Home wireless networking

[Avocet]

Hi All,

I'm pretty computer illiterate -but willing to have a go at anything!

I have a desktop PC 1.7GHz, 512MB RAM running Win 98. I also have an old laptop (P120 with 32MB RAM running W98). The laptop has a spare PCMCIA slot. The desktop has an ordinary 56k modem in it (can't get Broadband yet!).

I'd like to network the two wirelessly so that I can transfer big files and, more importantly, so that my wife can surf the 'net on the laptop while I work on the desktop. We don't want to "surf" at the same time -that would be far too slow! It's just that I work from home and she's on maternity leave at present so she gets bored out of her shed and wants to "surf" when I need the PC but not the internet connection. I've heard about DSL routers and things like that but don't know if I need one for what I want.

Could anyone tell me what I need? please?

[egomeister]

Not entirely sure what kit you would need to link the two computers wirelessly but it would definitely require both to be fitted with wireless network cards at a fair cost. Surely it would just be cheaper to buy a PCMCIA modem for the laptop?

www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=39523

Edit: Looking at the reviews for that particular model I wouldn't buy it! I'm sure similarly priced products are available from other places though.

>> Edited by egomeister on Saturday 4th October 08:36

[apeebles]

It's not much fun sharing a 56k modem connection!

Be prepared for some fun and games as Windows 98 was not the best machine for easily sharing a network connection. Fine for the client (Your laptop) but I would recommend that you go for a more upto date OS if you can. Windows XP or W2K. You can then easily use the ICS (Internet connection sharing) wizard to setup your desktop PC so that the laptop can connect.

[Avocet]

Thanks all,

I know sharing a 56k modem will be pretty lousy but I haven't got a chioce in the matter! As I said in the earlier post, most (if not all of the time) I will only need one or the other computer connected to the internet. Just one more question though,

What's a "wireless access point"? Looking in the shops there appears to be some sort of card with an arial on it that goes in the back of the PC and a PCMCIA card that goes in the laptop. I can understand what these do but I'm wondering what the "wireless access point" does. Do I need one? The house isn't very big...

[sybaseian]

Avocet said:

Thanks all, I know sharing a 56k modem will be pretty lousy but I haven't got a chioce in the matter! As I said in the earlier post, most (if not all of the time) I will only need one or the other computer connected to the internet. Just one more question though, What's a "wireless access point"? Looking in the shops there appears to be some sort of card with an arial on it that goes in the back of the PC and a PCMCIA card that goes in the laptop. I can understand what these do but I'm wondering what the "wireless access point" does. Do I need one? The house isn't very big...

The various devices for using wi-fi are as follows:

pcmcia wi-fi card for laptops
PCI wifi card for PCs
Wireless Access Point is only needed in an "infrastructure set-up"

the first two devices can be used without a wireless access point and is called ad-hoc set-up. I started off this way with two pcmcia cards - one in each laptop. I've now changed my wireless network from ad-hoc to infrastructure and have added the following:

ADSL Modem/Router/Firewall/Wireless Access Point - Netgear DG824M
3 x PCMCIA wireless cards (2 laptops and 1 Ipaq)
1 x PCI Ethernet card for PC hard wired to the DG824M via cat5 cable for admin

In ad-hoc set-up, the cards talk to each other directly, in infrastructure the cards only talk to the wireless access point and not each other directly.

The only problem with the wireless side of the network is the tendancy to fallover when moving anything over 300Mb files around, but I think that this will be fixed with a firmware update a some point.

The biggest problem I've had was installing a PCMCIA card in my old laptop running Linux - I had to downgrade the firmware in the card as the latest didn't work under Linux.

>> Edited by sybaseian on Sunday 5th October 10:01

[marlboro]

I've used Linksys kit for the last year and would recommend it. Easy to setup and works, but there is cheaper stuff out there now.

Try these guys....

www.ebuyer.com

[Avocet]

Thanks again everyone. In the end I decided I couldn't justify the outlay just yet so I went with the first suggestion and got a PCMCIA modem for the laptop. This is now set up and works fine. At some stage in the future I'll change operating systems and then maybe have a go at the wireless stuff.