Help with going wireless at home.....please!

[Guest kurtfhouse]

O.k I need to get my internet connection at home wireless but I know nothing about how to go about it :?:

I am on Wanadoo 1Mbps and my laptop does not have Wi-Fi.

Any tips on what router I need that will work with Wanadoo and what will I need for my laptop? :oops:

I really don't feel confident in buying any hardware without seeking advice with people in the know, and this is the best place I know ;)

I am not looking to spend the earth as long as it does the job thats fine, I was quoted £150 by BT just to connect an already fitted phone socket in a more convenient place :evil:....... so I thought sod it, its time to go wireless instead ;)

Any help at all would be great

Thanks

Kurt

Edited May 12, 2005 by kurtfhouse

[Guest nedge2k]

Get a PCMCIA wifi card for the lappy and a normal router for ur adsl modem. Dont get an integrated adsl router because

a)they're more expensive and

:P if you ever have a cable internet connection you'll have to buy a new router.

I bought my router and pcmcia card from Toy R Us (!) for the reasonable sum of £75 ;)

PCMCIA Card

Router

Belkin has a lifetime warrenty on their products too ;)

If you have a bit more money to spend go for "Super G" which is 108mbps as opposed to the standard 802.11g speed of 54mbps.

Hope it helps.

[Guest kurtfhouse]

Cheers Nedge2K!, Will take a look at Toys R Us. £75 sounds fine.

What do BT think they're doing, I can get what is to me an upgrade for half the price of them doing a five minute connection job!

The only thing I am confused about now is if I get a normal router not integrated, the signal is sent to my laptop via the PCMCIA card, great, but how do I get it to run through my modem? (its a USB modem)

Also if I get the router and I decide to get a Wi-Fi SD card for my JAM can I use the broadband connection on it aswell?

Sorry about these questions its just I know nothing about wireless networks!

[Guest mike-oh]

Your cable modem should just connect into the back of your router (i think this is usually done by ethernet).

I think you should be able to use the jam on it too (i'm pretty sure wi-fi and wireless home networks are essentially the same).

As for where to buy from, check out www.ebuyer.co.uk loads of cheap computery goodness.

[Guest beersoft]

if its dsl (which wannadoo normaly is) i recomend the belkin dsl/wifi router and there pcmcia cards which is what i use

later

Owen

[Guest nato]

Dont forget to lock it down thought m8 - just the thought of me paying for someone else to surf the net at my expense did it for me! ;)

[Guest nedge2k]

Nah you just set the router to only allow the mac address of the lappy (and the jam if you get a card). That way it doesnt slow down ur connection with all the overheads the full on security brings.

If its a usb ONLY modem then you will need to get a router that replaces the modem (ie a dsl router). As beer said, go for belkin...they rock ;)

[Guest kurtfhouse]

Well I am now wireless! I got a bBelkin PCMCIA network card and a Netgear router with the ADSL modem built in, the router looks pretty good, its an i-pod white one.

It only took 15 minutes to set up as well which surprised me as I have no experience at all!

For security I have taken Nedge2K's advice and set it up to only allow access to my lappys mac address (whatever that is???)

Cheers for your help and advice people ;)/