Laptop network

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pickles

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• 26 Mar 2006

• #1

I'm planning to buy a laptop. One of the things I want to do with it is network it using a wireless network. I'm fairly confident I can sort this out but I'm not sure about internet access. What I want to do is access the net via my ISP's broadband cable modem when my desktop pc is off, ie without using internet connection sharing.

Is this possible, if it is how do you do it

 

Spark123

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• 26 Mar 2006

• #2

I am not sure what you mean by broadband cable modem?
My broadband is with AOL via the BT phoneline. I have a netgear dg834G (54Mbps) wifi ASDL firewall router which plugs directly to the broadband socket on the filter and connects itself to the internet when powered up. My desktop PC connects to one of the four ethernet sockets on the back of the router, my laptop can connect to the internet with just the router powered up using a wifi PCMCIA card (although most laptops now have wifi built in.)

 

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pickles

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• 26 Mar 2006

• #3

Hmm. It describes itself as a Motorola SB4100 Cable Modem. It's connected to the network card on my pc by a standard network cable and then to the cable point via another cable

 

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Softus

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• 26 Mar 2006

• #4

pickles - who is your broadband service provider?

If NTL, for example, then your cable modem should have an Ethernet port that you can use to connect to a wireless router.

If so, then just buy something like a WRT54g and connect to its upstream Ethernet port. Then you 'simply' follow the instructions to connect to it wirelessly from your laptop.

 

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pickles

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• 27 Mar 2006

• #5

Thank you for that Softus. I've had a look at a WRT54g and I think it will do the trick

 

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• 27 Mar 2006

• #6

pickles said:

Thank you for that Softus. I've had a look at a WRT54g and I think it will do the trick

Click to expand...

You're welcome. Don't forget to configure some kind of security on the WRT54g. It has a MAC address filter so that you can prevent connections from everything other than your desired client machines. This is often easier and better than relying on WEP/WPK etc.