I finally am going to switch from this lousy 56k modem to broadband cable! This is a turning point in my life.
Anyway, I have few questions first that maybe you can help me with.
I want to get wireless cable if possible. What kind of routers do you reccomend? I want to get a good deal.
I have 3 computers in my house. I plan to keep a wireless router near one. Can I simply, instead of buying a wireless receiver card, simply plug my computer into the router and only use the wireless for my other comps that are farther away?
Is there a special kind of Wireless Adapter card that I need to put in my computer, or will anyone work?
Where can I find everything I need for a good price?
Yeah, it makes a huge difference. I donât think I could go back to dial-up. Just the ability to get software updates in seconds is a major advantage.
Remember to get a cable router and not an ADSL router. Both are sometimes packaged as broadband routers.
As for make, you get people with very varied experience of all makes. Some scream linksys is best and others say they go for d-link and linksys sucks etc. Itâs very hard to get reliable information on routers. I personally have a chepo safecom router and it handles things just fine - fast transfer and does all the port forwarding right etc.
My bittorrent, edonkey, Limewire, Skype, etc. all work properly.
Now I just have a wired router so extra things you have to look for in wireless ones are security, transfer rate and range. You have to set up encrypted access to your wireless network so that neighbours donât leech your bandwidth.
Yeah but you need to get the kind that has both ethernet ports and wireless access.
You need the kind that matches the router protocol e.g. 802.11g.
www.newegg.com and click on the section wireless networking then click go and youâll get a list of wireless routers.
This shouldnât matter unless the actual âmodemâ (cable or DSL) is built into the router. The router deals with the TCP/IP (or whatever other protocols youâre using) traffic only, regardless of what itâs connected to. I would avoid any such âintegratedâ solutions, if indeed any exist (Iâve never heard of them.)
However, I would definitely avoid hooking the cable modem directly to your computer using USB. Stick with ethernet only. (In your case, however, this wonât be an issue, since you plan on using a router and multiple PCs.)
I use a Linksys âbâ-wireless model at home thatâs worked fine, as long as I donât let WinXP control the wireless link (I let the adapterâs manufacturerâs - in this case Intel - drivers do the job on my laptop.) It allows both wired (cat5) and wireless (802.11b) connections.
You have to set up encrypted access to your wireless network so that neighbours donât leech your bandwidth.
Haha, yea. I was talking to a friend and he said he new someone who had a neighbor with Wireless Cable. He only had a modem so he just got an adapter and is using his neighbors service. Iâl be sure to encrypt.
I think all I will need is a âgâ router. From what I was told, âdâ is only needed for older computers. Is there a way I can check to see what my comp supports?
Yeah, definitely go for an 802.11g compatible model, as I think theyâre back-compat with âbâ and âaâ. Iâd tend to avoid the current âbroad spectrumâ units (pre-ânâ, I think it isâŚ) that are trying to guess at what the next standard will be. Theyâre supposedly fast, but may not line up with the actual ânâ standard when it gets ratified. Altho, if theyâre flash-upgradeable, they may be okay. Youâre just paying more for âneato featuresâ that arenât finalized yet. Further, youâll need ânâ-compatible client adapters, adding to the price. Also, the speed increase will only help you for data transfers within your local network (great for lan parties) but your bottleneck will still be your broadband connection. Check wikipediaâs 802.11 description for more infoâŚ
As to what your comp supports, the one you plan to have ânearâ the router needs a network adapter (ethernet) and the other ones, I assume you still need wireless adapters for. Just basically make sure theyâre 802.11g, too. They can be internal cards, or USB dongles⌠whatever works and/or is cheapest.
802.11 b, g, and n all operate at the same frequency (2.4Ghz) so they are downward compatible (a âgâ adapter can run on a âbâ network, it will just run at the reduced speed).
802.11a is a different animal entirely (runs at a different frequency) but some cards can operate on both frequencies and support all a/b/g. That said, âaâ is not really used a lot, so unless youâre supporting legacy devices (or buying used on eBay), itâs unlikely youâll run into an 802.11a device.
Depending on what you want to do, 801.11b may be more than fast enough. The bandwidth of 802.11b is more than enough to completely carry the full throughput of a high speed internet connection. The only time youâll notice speed issues is doing computer to computer transfers within your network (like those to or from your wired computer). So, if you can score âbâ equipment âon the cheapâ I wouldnât necessarily be afraid of it. If youâre buying new, then youâll likely want to go for the faster âgâ equipment as there isnât usually much price difference.
Security tip: find equipment that supports WPA encryption outta the box. If WPA2, even better. The older WEP just doesnât cut it for security (hackable).
