireless hardware question

Hey everyone,
I definitely want to borrow your advice on this as I'm a bit new to networking. So I'm trying to "remodel" my house's technology, and while I'm mostly at college, my parents somehow refuse to adapt to technology.

I just replaced our main computer that is 8 years old (256mb of RAM...) and got a new Linksys router that I'm gonna install DD-WRT or tomato on.

Mainly for speed and security reasons...what other things, hardware wise, needs to be upgraded? I just realized our cable modem was 7 years old as well...does that need to be replaced? Is there anything else I'm missing?

 

What router did you get? What cable speeds do you have now? What OS do you have? What nic did yo buy?

 

For the Cable modem, you should call the cable company and see if there is a newer model. If that's what they are still using now, then that's ok. For internet, any router will do as long as it has wireless, if you need wireless or enough wired ports, if you need wired ports. Do you have a printer that needs to be shared? Your desktop will need a wireless card in it if it didn't come with one. If it didn't come with one, you could always run a wire, or just buy a card.

Surge Protectors? You just got new equipment. Why let an electrical surge destroy it?

I hope that helps.

Always good to see monkey man here jumping all the unanswered threads.

 

I'm changing all the comps in the house to vista. I got the WRT54GL router. My cable speeds right now are 54.0mb/s, at least that's what reported to me on my control panel via wireless. Using speedtest.net I get d/l speeds of 2016kb/s. I'm a subscriber to comcast...just wondering should I change my 7 year old modem for security/speed purposes and whether there is anything else I should change as well.

Thanks already for the help guys.

 

Your cable modem is pretty secure. Short of someone tapping into your hardwire, you'll be ok.

I would ask the Comcast if there is a newer version of that cable modem though. It may prevent some headaches in the future.

 

What about for speed? I have the motorola sb4100 and I was thinking of buying a reconditioned SB5120 for like $30 and just telling comcast my new MAC/serial. Would that up the speed or is it just a waste of $?

 

The d/l is associated with your ISP plan, then you must decide if the current d/l is sufficient for you and parents use of internet. If you upgrade your current ISP plan, you may have to change the modem, 7 years old seems to me quite old.

The security aspect will be taken care by the router, and your OS firewall strategies, your antispyware ap, antivirus ap, etc.

 

Is all a question of your current plan, if you want more kbps you will have to pay more. But again, your modem might be old and might need to be upgraded to support higher throughputs, you must consult your ISP on this regards.

 

A faster cable box isn't going to speed up your connection. That is controlled by how much money you give to Comcast.