Netgear, I smite thee

My latest geeky obsession is Wi-Fi (aka "wireless networking"). Well, that and Xbox Live, but I'll leave that for another post. But in a world where you can't go on an overnight trip without taking 4 seperate types of power adapters with you, it's infuriating to see companies still out there making techno-life difficult for the simple things.

In this example, I wanted to create a seperate "LAN segment" upstairs (consisting of my Xbox and perhaps another PC), and then connect that, wirelessly, to our Netgear DG834GT wireless modem/router downstairs. "Right," I'd says to meself, "I need another Wireless Access Point, then I'll be able to bridge the two together!"

Wrong. As it turns out, it's not the case that "an Access Point is an Access Point is an Access Point." The DG834GT is supposed to have a 108Mbps "Access Point" in it, and it does - but only to a degree. It only supports wireless "client" devices, such as USB/PCMCIA/Ethernet adapters. It can't bridge or repeat; that is, it can't talk to other Access Points.

I had ordered a Netgear WG602 Access Point, which I thought would have been able to seamlessly Bridge my "upstairs" and "downstairs" LANs; countless angry posts on support forums now confirm that I would need TWO WGE602's to do this. And even then - they don't support WPA-PSK security while Bridging. None of that's listed on the box, of course.

Luckily I was able to cancel the order; instead I've got a WGE111 "Gaming Adapter" coming; it's been designed with Xboxes and PS2's in mind - connect an Ethernet device to a Wireless AP. Unfortunately it only WiFi-enables one device; not the perfect solution, but I can live with it.

I knew the WiFi world was a tangled web, but I thought things would have been getting better, not worse. So the moral of my story is: An Access Point is not an Access Point unless it is an Access Point. If it's a Netgear. Ahem.

So here's what our network topography will look like. Our house now has connectivity coming out the wazoo (wherever that is).



Normally scheduled Bloggings will now resume.