Port of Tilbury-Police Constable

[DAVE8999 0]

Hey computer type people!

My problem (amongst many too personal for this forum) is that my computer sits approximately 24ft away from my telephone point. I currently have a broadband modem connected to the computer, filter at the phone point and a long extendable cable betwixt the two.

I understand that this whole thing can be done by way of a wireless thingy, which will take away the need for the long cable.

The question - what do I need? What are the things to look for, what drawbacks are there? What benefits are there?

If it matters, the computer is quite modern, and I am on AOL broadband.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

David.

[Penbwlch 810]

Have a look for a wireless Broadband router. This will not only do away with the wire but give other advantages. A router enables you to network to other computers if you so wish, they use less computer system resources, and will have a hardware firewall built in.

[Old 'n' Sweaty 88]

Dave,

You can connect via a wireless network arrangement or bluetooth with fairly reasonably priced kit from PC World or the like.  You will get a sender unit for each device you want to connect and a receiver unit that plugs into the PC

You may need a wireless modem but I think you can just plug you existing one into the sender unit and use a USB port for the receiver in the PC.

Hope this helps.

 

[Stan Still 1]

Check before you buy that any router is compatible with AOL Broadband. If you are using AOL, I suspect you will have a BT line that works on ADSL, as opposed to whatever it is cable broadband uses.

Some routers don't work with ADSL, so check the box. Make sure you set up security on your computer, otherwise a) your bandwidth will be greatly reduced due to all the people sitting outside your house downloading music through your connection and you may find your own computer is being accessed by other unscrupulous hackers!

If you go for a Bluetooth solution, bear in mind that the connection speed is considerably slower than the 54g wireless connection or a cable connection.

If I were you, I would get a 54g wireless adaptor, which come in three forms. Either a built in PCI card for a desktop, a PCMCIA card for a laptop, or a USB adaptor for either.

If you plan to use your computer a long way away from the wireless router, you may need a range extender. As far as I know, Linksys are the only company that make one at present, but you need to have Linksys router for it to work.

Go here for more info, or put "Wireless Networking" into Google (Other search engines are available )

[Sobey-Harker 0]

Check before you buy that any router is compatible with AOL Broadband. If you are using AOL' date=' I suspect you will have a BT line that works on ADSL, as opposed to whatever it is cable broadband uses.
[/quote']

 

Just a little note, AOL charge for useage of wireless internet as they don't allow it as a seperate package for some daft reason. That's why a lot of routers don't work with them. So you may want to check whether or not your current subscription will allow you so you don't waste time and money