This shouldnât matter unless the actual âmodemâ (cable or DSL) is built into the router. The router deals with the TCP/IP (or whatever other protocols youâre using) traffic only, regardless of what itâs connected to. I would avoid any such âintegratedâ solutions, if indeed any exist (Iâve never heard of them.)[/quote]
No but ADSL modems usually have a usb connection whereas cable modems have RJ45 - the router I have doesnât have a usb input. Iâve seen routers advertised separately for ADSL and cable and they arenât the all in ones. I know the ones you mean though - you can buy them from the companies that supply your internet.
Youâll need the ethernet cables as someone pointed out as they donât come with the router - thatâs for the wired computer so it can be a short one. Youâll need wireless adaptors for each of the other PCs. I think all your PCs will have ethernet so thatâs covered. Normally usb adaptors work over usb but Iâm sure your machines will have usb too.
So in summary you need:
cable router with wireless and wired access
1 RJ45 ethernet cable for wired PC
2? wireless adaptors for the other PCs
When choosing whether to go with 802.11g or b, the 802.11b is likely cheaper and it will support full internet speed. It will be slow for transferring files between your PCs though.
Wow, thanks for all the help. I have learned a lot already. If there is anything else you think I should know, please say so.
So once I get the Wireless network up, I can plug in my adapter into one of my PCs and it will connect through the LAN?
Also, will the Shared Folders in XP be shared with all the computers? Say I wanted to take a file from one PC to another. Could I just stick the file in the Shared Folder and then just DL it from my other PC?
Yes, it should, but keep in mind that security is typically off by default on your router (meaning that all your neighbors can easily connect to, and access, your network resources and net connection.) Definitely dive into the routerâs manual and at least change the default passwords and settings to something more secure. Do some online research to find out what security settings are best.
Iâve found file sharing with XP to be a pain, but yes, thatâs the way its supposed to work (and it may do fine for you.) Software firewalls (recommended on all your connected systems) can wreak havoc on this functionality, and usually takes some deep tweaking to get it working. I ended up setting up an FTP server (like FileZilla) so that I could have better control. ([Mini Rant]Microsoft loves to take away control from the user. I guess they think weâre too dumb to be trusted to work our own computers.[/End Mini Rant])
Youâll probabily need to set a network up. Insuring the network name on all computers are the same⌠etc⌠XP can do that for and creat an client disk to set other computers up.
With that said some routers (if not all) have a little web-based interface inside them. This allows you to forward certain ports /edit certains settings and so on⌠One you may need to set up to even have the internet working is the mac address. My ISP has the internet connection set to one mac address, this bassically stops other people hijacking my internet so easily or simply having multiple computers set up (they dont like people having a network) So you might want to check into that - with my old router i had to ring up and have my mac address changed to the one set in my router cause I couldnt set one or ghost one⌠my newer one is a lot better and way cheaper and ghosts /copys my mac address =)
Wireless cards - all usally compatible with each other cause you have those âISP hot spotsâ in places where if you have XYZâs internet connection /service⌠A McDonalds down by me has a BT open internet set up there so anyone with a laptop /wireless card can surf the internet if they are a BT customer. That and the numerious reports where they have wireless internet (like hotels) with people âhackingâ the internet so they dont have to pay for the internet⌠very good =)
And as aready said, the more expensive doesnât mean the best. The first router i got was quite expensive from US robotics or somin which i was told is a good router company - that was so crap in comparison to this Unheard of company (Peak) which was the cheapest in the shop⌠no more than ÂŁ10 if not ÂŁ5âŚ
Sorry for bumping this old thread, but I still havenât gotten cable yet and I have a quick question.
How can I tell if a Wireless router will support both wired and wireless connections?
Like I said above, I will connect once PC directly to the router, and the other will be connected wirelessly. So I need to know how I can tell if the router will support that.
Splurge and purchase a wireless router that supports VPN (Virtual Private Networking). Iâm not going to insist that you set up VPN right away, but youâll want to do it soon.
Set up WEP (wireless encryption) from the outset, so that all your neighbors wonât be able to piggyback on your connection (or snoop in your network!).
This router should support both wired and wireless internet access. You can see the LAN ports on the back, and it says that it has 4x10/100M LAN. Good luck setting up your network.
On the back of that router there are five Ethernet ports. The one thatâs not grouped with the others is the one that an ethernet cord from your modem will plug into. The four that are grouped together towards the power plug-in are for plugging in other computers so they can access your high-speed internet. Hope this helps.
If you choose that one, you will need a cable modem as well, like this
(the modem changes the cable signal into an ethernet signal, to plug into the router (the ethernet port that is seperate from the rest))
