Some help setting up my wireless.

TheFORCE

Ive just recently moved and i dont have dsl or cable connected. That means i have no "traditional" internet access. At this point im using the wireless modem on the PDA via its USB connection to get online, it connect to about 230kbps. Tomorrow im expecting my laptop to arrive and ive already have the wireless router.

The question: Can i get that laptop on the internet? If i connect an ethernet cable into my main pc and the other end to the wireless router will this setup get the laptop online? how will i go about setting up the wirless?

royal

To get your Wi-Fi configured on your Wireless Access Point (WAP), I would consult your manual. First off, what WAP are you using? Linksys, Netgear, D-Link, etc...? Usually the method of installing a WAP for Wi-Fi, is to do the following:

1. Log in to the WAP - usually http://192.168.1.1 or http://192.168.0.1 depending on the WAP. The default username/password combo varies. Try admin/admin or admin/password.
2. Configure your Wireless Mode for the type of Wireless you will be using. A/B/N/G/Mixed/Etc...
3. Configure Wireless broadcasting if you want. I typically leave this on.
4. You then set up a security mode/encryption. I always use WPA2 AES. This will require a personal key.

That's all you really need to configure at bare minimum. There are other things such as what channel, MAC filtering, etc... It's not really necessary to configure these but you can if you want. Wireless MAC filtering will limit what computers can connect to your WAP even though someone can spoof your MAC and get access anyways. Same goes for broadcasting. Someone can just use a wireless sniffer and find your WAP anyways.

If you are using Windows XP and decide to use WPA2, you'll need to download a patch to add support:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=662BB74D-E7C1-48D6-95EE-1459234F4483&displaylang=en

To configure your workstation, you can just go into the software that gets installed with your Wireless drivers. I always hate using that software so I always just extract the drivers and install the drivers manually. With Windows XP, if you turn on the Wireless Zero Configuration service then it'll use the Windows built-in wireless auto configuration which I like a lot more than the Linksys wireless software.

As a side note, if you have a smart phone that has internet access, you can install something called PDANet on your computer which will allow you to share your smartphone's internet access with your laptop when you are not near a WAP. I've definitely found it useful.

Hope this helps.

BeaverC32

Not much to add to what royal stated...

If you went with a linksys router, their product includes an installation CD that will tell you step by step how to install your wireless router/internet connection. Also, I prefer to disable SSID broadcasting, just to prevent your network ID from going out to nosy neighbors (especially useful if you live in an apartment).

TheFORCE

I have the Linksys WRT54GL. thanks for your fast reply i will try what you said tomorrow when the laptop arrives.