New Wireless Gear

During all the madness of trying to visit two seperate groups of families who both wanted to do something on Saturday I managed to setup some new wireless gear in my house.

The first and most obvious addition, well more of a replacement, was getting a new wireless router. I had a Dlink DI-614+ wireless router before but it only did 802.11b, but luckily Costco has a sweet deal going on right now for the DI-624 wireless router that does 802.11a/b/g. The router itself is roughly $98 bucks Canadian (everywhere else it goes for $127) plus good old Costco has a deal going with Dlink for a $30 mail-in rebate through Costco (which basicly means that you know you aren't going to get screwed on the rebate).

Speaking of Costco's rebate system, I love the fact that you can file your rebates online now. I had submitted the rebate form through their site on Saturday morning and by Sunday morning I had recieved confirmation that the form was in their machines for processing. Quick and painless.

The second, and coolest, wireless addition was another Dlink product, their Streaming Media Server (DCM-320) which I also bought at Costco (ya I buy a lot at Costco, you just cannot beat their no questions asked return policy if you don't like the product). What this media server does is it ties in music, photos or movies that you have on your machines on your network with your home theatre system so you can relax in the comfort of your living room. The device was incredibly simple to setup and get working on my wireless network even with the 128-bit encryption that I had done. On top of that from the amount that I have used it thus far the device works like a champ, it's super easy to use and thus far I have no complaints about it.