Want to go wireless please

So i just bought a new dell computer.. Dell Inspiron 6000 with Intel® Celeron® M 360(1.40GHz 1MB L2 cache 400MHz FSB)& up to 128MB shared graphics memory processor.. first of all is this wireles.. i presume it is anyways?

So the main question is.. I wanna go wireles..
My flatmate in the house already have a broadband connection from tesco.

So I was wondering do I just buy a router.. I hear linksys wireless G is good.. is that right??

And then if she agrees I can pug her broadband connection into it.. and hey presto.. is that right?

Or am i missing something.. obviously im a bit clueless.. so some help would be great.

Secondly this router has 4 ports is that right? is there any with more than 4 ports.. for quite cheap too

thanking you all

 

Hi sinbyrne, I have a dell laptop and I also have the Linksys wireless router. It does work pretty good, you are right on the 4 port ethernet on the router. If you plug that router into your modem and do the setup (which might be hard) on it you will have wireless internet on your computer. Depends what card is in your computer to. Most are b/g cards. I advise you, you have to know what you are doing in the set up, you have to know your IP address and the subnet mask and the gateway, etc. (That is on the Linksys Router at least)

 

Wireless routers come with 4 Ethernet ports. I can't imagine you'd need more though, you have 4 PCs sitting around? If so, buy a hub to plug into the router. As for brands, I prefer Netgear, their quality and support is solid. You will want to put a password on the wireless router, but it's really not that hard to set up.

 

I agree, I've had great results with Netgear, alot easier to set up and imo, much more stable than Linksys routers.

 

Great thanks for that guys,
So the next question is netgear.. what is the model name for that ...is it as cheap as linksys.. which i believe is about £45.

Also does any broadband network work.. or do you need a really good one..

thanks for ye're help

 

I would go with the Netgear WGR614, it's a great router and very simple to setup. It should be as cheap if not cheaper than linksys, at least it is here. You can just shop around to find the best deal and any specials going. I'm not familiar with overseas price rates but there are a couple people here that are and can say for sure. Good luck

 

Also I live in a house with 6 other people.. who are all considering getting wireless lapstops too.. will we all be able to use it.. or beacuse there are only 4 ports.. does that mean only four people can use...

Just to confirm once i have this wireless network card in my laptop i don't need any other hardware or wires etc other than the router..

On ebay they mentioned it must be a ethernet connection .. what does that mean... we have broadband internet.. is that the same??

thanks again

 

If you have a modem you need an ethernet cable, if you plug your computer into a phone line in the wall then no, unless you want people to be plugged into the router...
About the 6 people, It depends what kind of internet you have. I have comcast and you can only have 5 computers on the internet at the same time. It really depends on your service to. Call or go online and see how many computers you can have on your network. You might have to pay more. Your other friends can be wireless also if they have a wireless card in there computer. But it all around depends on your service. I know on aol dialup you can only 1 computer on unless you pay more. Let me now if you can

NS

 

To know knowledge, you should be able to connect those computers to your wi-fi but the more that connect all at once, the more your perfomance will go down. I connect multiple pcs to my router and have no trouble with my ISP. Ethernet connection just refers to 100baseT or 100Mbps and is the connection type for modem to router and router to pc when wired.

Broadband is term used to describe high speed internet service. Setup should be straightforward and simple with the Netgear router. Inital setup will require you connect one of your notebooks to the router via ethernet cable to enable the wireless radio which is disabled by default. Other than that you shouldn't encounter any problems.

 

ok ive just bought the netgear as suggested by ye off ebay... for 23 pounds

I haven't actually recieved it yet, but have read about more about it since, and realise that the different versions make a big difference. Is this right?


if mine is the first version.. is there a good chance it won't work.. should I cut my losses and just go out a buy a different one..

thanks

 

All the versions should work just as well, with firmware updates they will mostly be identical. What version did you end up purchasing?

 

Im not sure i haven't recieved it yet?
SO do i need to download the firmware updates..
I'm a bit clueless is firmward software that I need on my laptop..

 

Youll get the firmware from Netgear, you go into router setup page, check the version currently installed and them compare with the current one on Netgears Support page. If you need an update, youll go into the Router Upgrade page in the router setup, select the file you downloaded and update it. You can check out my Sticky for Wi-Fi part two, it has pictures of the different setup pages with what options are there. Should be the same for yours even though its not US. It's a pretty straightforward process and just takes a few moments to download the file and upgrade the router.

 

thanks for that

 

You're welcome