Ducati Sporting Club UK > General > Idle Chat > OT: Home Wireless PC Networks??

[ali]

Hi All,

Looking to set up a wireless network at home this week but getting lost in the amount of different hardware available.....

Can anyone tell me if it's possible to buy a box that plugs into the telephone socket and does NOT need connecting (with wires) to the PC.

I could then have a wireless PCI card for the desktop and a PCMCIA card for the lappy, and no bloody wires gaff taped to my living room floor....

Ideally it would all be 802.11g as I'm looking to stream video to the laptop.

Any help greatly appreciated!

Cheers,

Ali

[JPM]

I am assuming you have ADSL? not cable?

You're going to need a wireless ADSL router, and cards, my personal choice these days is netgear stuff, I've used D-Link before, and are as good, but the setup/config is a bit more fiddly.

Firstly though you would need to connect either machine directly to the router to configure it, such things as your ADSL username/password, and port forwarding, firewall etc, and also tie down the MAC addresses of the wireless cards, possibly wireless encryption also,so only you can access your network.

[ali]

Sorry, yes I have got ADSL.

Am I gettign this right? I first connect (with wire) the router/modem to my PC, configure it, unplug it from the PC, and finally plug it into the telephone socket.

I then need to configure each wireless card for each PC?

Can you recommend a specific Netgear box? Does it need to be just a router or a router/modem?

Cheers,

Ali

[JPM]

Ali,

Basically connect it all up first...you will need an ADSL Modem/Router, I assume you already either have a cat5 or USB one with your current setup?

So connect up as follows

Telephone line ->microfilter ->Router -CAT5->PC

Set n/work card on PC to DHCP, the router will assign an IP address to the PC.

Open IE and browse to 192.168.0.1 (most routers) this will bring up the router front page, you will need to login to the router, usually by default name - admin, password - password, it will say this in the documentation.

The netgear stuff will automatically run a config which is straight forward to follow, honest!

Once you have done everything you need to, remove CAT5, insert w/cards install drivers etc, set to DHCP and hopefully (he says) you should be able to surf straight away.

The only thing I would ask you to check is what version of PCI your PC motherboard has, as most wireless cards only run on the latest versions, as one guy here found out when he bought a wireless card, and ended up replacing most of his PC to get it running.

Have a look on www.broadbandbuyer.co.uk for some ideas, they tend to do some good packages - routers and cards etc.

If that still sounds like gobbledegook drop me a U2U

[mike916]

I was also considering this at home but after, gulp!!! ,that lot I'll stick to the extension phone line up the stairs to the spare bedroom!

[yellow916]

Ali

I've used both Netgear and D-Link stuff and I think they're both OK. Before you lash out on wireless networking components, try and make sure it'll work in your house. It didn't for me (distances, thick walls etc) and I ended up buying a load of Cat 5 cable (£25 for 300 metres) and a couple of wall-mounted RF45 sockets. Cheap, cheerful and as fast as you probably need for home use. Wiring up the "intranet" wasn't as scarey as I first thought, just make sure you connect the same colour wire to the same socket each end and Robert should be your uncle.

There are some good sites that tell you more about installing a home network - let me know if you want URLs, or do a search on Google or similar.

Andrew

[yellow916]

Ali

Make that RJ45 sockets in my last reply!

A

[Ian]

I have an Origo wireless router at home, really easy to setup. Wireless card in my home PC with a little aerial thing on the desk, - and a centrino laptop. I can now have my PC on and connected and my work laptop sitting beside it also connected to tinternet.

[ali]

Huge thanks JPM. Had a chat with broadbandbuyer and ordered a d-link package as it worked out £30 cheaper, and you always get through the setup in the end...... probably!

As for the motherboard version, BBB assured me that all ASUS m/boards made in the last year are PCI2.2 compliant. I bloody hope so.

Cheers,

ali

[ali]

Andrew: Shouldn't have any major drama with distance as the house is bloody tiny! It's also rented, so drilling holes through walls is considered bad form (not a very understanding landlord...).

And Robert isn't my uncle. Although my mum's brother, Frank, is sometimes affectionately know as 'Bob'. Which is hilarious. Apparently.

Thanks for the tips.

ali