Laptop-only Wireless Network ?

At the moment I have a desktop with broadband access via cable. I would like
to get rid of the desktop, replace it with a laptop and use wireless to
connect to the Internet from anywhere in the house. Is this possible and if
so what kit do I need? Any recommendations?

On Sun, 27 Mar 2005 11:35:58 +0100, Monty L
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> At the moment I have a desktop with broadband access via cable. I would
> like
> to get rid of the desktop, replace it with a laptop and use wireless to
> connect to the Internet from anywhere in the house. Is this possible
> and if
> so what kit do I need? Any recommendations?
>
>

This is possible, you'd just need a Wireless router, and a wireless card
for your laptop if it doesn't already have wireless capability.
Unfortunately I'm not familiar with wireless on cable so can't make any
specific recommendations on wireless equipment.


--
| Ben Brown Broadband Solutions For
| Customer Support for Home & Business
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"Monty L" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> At the moment I have a desktop with broadband access via cable. I would
> like to get rid of the desktop, replace it with a laptop and use wireless
> to connect to the Internet from anywhere in the house. Is this possible
> and if so what kit do I need? Any recommendations?

Hi there, we have a wireless network.

Do you have ADSL (ie: BT Yahoo broadband? Plusnet?) or NTL/Telewest cable?

You either need a wireless router supporting cable-modems, such as the one
we use LinkSys WRT54G

There are firmware upgrades available on linksys (cisco's) website, and
overall the router is fantastic, it has a plethera of functions and I
strongly recommend it!

If you however have ADSL then you need a similiar piece of kit. Let me know
first what kind of broadband you have, then i can advise you more!

A 'wireless router' allows you to connect pc's and your internet connection
through a cable to it, and/or allow a certain number of
laptops/wireless-pc-cards to access it wirelessly.

There are 2 older wireless technologies, 'a' 'b' and 'c'.

'a' is old, leave it. B has speeds of up to 11mbps (still quite slow),
whereas wireless 'G' is up to 54mbps, and actually up to 100mbps in some
cases!

What wireless card do you have in your laptop? Wireless B or G? (i'm sure it
wont be A!).

If it's B, i would still get a wireless G wireless router! As they're
compatible, and means if you get another newer laptop with wireless G, then
it'll work with that one too...

Shend ush a reply

G

"I.P.Freely" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:ILD1e.1184$(E-Mail Removed)...
> "Monty L" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>> At the moment I have a desktop with broadband access via cable. I would
>> like to get rid of the desktop, replace it with a laptop and use wireless
>> to connect to the Internet from anywhere in the house. Is this possible
>> and if so what kit do I need? Any recommendations?
>
> Hi there, we have a wireless network.
>
> Do you have ADSL (ie: BT Yahoo broadband? Plusnet?) or NTL/Telewest cable?
>
> You either need a wireless router supporting cable-modems, such as the one
> we use LinkSys WRT54G
>
> There are firmware upgrades available on linksys (cisco's) website, and
> overall the router is fantastic, it has a plethera of functions and I
> strongly recommend it!
>
> If you however have ADSL then you need a similiar piece of kit. Let me
> know first what kind of broadband you have, then i can advise you more!
>
> A 'wireless router' allows you to connect pc's and your internet
> connection through a cable to it, and/or allow a certain number of
> laptops/wireless-pc-cards to access it wirelessly.
>
> There are 2 older wireless technologies, 'a' 'b' and 'c'.
>
> 'a' is old, leave it. B has speeds of up to 11mbps (still quite slow),
> whereas wireless 'G' is up to 54mbps, and actually up to 100mbps in some
> cases!
>
> What wireless card do you have in your laptop? Wireless B or G? (i'm sure
> it wont be A!).
>
> If it's B, i would still get a wireless G wireless router! As they're
> compatible, and means if you get another newer laptop with wireless G,
> then it'll work with that one too...
>
> Shend ush a reply

If i'd read the post i'd have noticed it's via cable.

WRT54g for you're router, which support 'b' and 'g' wireless, and is
super-nifty. It's under £50 I think at the moment... any probs, gee us a
shout!

I'm also not familiar with routers for cable but I'm guessing he needs a
cable modem with an ethernet interface to use with the wireless router. My
grandad is connected via cable but NTL supplied him with a USB cable modem
which I'm assuming will not work with the router?

