Home Office Networking and Printing

Setting up a home office next week. Any thoughts or advice on my plans for
networking would be appreciated. If I'm asking too basic of questions,
please feel free to steer me towards a FAQ of some sort.

Internet service will be from a WildBlue satellite linkup. I've been told
the WildBlue installer can help me set things up, but I'm looking to make
sure that what I'm thinking in terms of equipment, locations, and
functionality sounds workable. Because of my house layout, it would be
convenient for me to install the satellite modem upstairs on a built in
shelf. House is a fairly open floor-plan ranch, ~1700SF upstairs.

To the satellite modem, I'm planning on connecting a LinkSys Wireless G
broadband router, WRT54GS-BP. Intent is to be able to access the internet
from a desktop in a small office upstairs or from a laptop to be principally
located in a small office downstairs. The desktop will be connected by way
of a LinkSys Compact Wireless-G USB Adapter. The laptop is a new Dell
Inspiron with a wireless 802.11b/g card. Does it sound like the internet
access planned should work?

As far as printing, the upstairs desktop computer is currently associated
with a Canon MultiPass F30 (color inkjet). It's not a true plug and play
printer, and I've never been able to use it via USB, so have ended up using
a parallel printer port. I'm planning on getting an HP 3050 MFC (BW
laser/fax) for the downstairs office. Definitely want the HP 3050 to be
downstairs, and the Canon F30 could be located in either place. However, I'd
guess that since the F30 in not PNP and has been tricky to setup I'd be best
off leaving it upstairs. So, can I use the Linsys router for printer sharing
with this equipment? Or, would I perhaps also need a LinkSys Wireless-G
PrintServer?

Would I also be able to share files among the desktop and laptop?

Thanks in advance,

John

Hi

Your plan sounds Ok.

Make sure that WildBlue satellite can be fed into a Wireless Cable/DSL
Router, since some satellite services cannot.

Make sure that you have a setting that allows connection from a computer to
the Router with a wire; you would need it for the initial setting and to
access the system in situations concerning Wireless faults.

These pages include a lot of info that might help in such endeavor,
http://www.ezlan.net

Jack (MVP-Networking).



"JV" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Setting up a home office next week. Any thoughts or advice on my plans for
> networking would be appreciated. If I'm asking too basic of questions,
> please feel free to steer me towards a FAQ of some sort.
>
> Internet service will be from a WildBlue satellite linkup. I've been told
> the WildBlue installer can help me set things up, but I'm looking to make
> sure that what I'm thinking in terms of equipment, locations, and
> functionality sounds workable. Because of my house layout, it would be
> convenient for me to install the satellite modem upstairs on a built in
> shelf. House is a fairly open floor-plan ranch, ~1700SF upstairs.
>
> To the satellite modem, I'm planning on connecting a LinkSys Wireless G
> broadband router, WRT54GS-BP. Intent is to be able to access the internet
> from a desktop in a small office upstairs or from a laptop to be
> principally located in a small office downstairs. The desktop will be
> connected by way of a LinkSys Compact Wireless-G USB Adapter. The laptop
> is a new Dell Inspiron with a wireless 802.11b/g card. Does it sound like
> the internet access planned should work?
>
> As far as printing, the upstairs desktop computer is currently associated
> with a Canon MultiPass F30 (color inkjet). It's not a true plug and play
> printer, and I've never been able to use it via USB, so have ended up
> using a parallel printer port. I'm planning on getting an HP 3050 MFC (BW
> laser/fax) for the downstairs office. Definitely want the HP 3050 to be
> downstairs, and the Canon F30 could be located in either place. However,
> I'd guess that since the F30 in not PNP and has been tricky to setup I'd
> be best off leaving it upstairs. So, can I use the Linsys router for
> printer sharing with this equipment? Or, would I perhaps also need a
> LinkSys Wireless-G PrintServer?
>
> Would I also be able to share files among the desktop and laptop?
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> John
>