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Mike Wong this is a question for you.


If anyone else has knowledge about this let me know.


I'm planning on buying a Linksys 5 port Ethernet + 802.11b Wireless router for $99 from Amazon.com.


A couple of associates of mine who are Computer and Electrical Engineers at Georgia Tech. They said that it wouldn't be a good idea to put such a device in my dorm room. Prolonged exposure and close proximity to a source of 2.8ghz radio waves isn't good for you. I'm Computer Science at GT, so I haven't had to much instruction about radio waves and signals beyond my Physics courses and my telecommunications classes.

Is there any real danger here? Or can I safely have this thing in my room?

Radio waves are non-ionizing radiation. There has never been any evidence that non-ionizing radiation, barring monster doses, has any detrimental effect on living tissue. Some studies have linked increased rates of bacterial growth in a petri dish to strong EM radiation or magnetic fields (albeit in HUGE amounts), but the obvious rebuttal is that even in this case, it was probably due to simple heating, and the bacteria weren't harmed; they just became more energetic.

Basically, this is more of a superstition than a serious threat. They will point out that it's always POSSIBLE, but lots of things are possible. There are supposedly some shaky statistical correlations between certain types of cancer and cell-phone use, but I have yet to see any reputable research to bear that up; it sounds more like sensationalist scare tactics to me.

There shouldn't be anything to be afraid of in that setup.

Then again I preffer a hardline as opposed to wireless. Just a little paranoid, mind you...

EmperorMing wrote:There shouldn't be anything to be afraid of in that setup.

Then again I preffer a hardline as opposed to wireless. Just a little paranoid, mind you...

And this is from pure speculation, but hardline would be much more efficient and quicker as well

Shinova wrote:

EmperorMing wrote:There shouldn't be anything to be afraid of in that setup.

Then again I preffer a hardline as opposed to wireless. Just a little paranoid, mind you...

And this is from pure speculation, but hardline would be much more efficient and quicker as well

I would say so...
Especially when moving *large* files around...

I would worry most about interference with other household devices that operate in the 2.8Ghz range. I think the latest cordless phones work in that range.

As for health concerns I would not worry at all.

Cordless phones are either 900Mhz or 2.4Ghz.

Get a hardline or one of those new "network-over-your-electrical-grid" thingys. Better for security reasons.

Darth Wong wrote:Radio waves are non-ionizing radiation. There has never been any evidence that non-ionizing radiation, barring monster doses, has any detrimental effect on living tissue. Some studies have linked increased rates of bacterial growth in a petri dish to strong EM radiation or magnetic fields (albeit in HUGE amounts), but the obvious rebuttal is that even in this case, it was probably due to simple heating, and the bacteria weren't harmed; they just became more energetic.

Basically, this is more of a superstition than a serious threat. They will point out that it's always POSSIBLE, but lots of things are possible. There are supposedly some shaky statistical correlations between certain types of cancer and cell-phone use, but I have yet to see any reputable research to bear that up; it sounds more like sensationalist scare tactics to me.

An uncle of mine worked at one of DEW or such radio installations in Greenland in the '50's. Him and a lot of his fellow workers got cancer and I mean an odd proporition.

EmperorMing wrote:

Shinova wrote:

EmperorMing wrote:There shouldn't be anything to be afraid of in that setup.

Then again I preffer a hardline as opposed to wireless. Just a little paranoid, mind you...

And this is from pure speculation, but hardline would be much more efficient and quicker as well

I would say so...
Especially when moving *large* files around...

And it's less of an adventure trying to set it up. Took me a week to find the magic order I had to boot the computers in to get a connection. That was after I had to fix the ISDN drivers it trashed.

Illuminatus Primus wrote:

Darth Wong wrote:Radio waves are non-ionizing radiation. There has never been any evidence that non-ionizing radiation, barring monster doses, has any detrimental effect on living tissue. Some studies have linked increased rates of bacterial growth in a petri dish to strong EM radiation or magnetic fields (albeit in HUGE amounts), but the obvious rebuttal is that even in this case, it was probably due to simple heating, and the bacteria weren't harmed; they just became more energetic.

Basically, this is more of a superstition than a serious threat. They will point out that it's always POSSIBLE, but lots of things are possible. There are supposedly some shaky statistical correlations between certain types of cancer and cell-phone use, but I have yet to see any reputable research to bear that up; it sounds more like sensationalist scare tactics to me.

An uncle of mine worked at one of DEW or such radio installations in Greenland in the '50's. Him and a lot of his fellow workers got cancer and I mean an odd proporition.

Assuming that the EW radars were to blame, there's a huge difference between that linksys router and those things.

Lord MJ wrote:Mike Wong this is a question for you.

If anyone else has knowledge about this let me know.

I'm planning on buying a Linksys 5 port Ethernet + 802.11b Wireless router for $99 from Amazon.com.

While that router is perfectly acceptable, I would not suggest buying their WLAN cards. Go with Proxim's Orinoco line or Cisco's Aironet 350 line. They are more expensive, but offer far greater performance.

There are ways to secure your WLAN. Some guy on the ArsTechnica boards posted a free-for-personal-use tunnelling client and server which some people are trying out there.

Enable WEP. Yeah, it's insecure, but it'll take on the order of five hours to crack it, so it's at least a layer of security.

I have a wireless network at home, and so far nobody has died.. We have four computers most of the time online, and we never turn off the network server..

Working in close proximity to a major transmitter or radar array is a monster dose. Monster doses of pretty much anything can be extremely hazardous, even sunlight. That does not mean that infinitesimal doses should be feared.