Dan

"dan" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:42472d82$0$2772$(E-Mail Removed)...
> I'm also not familiar with routers for cable but I'm guessing he needs a
> cable modem with an ethernet interface to use with the wireless router. My
> grandad is connected via cable but NTL supplied him with a USB cable modem
> which I'm assuming will not work with the router?

Doubt it, any modem they've supplied has ethernet AND USB connectivity.

You just connect the modem via ethernet to the router. To configure the
router intially the original poster *will* have to connect the laptop to the
router with a cable, cables are usually supplied with the router (linksys
ones), dunno about other brands.

It's easy peasy.

I'd suggest configuring wireless security, but i will go through that with
the poster later if they do buy the equipment.

"I.P.Freely" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message

> Do you have ADSL (ie: BT Yahoo broadband? Plusnet?) or NTL/Telewest cable?
> You either need a wireless router supporting cable-modems, such as the one
> we use LinkSys WRT54G

Thanks for the information.
It's Telewest cable. I haven't bought the laptop as yet. I want to get rid
of my desktop completely and just have the laptop, so it will only be a one
machine network. Will I be able to do this with the LinkSys wireless
router?

"Monty L" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> "I.P.Freely" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>
>> Do you have ADSL (ie: BT Yahoo broadband? Plusnet?) or NTL/Telewest
>> cable?
>> You either need a wireless router supporting cable-modems, such as the
>> one we use LinkSys WRT54G
>
> Thanks for the information.
> It's Telewest cable. I haven't bought the laptop as yet. I want to get
> rid of my desktop completely and just have the laptop, so it will only be
> a one machine network. Will I be able to do this with the LinkSys
> wireless router?

Yeah, no bother at all with that setup of couse.

http://www.blueunplugged.com/product....asp?ptnrSrc=1

Is the cheapest I could find including delivery charges, they state they're
out of stock. I only recommend that as I have one, and that's the only real
way of analysing something fairly in my opinion. Also as it sounds like
you're after it for just basic use, you can buy one or more laptops and
connect to it fine.

It's also convienant that you can shove it beside your cable point and just
basically leave it there hidden in a corner and connect from accross the
house, and likely from other houses too. Which is useful if you wanna sit in
the garden on a summer's day (not likely in Scotland here, but anyways...)
but also means you'll have to set up security.

It's important purely as people can nick your broadband connection - it's
not very likely in a suburban area unless there's some kid messing about,
but you can use the wireless MAC filter to only accept connections from your
laptop's card's MAC address, and you can also shove a big hex password on it
which can be viewed from the manual.

In terms of laptops, I bought an acer 291-LCi. It was £780 and is a centrino
laptop, they're discontinued as you can get centrino laptops such as it with
more up to date wireless basically.

But unless you sweat money try not be tempted by a sony vaio centrino laptop
at £2000, there are better deals out there.

GM <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

[]
> It's also convienant that you can shove it beside your cable point and just
> basically leave it there hidden in a corner and connect from accross the
> house, and likely from other houses too.

Based on the fact I can walk to the next street and still access my
wireless broadband set-up, I estimate around 20 different households
could access it if they wanted to. No one has yet though!

--
David Horne- www.davidhorne.net
usenet (at) davidhorne (dot) co (dot) uk

"Monty L" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> "I.P.Freely" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>
> > Do you have ADSL (ie: BT Yahoo broadband? Plusnet?) or NTL/Telewest
cable?
> > You either need a wireless router supporting cable-modems, such as the
one
> > we use LinkSys WRT54G
>
> Thanks for the information.
> It's Telewest cable. I haven't bought the laptop as yet. I want to get
rid
> of my desktop completely and just have the laptop, so it will only be a
one
> machine network. Will I be able to do this with the LinkSys wireless
> router?
>

You can do this with most routers. However you do need to lock your network
down. Just take a browse round

http://www.netstumbler.org

or do a google search on "wardriving" if you don't beleive me When you lock
down your wireless your laptop will loose its connection until you set it up
correctly. I found this was where the fun started, and that sometimes I
needed a re-boot the laptop to get it to talk to the Wireless. As most
laptops come with an eternet port its worth keeping a CAT5 patch cable so
you can plug it directly into the router and change the wireless settings
should you manage to lock the laptop out of the wireless.

You might also find Netstumber usefull to check for "free" channels before
you install the wireless, tough I think these days XP will show you a list
of active LANS.
>