Wireless Neworking

abbey · Post by **abbey** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 12:14 pm

I've been wanting to make my laptop wirefree for a while, but dont know what i would need to do it.

Ideally, i would like a good enough range so that i could use it round at my mums house.

Could someone help please?.

Post by **spot** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 12:16 pm

abbey wrote:

I've been wanting to make my laptop wirefree for a while, but dont know what i would need to do it.

Ideally, i would like a good enough range so that i could use it round at my mums house.

Could someone help please?.What do you use at the moment, Abbey? Dialup? ADSL? Cable? Cleft Stick and Runner?

abbey · Post by **abbey** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 12:17 pm

spot wrote: What do you use at the moment, Abbey? Dialup? ADSL? Cable? Cleft Stick and Runner?Sorry, forgot to mention, i'm on NTL cable (Broadband)

Post by **spot** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 12:18 pm

And - just in case you're wildly mistaken about range - most people can manage maybe 100 feet, so each house you use it in (ideally) ought to have its own service provision for you to connect through. Does your mum already have an internet connection? If she does, same question as before.

abbey · Post by **abbey** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 12:21 pm

spot wrote: And - just in case you're wildly mistaken about range - most people can manage maybe 100 feet, so each house you use it in (ideally) ought to have its own service provision for you to connect through. Does your mum already have an internet connection? If she does, same question as before.No, maybe i was being a little ambitious eh?

Post by **spot** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 12:23 pm

Where, at the moment, your cable modem plugs straight into your laptop, it would (with a wireless setup) plug into a Wireless Router. Each laptop (ignore my suggestion of luxury, you do this even if it's just one laptop) has a wireless card inserted (either internally or into the PC-Card slot). That's the extent of the change. It punches through a thin wall, it has trouble with two-foot-thick stonework. If you draw an imaginary line-of-sight between the laptop and the router, and there's no stone and few bricks and up to 40-50 feet, you'll get a signal.

You can do all that for under £100 easily. I'd try to do it for £40 if it were me.

abbey · Post by **abbey** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 12:24 pm

So, if i was to buy one, i'd need a router and a dongle?

Post by **spot** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 12:25 pm

abbey wrote: No, maybe i was being a little ambitious eh? :DThere's still ways - if a mum's-neighbour has a wireless router already, you might be allowed to tag onto it for free when you're round there, if they get on well enough. It's just a "may I" and if they say yes you'll be connected whenever you're there (if they've got their router turned on).

Post by **spot** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 12:27 pm

abbey wrote: So, if i was to buy one, i'd need a router and a dongle?Given the right choice for router and for dongle, yes. Most will talk to each other. They both need "wireless" in their name, and no mention of ADSL anywhere.

abbey · Post by **abbey** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 12:27 pm

spot wrote: There's still ways - if a mum's-neighbour has a wireless router already, you might be allowed to tag onto it for free when you're round there, if they get on well enough. It's just a "may I" and if they say yes you'll be connected whenever you're there (if they've got their router turned on). Unfortunately the majority of my old dears neighbours are old dears,

they probably think internet is a door curtain! :wah:

abbey · Post by **abbey** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 12:30 pm

BTW...Thanks for the prompt reply Spot, :-4

I'll have a peek on Amazon.

chonsigirl · Post by **chonsigirl** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 1:07 pm

Oh, I have a question.

We have DSL-my son bought a computer. And the hookup for a wireless connection for him, but we cannot complete installing the CD on my computer. Does anyone know why?

Post by **Bryn Mawr** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 3:36 am

chonsigirl wrote: Oh, I have a question.

We have DSL-my son bought a computer. And the hookup for a wireless connection for him, but we cannot complete installing the CD on my computer. Does anyone know why?

What happens when you try?

Post by **spot** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 3:48 am

Bryn Mawr wrote: What happens when you try?Nine times out of ten I get slapped, of course.

chonsigirl · Post by **chonsigirl** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 3:48 am

The CD downloads until the very end then a white blank screen appears.

Post by **spot** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 3:52 am

Chonsi, if you look on the boxes what model numbers appear for the DSL and for the wireless connection? What operating system is on the computer you're putting the CD into?

chonsigirl · Post by **chonsigirl** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 3:54 am

XP.

I have taken down the firewalls before installation.

I have DSL on a Westell, is it a modem?

The wireless system is NetGear, from Radio Shack. (my son got it)

When you reach the end of the installation, and it is rehooking up the internet to the main computer, it never finishes. And the net is not active.

Post by **spot** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 4:08 am

I can't get much from looking up the suppliers or makers, only from looking up the model numbers.

Presumably there's a box relating to the DSL and a box relating to the wireless - though they might be an all-in-one DSL wireless router. If I have the model number I can look it up and see what problems other people have had with it or them.

chonsigirl · Post by **chonsigirl** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 4:26 am

Thank you Diuretic and Spot. I will look for the DSL box, I have it here somewhere. And I will check out that link.

chonsigirl · Post by **chonsigirl** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 2:39 pm

The teens got the wireless up and running today-I don't know how they did it, but it works! My computer is mine again!:)

Post by **spot** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 8:46 pm

chonsigirl wrote: Thank you Diuretic and Spot. I will look for the DSL box, I have it here somewhere.Trans-Atlantic English has yet another minor rift, finding them is always fun. "Box" in England is the equipment itself rather than the packaging it arrived in.

I'm glad the children got it up and running. If they can't say how they did it it's not surprising, I can rarely work out how I do these things either.

Bez · Post by **Bez** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 5:42 am

Maybe somone can help me too.

I have a BT phone and Broadband connection using a 'Voyager 100' ADSL modem.

