New installation

A friend of mine just moved and decided to use SBC/Yahoo for her new DSL.
She ordered DSL and received the new modem. She has now changed her mind
and will purchase a laptop and would like to go wireless in her new house.
I am aware the DSL modem will be of no use to her, but I have no idea what
she needs in place of a modem. Would one of you folks please describe what
new parts she will need. Also, is the hook up a procedure that two
"dummies" can do?
Thanks,
Steve

Esteban wrote:
> A friend of mine just moved and decided to use SBC/Yahoo for her new DSL.
> She ordered DSL and received the new modem. She has now changed her mind
> and will purchase a laptop and would like to go wireless in her new house.
> I am aware the DSL modem will be of no use to her, but I have no idea what
> she needs in place of a modem. Would one of you folks please describe what
> new parts she will need.

She will still need a DSL modem to connect to the phone line.

The easiest way would be to go to Walmart and get the Linksys WRT54G
wireless router, the $49.98 one, not the $68.28 one with Speedboost
(Speedboost only work swith other Linksys products).

Just insert the Linksys product CD and let it auto-config your Linksys device.

On Fri, 13 Jul 2007 14:51:28 -0400, "Esteban" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>A friend of mine just moved and decided to use SBC/Yahoo for her new DSL.
>She ordered DSL and received the new modem. She has now changed her mind
>and will purchase a laptop and would like to go wireless in her new house.
>I am aware the DSL modem will be of no use to her, but I have no idea what
>she needs in place of a modem. Would one of you folks please describe what
>new parts she will need. Also, is the hook up a procedure that two
>"dummies" can do?
>Thanks,
>Steve
>

She still needs the DSL modem. All she needs to add now is an wireless access
point.

"Johann Beretta" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news(E-Mail Removed)...
> On Fri, 13 Jul 2007 14:51:28 -0400, "Esteban" <(E-Mail Removed)>
> wrote:
>
>>A friend of mine just moved and decided to use SBC/Yahoo for her new DSL.
>>She ordered DSL and received the new modem. She has now changed her mind
>>and will purchase a laptop and would like to go wireless in her new house.
>>I am aware the DSL modem will be of no use to her, but I have no idea what
>>she needs in place of a modem. Would one of you folks please describe
>>what
>>new parts she will need. Also, is the hook up a procedure that two
>>"dummies" can do?
>>Thanks,
>>Steve
>>
>
> She still needs the DSL modem. All she needs to add now is an wireless
> access
> point.

Johann & DTC,
Thanks for the help, just what I wanted to know.
Steve

DTC wrote:
> The easiest way would be to go to Walmart and get the Linksys WRT54G
> wireless router, the $49.98 one, not the $68.28 one with Speedboost
> (Speedboost only work swith other Linksys products).

Opps...that $49.95 might be the online price. I think its $59.95 in the
stores. Down $10 from last year as I recall. Almost at dealer pricing now.

"Esteban" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:4qSli.555$(E-Mail Removed).. .
>
> "Johann Beretta" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news(E-Mail Removed)...
>> On Fri, 13 Jul 2007 14:51:28 -0400, "Esteban" <(E-Mail Removed)>
>> wrote:
>>
>>>A friend of mine just moved and decided to use SBC/Yahoo for her new DSL.
>>>She ordered DSL and received the new modem. She has now changed her mind
>>>and will purchase a laptop and would like to go wireless in her new
>>>house.
>>>I am aware the DSL modem will be of no use to her, but I have no idea
>>>what
>>>she needs in place of a modem. Would one of you folks please describe
>>>what
>>>new parts she will need. Also, is the hook up a procedure that two
>>>"dummies" can do?
>>>Thanks,
>>>Steve
>>>
>>
>> She still needs the DSL modem. All she needs to add now is an wireless
>> access
>> point.
>
> Johann & DTC,
> Thanks for the help, just what I wanted to know.
> Steve
* And don't just plug it in and use the Access Point. Configure it with
wireless security.

A lot of this assumes that the DSL modem is also a router (pretty typical)
and how it is set up to connect, and if it shares the connection.

It is possible to make most DSL modems dial and connect from a desktop PC.
When the desktop PC has not dialing and connected the thing it is pretty
much a paper weight. A consumer Broadband Router would be able to dial that
connection and provide username and password as well. Such a Broadband
Router can also share the connection and help you build your own wired
and/or wireless network. Such consumer broadband routers can also handle
other connection types such as a Cable Modem (and more).

