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A little networking help please?

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coastalbuck

coastalbuck

And this one belongs to the Reds!
    • Well, I've finally shamed the wife into ordering a high speed internet connection for the house. Now I've got to figure out how to link up my two desktops and two laptops to the new service when it's installed. I think the local company uses a cable hook-up. I probably want to go with wireless since the house isn't wired for anything other than tv and phone. Any and all help will be appreciated. Thanks in Advance.
     
    Ok basically you can go to a staples, circuit city, best buy, etc........and pick up a wireless G router. Then you need 2 PCI wireless cards for your desktops, and 2 PCMCIA wireless cards for your laptops.

    After that it's pretty much as simple as plugging everything in.
     
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    My main desktop has a PCI adapter which I assume I can plug into the cable box when it is set up. So I should just need a USB or cardbus adapter for the laptops, and a wireless card for the other desktop. Any types or brands to avoid.?
     
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    To be honest I have had the most luck with D-link lately. The linksys stuff has really gone down the crapper, so I would avoid it. Netgear makes some nice affordable stuff as well.

    And yes about your first question there. If the cable modem and wireless router will be sitting right near that computer, you can just run an ethernet cable from it to the wireless router, then you would only need wireless cards for the 2 laptops and the 1 desktop.
     
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    BrutusMaximus said:
    To be honest I have had the most luck with D-link lately. The linksys stuff has really gone down the crapper, so I would avoid it. Netgear makes some nice affordable stuff as well.
    Click to expand...

    I second this recommendation. I have a D-Link wireless router at home and have had no problems with it. Easy to set up also. My parents have a Linksys and they couldn't figure out how to get it set up so of course they had to hit me up next time I visited them.
     
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    Thanks Hawg, those do seem like good deals. I got the D-Link from office max for 19.99 after rebates. I needed it for Tuesday so the ISP guy can set up the network. I'll let everyone know how it went after it happens.
     
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    if you REALLY want to make it SIMPLE... buy the wireless hardware for the desktops that plug into a USB port instead of cards that need installed... and the wireless hardware that plugs into the side of the laptop... now that's simple...
     
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    Well, it's up, running and pretty fast. Now I've got to learn about encryption and firewalls and stuff. The installer said be careful if you have any college students living around you. As you might guess, there are many and very close to my house. Any pointers would be appreciated as usual.
     
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    Actually either just use security (requiring a password to be typed to connect to your wireless). Or you can restrict the logins by MAC address. I usually do the MAC address route, because that way only the MAC addresses that you specify can ever connect to your wireless.

    if you are not sure what a MAC address is, it is basically an address assigned to every piece of network hardware. To see the MAC address of your wireless card, you basically just go to start, run, type in cmd. Click OK.

    In the command prompt window, type in ipconfig /all

    Next to "physical address" you will see the MAC address of your card. You just enter that in your wireless router. Each router is a bit different, so I cant tell you exactly where this is, but the book should show you how to do it.
     
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