I bought a small laptop at Christmas and installed the 'dongle' thingy. Nobody round here has wireless internet so do I need to replace my current modem with a wireless one ??

chonsigirl · Post by **chonsigirl** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 5:49 am

spot wrote: Trans-Atlantic English has yet another minor rift, finding them is always fun. "Box" in England is the equipment itself rather than the packaging it arrived in.

I'm glad the children got it up and running. If they can't say how they did it it's not surprising, I can rarely work out how I do these things either.

Oh, I always learn something new! Here the box is the packaging around the equipment.

Bez · Post by **Bez** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 6:22 am

chonsigirl wrote: Oh, I always learn something new! Here the box is the packaging around the equipment.

I always refer to the packaging as 'the box'

chonsigirl · Post by **chonsigirl** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 6:25 am

Bez, I think all the kids did yesterday was hook up the wireless transmitor to the new computer, and it worked. (after they fixed whatever I botched up in the first place)

The wireless modem (or card, or whatever it is) was already built into the machine. You laptop is new, it probably already has it in it. See what the tech guys here have to say, they know so much more then clueless me about it.

Post by **Bryn Mawr** » Mon Aug 21, 2006 4:32 am

Bez wrote: Maybe somone can help me too.

I have a BT phone and Broadband connection using a 'Voyager 100' ADSL modem.

I bought a small laptop at Christmas and installed the 'dongle' thingy. Nobody round here has wireless internet so do I need to replace my current modem with a wireless one ??

Yes, you need to replace the ADSL Modem with a wireless router

Bez · Post by **Bez** » Mon Aug 21, 2006 6:05 am

Bryn Mawr wrote: Yes, you need to replace the ADSL Modem with a wireless router

Thanks Bryn...I've checked the BT website and I'll order from there so that I know everything's compatible.

abbey · Post by **abbey** » Sat Aug 26, 2006 5:01 pm

Bought a Lynsky netgear setup from PCworld.

It's been sat in its box for 5 days now, i havent a ruddy clue what wire goes where

The guy in the shop assured me "A child could do it!" :-2

Hey-HO...

Post by **spot** » Sat Aug 26, 2006 5:11 pm

What's the model, abbey?

abbey · Post by **abbey** » Sat Aug 26, 2006 5:27 pm

spot wrote: What's the model, abbey?Rangemax wireless router WPN824

It apparantly turns dead spots into hotspots!

Sorry, it's not Lynsky, just NetGear

Post by **spot** » Sun Aug 27, 2006 4:15 am

I'll assume that you've got the WPN824 and not the WPN824v2 (version 2 of the same box). If you look on the equipment label and find you're holding the Version 2 then tell me and I'll put up an alternative.

This paragraph is only true for DSL broadband and you're on NTL Cable so it's probably not true for you - "make sure you have at least your username and password from your existing broadband ISP, you'll need that to get the router to connect". Those are the same details that your computer already knows for it to be able to be recognised through your existing broadband modem, which you'll carry on using (but plugged into the router instead). In the case of NTL Cable, the equivalent instruction is to have the cable modem powered completely off before you start, so that when it re-starts it sees your new router instead of your computer.

This sort of router has a Wizard. Don't plug the router into the computer or into your broadband modem, just put the CD into the computer. If the Wizard doesn't appear, use Windows Explorer to find the autorun.exe file on the CD and double-click it.

Follow all the instructions from the Wizard and you'll be connected. Keep notes of what happens as you install it, so that you can tell us what happened if you have a problem - if you do, we can all talk you through it and get it finished right. If you do hit any problem, tell us the model of Cable modem you were supplied with as well. A lot of the difficulty of helping people is not knowing what they're equipped with.

abbey · Post by **abbey** » Mon Aug 28, 2006 12:21 pm

Spot HELP!!!!

I've followed all instructions, it gave me a blue cable to connect from the router

to the laptop, and i've plugged my ethernet cable from my modem into the router,

I've succesfully installed everything, but i'm not wireless!

I try to take the blue cable out of my laptop and lose connectivity????

So i now have the router sat next to me on the sofa. :-5

BTW it is version2

Post by **spot** » Mon Aug 28, 2006 12:41 pm

have you tried powering everything down, them turning the cable modem back on, then the router, then the laptop with the cable removed?

The laptop wireless needs configuring as well as the router - once the router is configured, you go on to telling the laptop wireless what to connect to

try the restart and find out whether you can at elast see the router from the laptop with the Wireless Connect Wizard, and keep talking here.

abbey · Post by **abbey** » Mon Aug 28, 2006 12:44 pm

spot wrote: have you tried powering everything down, them turning the cable modem back on, then the router, then the laptop with the cable removed?

The laptop wireless needs configuring as well as the router - once the router is configured, you go on to telling the laptop wireless what to connect to

try the restart and find out whether you can at elast see the router from the laptop with the Wireless Connect Wizard, and keep talking here.You know what?

I did'nt turn off my modem while i did it,

Should i turn it off and do it all over again?

Post by **spot** » Mon Aug 28, 2006 12:47 pm

I'd see what happens when you power it all up from scratch. Don't expect to connect without at least selecting your wireless router from the list of ones that the dongle can see, though.

abbey · Post by **abbey** » Mon Aug 28, 2006 1:01 pm

You really are my knight in shining armour Spot.

Thankyou so much X

chonsigirl · Post by **chonsigirl** » Mon Aug 28, 2006 1:36 pm

Oh, good luck abbey!

This computer stuff gets tricky!

abbey · Post by **abbey** » Mon Aug 28, 2006 1:40 pm

chonsigirl wrote: Oh, good luck abbey!

This computer stuff gets tricky!All done and dusted Bunny,

i can now come on FG and sit on the loo at the same time....

If i wish. :wah:

chonsigirl · Post by **chonsigirl** » Mon Aug 28, 2006 1:43 pm

:wah: It can go anywhere!