So if it's already a DSL modem + Router (configured already that way) - then
it will automagically manage the network. To know for sure if you plug in a
wired network connection from it to a desktop or a laptop. That machine
should be able to go on the Internet right away. There should be a
management web page for the DSL Modem Router, in any case.

* Personally I don't like DSL modem/routers to dial the link for me. I like
to do it with something else. But that is usually an advanced configuration
and networking that most home users won't want to do. However the Broadband
Routers make that pretty easy to do. I wouldn't want to do double-NAT with
the DSL Modem/Router doing Routing/NAT, and the Broadband Router doing
Routing/NAT. Windows can also share connections but at least as of XP
(probably even Vista) it has proven to be flakey at best.

---
Alan Spicer
* http://telecom.dyndns.biz/ (Main Site)
* http://www.marinetelecom.net/ (.net mirror site)
* http://alanspicermarinetelecom.com/ (.com mirror site)
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* http://www.mymarinewifi.com/ (Marine WiFi .com mirror site)
* IPv6 http://[2001:5c0:8104::1]/
*
* 954-683-3426 Business Mobile
* 866-977-5245 Toll Free 800#
* 954-977-5245 Office
* skype:alanspicertelecom

Alan Spicer wrote:
> A lot of this assumes that the DSL modem is also a router (pretty typical)
> and how it is set up to connect, and if it shares the connection.

True, most have routing set as the default. Personally I prefer setting
them to bridging mode and use my own router

> It is possible to make most DSL modems dial and connect from a desktop PC.
> When the desktop PC has not dialing and connected the thing it is pretty
> much a paper weight. A consumer Broadband Router would be able to dial that
> connection and provide username and password as well.

Second generation (for lack of a better phrase) DSL connectivity circa 2001
used a Desktop PPoE connectoid. The excuse, err...reason was to "preserve
the dialing experience" (quoting a DSL support knowledge base from back
then). The REAL reason was to prevent users from plugging a simple hub into
the DSL modem and have the DSLAM dish out tens or even hundreds of IP
addresses with the original "first generation" deployments

The next generation circa 2004 or so had the PPoE contained within the
actual DSL modem. If the modem was set to bridging mode, you could use the
PPoE dialer contained in your router for authentication.

Currently the trend is to have the DSLAMs' authentication tied to the
actual telephone circuit pair. No user name or password required, but it
may take up to an hour for the DSLAM back-end resources to recognize the
first time modem install.

The above information was not grepped from Google, rather from first hand
actual experiences. Actual dates of the above may vary from telco to telco.

"Esteban" <(E-Mail Removed)> hath wroth:

>A friend of mine just moved and decided to use SBC/Yahoo for her new DSL.
>She ordered DSL and received the new modem. She has now changed her mind
>and will purchase a laptop and would like to go wireless in her new house.
>I am aware the DSL modem will be of no use to her, but I have no idea what
>she needs in place of a modem. Would one of you folks please describe what
>new parts she will need. Also, is the hook up a procedure that two
>"dummies" can do?

SBC has a home networking kit which methinks is a tolerable deal. Some
details...

The box her Speedstream 4100 modem came in has a return sticker
inside. Hopefully, she kept the box. Have her call SBC support and
arrange for an upgrade/trade/credit/whatever. What arrives is a 2wire
DSL modem, router, with built in wireless. I think this is the
current model:
<http://store.att.com/Catalog/ProductDetails.asp?ProductId=1000%2D401047%2D000&C ategoryId=catMRG&show=Features>
I'm fairly sure it has wireless, but it wouldn't hurt to check:
<http://www.2wire.com/index.php?p=106>
<http://www.2wire.com/pages/pdfs/5100-000562-000_2W_Rev_A_0107.pdf>

Installation is fairly simple. Plug in the computah, DHCP delivers an
IP, and it then points your web browser to a built in setup script.
The AT&T account signup (which assigns username and password) is built
in. If she alreay has an account, it will ask for the login and
password. Everything else is automagic.

My only complaint is that the wireless defaults to WEP (with the WEP
key printed on the serial number label). WEP is terribly insecure.
She should be using WPA-PSK (also known as WPA-Personal) which will
require some manual configuration. Everything else is fine at the
defaults.

If all else fails, read the 2701 manual at:
<http://www.2wire.com/index.php?p=266>

--
Jeff Liebermann (E-Mail Removed)
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558