I think you're asking rour questions:

1. Wired and wireless together/cabling. Yes, I recommend what you
suggest, I'm doing it the same way right now; 4 computers connected
with ethernet cabling and routers, plus two computers with wireless,
one is my laptop I bring from home. You plug a wireless router
somewhere into your network, it will have one ethernet cable going to
it. I use a LinkSys WRT45G

2. File Sharing: I think you need to set up a server (if you don't
already) and set up a folder for cross platform access (Mac) Windows
servers have options for that. The cableing/wireless is invisible to
that process. One way to do it, is to set up your file sharing on a
server, and test it with a Mac connected thru ethernet cable. Once it
works with ethernet, then try it on the same Mac with wireless. Should
work the same/be the same. The ethernet cables are invisible, The
wireless "cables" should be too.

3. Printer sharing-How would you set up printer sharing if you're on a
wired network? You should do the same thing when using wireless.

4. Which wireless router? You can visit
http://www.consumersearch.com/www/co...s/reviews.html
for a review from PC Magazine, PC World and CNet.

Or do you have more specific questions?

Bill (2)

BCage wrote:
> First, the disclaimers. Although I am relatively computer savvy, I am
> not a networking expert (that will be obvious if you read the rest of
> this post). Also, I have read several postings that appear to be
> trying to get a similar setup working to what I am describing... those
> posts are enlightening, but I am going at this more from a greenfield
> approach rather than trying to fix something that I already have.
>
> Quickly, what I want is a wired network for my desktop machines with a
> wireless access point hanging off of that. I have had way too many
> problems with wireless routers as the center of the network in the
> past: some were stable, but would not pass my work VPN; some were
> unstable and required constant recycling; some worked ok, but only
> within a short radius. Because of this, I have decided that the center
> of my network will be wired.
>
> That said, I still need occasional wireless access. My thoughts were
> to have a wireless access point hang off the wired router. The AP
> needs to be placed well away from the router to have it placed
> appropriately to provide reasonable coverage.
>
> I would like all machines that connect via the wireless AP to have
> access to the machines that are connected via the wired network (appear
> as one single network) and vice versa to facilitate file and printer
> sharing etc.
>
> Once the network is reliable, I plan to introduce a NAS and start
> trying out video streaming, VOIP and other network heavy applications
> that demand reliable connections.
>
> Some particulars if they are needed:
> - I have a mix of different OSs on my network currently: WinXP, Mac
> OSX, Linux and Win Mobile 5.0. Plan to introduce XBox 360 to the mix
> soon.
> - My budget is not huge, but if something would bring about a
> corresponding increase in reliability (capacity, speed, etc) to the
> price increase, I would tend to lean that way.
> - I use DSL (BellSouth) to connect the network to the internet.
>
> I have several questions that I hope someone can help me with:
> - First, does this setup makes sense or should I be trying to handle
> this in another way (just don't suggest using a wireless router as the
> center of the network... I want the reliability that wired ethernet
> brings)
> - Does anyone have an example of a working setup like this that I can
> emulate? I have no problem being told what to do if it removes
> headaches ;-)
> - Does anyone have opinions on hardware selection?
>
> Thanks in advance for any advice you can give me.
>
> Bill