I want wi-fi but i don't know how

[B16mts]

Good evening Ladies and Jellyspoons,

I've ordered broadband and got my D-link adsl modem. But I want to set up a wi-fi thingy so I can use my laptop on t'internet anywhere in the house. I've spent the last hour searching and seen that many blessed products i'm not sure what I need anymore.

Can anyone point me in the right direction? My only criteria is it must be cheap, and it won't be out of date come next year. Oh and my laptop is not currently wi-fi enabled.

any ideas?

cheers,

Mart

[marky]

Do you mean WIRELESS? You can get USB Dongles for wireless routers at around £25

[bell end billy]

Good evening Ladies and Jellyspoons,

I've ordered broadband and got my D-link adsl modem. But I want to set up a wi-fi thingy so I can use my laptop on t'internet anywhere in the house. I've spent the last hour searching and seen that many blessed products i'm not sure what I need anymore.

Can anyone point me in the right direction? My only criteria is it must be cheap, and it won't be out of date come next year. Oh and my laptop is not currently wi-fi enabled.

any ideas?

cheers,

Mart

wanadoo broadband £14.99 a month or with free wireless modem and adapter for your laptop and a extra phoneline £18.99.
I set mine up last week no problems my speed is 2mb but depending on where you are up to 8mb.
I have had the broadband for over a year with no problems at all.

http://www.wanadoo.co.uk/time/broadb...nternet_access

[Medieval Dave]

It's pretty easy. However I think, unfortunately, that the first thing you do is put your new modem in the bin and get a router instead. if you get a wifi router it will connect both your pc and laptop at once.

then you can plug your pc into that direct or put a wifi card in it. for your laptop you need a pcmia wifi card, it's dead easy.

My top tip is not to buy cheap routers though. I'd definitely get a netgear 834 or similar. cheapo wifi routers seem to have a lot of problems. my Netgear is perfect - I'm here on the sofa working on the laptop with no leads now

[dave.j.robbo]

A D-Link ADSL modem probably won't be any good!

You need a wireless modem router, with a pcmcia wireless card for your laptop.

My brother in law recently got both of these in a pack from PC World for a grand total of £40.

Or there's always good old e-bay!!!

[Dave_bax]

Mart my setup consists of a PCMCIA PCI card, this allows the use of a wireless card that slots into laptops to plug into a desktop PC.

I then set up 'Internet Connection Sharing' on the PC. This then enables the laptop that connects to the PC as an ADHOC connection to browse the internet.

The only problem is the main PC must be switched on (not logged in) for the wireless connection to work.

Hope that makes sense. If you go down this route, take it a step at a time.

Good luck.

[mooter]

what you need to do is by a wireless enabled ADSL router. you can pick one up like this:

http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProdu...duct_Id=187046

you simply run your telephone cable into it and it will act as a modem, so you can ditch the current one. but it will also allow you to share the internet connection properly (i.e. through the router itself, not another PC). the model above (and most others) allows you to connect 4 pc's to it by an ethernet (Cat5) cable and an unlimited amount wirelessly. it will be a true "always on" connection too - you only have to connect once, when you set up, and thats it. sharing stuff on a home network is made much easier too.

it also offers NAT protection. This stands for Network Address Translation - it's essentially a hardware firewall. Put simply it means that it will block all incoming connection attempts to your IP unless it is told otherwise. This is a real security bonus.

i got one shortly after getting broadband and never looked back. these days i couldnt live without one!

[Maverick]

I use a Netgear wireless adsl router/modem, and Netgear usb do da' (yes they have a proper name but I don't know it), and have never had a problem. It set me back nearly £200 about 18 months back, but I notice they have come down in price quite alot since.

[andy]

This is what I have just got, works fine for me.

http://www.misco.co.uk/productinform...r%20bundle.htm

[da SLUG man]

it's easy to do... plug in router, plug in wireless card.
then go to IE and type in an address that corresponds to the router... it will open the settings page where you type in the settings (i had to call the ISP to get 1 peice of info)... then it connects as soon as you turn on computer everytime.

[Simon811]

The guys are right, you need a usb or pcmcia wireless adapter (usb is a lot easier to break off) and a wireless ADSL modem router NOT just a wireless switch, make sure it is a modem router.

Any of the main brands are good, i went for linksys as it is basically a cisco unit rebadged and anyone in IT wil be able to confirm that Ciscoc kit is very good (no i'm not on commission but i have used some of it in solutions i designed at work).

Whether it is easy to configure or not depends to an extent on your isp as some have very slightly different settings from the defaults which can be a pain to find out but they are normally hidden in the isp's online help.

A non techy should be able to have it working correctly by following the quick start guides in under 30 minutes.

[andrewlee31]

if you live in a modern house with stud walls then a 54mps wireless router modem and pcmcia card for laptop or wireless dongle will be fine. but if you have a solid built brick wall house then you need to consider a 108mps router for a decent conection anywhere in the house.

[andrewlee31]

if you use aol, then make sure its a compatable. aol is a bitch for router modems. i use a netgear and they supply a patch for it.

[Chillitt]

if you use aol, then make sure its a compatable. aol is a bitch for router modems. i use a netgear and they supply a patch for it.

i have netgear and aol, and i will raise you msn messenger too! got 2 techy types here and it took em a week to get it all working right! now its done, its quite cool though..

[fatfires]

what you need to do is by a wireless enabled ADSL router. you can pick one up like this:



you simply run your telephone cable into it and it will act as a modem, so you can ditch the current one. but it will also allow you to share the internet connection properly (i.e. through the router itself, not another PC). the model above (and most others) allows you to connect 4 pc's to it by an ethernet (Cat5) cable and an unlimited amount wirelessly. it will be a true "always on" connection too - you only have to connect once, when you set up, and thats it. sharing stuff on a home network is made much easier too.

it also offers NAT protection. This stands for Network Address Translation - it's essentially a hardware firewall. Put simply it means that it will block all incoming connection attempts to your IP unless it is told otherwise. This is a real security bonus.

i got one shortly after getting broadband and never looked back. these days i couldnt live without one!

hey thats wot I got works a treat!!!! dont understand it tho, good job my son does!!