Need To Set Up A Wifi Connection


runescape=crap

Still Fresh
Joined
May 11, 2005
Messages
61
I am planning to get a xbox 360 but before then i need to have the equiptment required especially as i may use my other pc on it instead. I will have one pc with a usb modem doing internet via ICS.

I will have the other pc or 360 when it comes out eventually connected via this and using the ics to browse the net or for live!.

i want to if possible avoid a router all together because i am using ics (i know the pc will need to be on) and use some sort of adhoc network is possible.

What will i need to do this? any help is greatly appreciated as all i ever have set up is a basic wireless network.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I've bought two wifi routers recently, one made by Acer and one made by Netgear. (netgear was by far the best!).

Both came with a PCMCIA card and a USB Dongle. SO basically any Laptop/Desktop was covered (as long as you have an ethernet conection!).

They were both under £100. They were both very easy to set up (even in German!!!)

And surfing the net on the loo is a great experience. Probably explains most of the Crap I post here.... :D
 
Is it being used by your current internet connection ?.

EDIT: What sort of internet connection do you currently have, Eg cable, telephone broadband, dial-up ?.

Trooper
 
if you're going for cheapness and simplicity i'd recommend the root i've taken, usb wifi box. plug the usb cable into the computer and then put the box with its little antenna ontop of the pc.

its a breeze to configure a wireless connection using the built in stuff in windowsxp.

check dabs.com for cheap and reliable stuff.
 
Being honest, the BEST solution is to get a router. It's easy to set up, your internet will be on all the time, and your internal network will be protected by the router from DOS attacks and network propagating viruses.

I would recommend Netgear

Here’s a range of Routers on Ebuyer
They are as little as £30 and I would go for one of the 4 port ones.

If you wanted just to connect your PC directly to your Xbox, all you really need is a Crossover UTP cable, but that’s a single connection and you won’t have the flexibility of being able to add other computers/laptops to your network.

Can I stress again security, using a router is way more secure than having a pc directly connected to the internet. No matter how good your firewall software is, it will never be as good as having a NAT based router.
 
What broadband do you have? If it's over a BT line and isn't AOL, then the router can do everything for you - the PC doesn't need to do any dialling. I use a Linksys WAG54G Wireless-G ADSL Gateway, and connect the PC's/PocketPC/Printer/etc to it via Wifi. For security, I use the built in firewall, and NAT (Network Address Translation) the PCs, so they can't be accessed from the internet.
 
sam fisher posted on May 19 2005 at 07:53 AM said:
i will use a router then. Could some one list the things i will need and where i can buy them and what i need to do?

also the internet needs to be dialed by the pc.

I'm assuming here you use Broadband? If so, then no your PC doesn't need to dial the internet, the Modem/Router will be set up to connect to the internet directly. You usually setup the router via a web interface, entering in your user id and password for logging onto your ISP there.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
probably. Its wannadoo and it is calle dthe speed touch modem thingey. Is it possible to get a wireless router as my mate has one. the dialing program is speed touch dial up and i do have broadband, 512k. yepp your write. Does not seem to dial a numbeer. Just a user name and password. Damn name misleading me :lol:
 
sam fisher posted on May 19 2005 at 08:15 AM said:
probably. Its wannadoo and it is calle dthe speed touch modem thingey. Is it possible to get a wireless router as my mate has one. the dialing program is speed touch dial up and i do have broadband, 512k. yepp your write. Does not seem to dial a numbeer. Just a user name and password. Damn name misleading me :lol:

If you go for the wireless option, go for a router that has UTP ports as well as wireless.

Also you will need to make sure the wireless side of the router has good security, just using WEP is not a good idea, you need WEP and MAC address filtering, this will make sure you're pretty safe from other idiots connecting to your wireless LAN.

Netgear do a wireless version of their router I posted earlier, it also has 4 UTP ports on it too! I really do recomend this one, I set one of these up for a customer of mine last week and it really is a nice router! Good security, WIFI, UTP, DHCP server, NAT and port forwarding are some of its many features. And no I don't work for Netgears advertising department :lol:

Here's an interesting fact, a lot of people advertise their routers having NAT and a firewall, did you know that the firewall isn't really for protecting you from the outside world, the firewall is usually for setting up rules on the internal LAN. The NAT (Network Address Translation) is what actually protects you!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
WarmFluffyUK posted on May 19 2005 at 07:27 AM said:
sam fisher posted on May 19 2005 at 08:15 AM said:
probably. Its wannadoo and it is calle dthe speed touch modem thingey. Is it possible to get a wireless router as my mate has one. the dialing program is speed touch dial up and i do have broadband, 512k.  yepp your write. Does not seem to dial a numbeer. Just a user name and password. Damn name misleading me :lol:

If you go for the wireless option, go for a router that has UTP ports as well as wireless.

Also you will need to make sure the wireless side of the router has good security, just using WEP is not a good idea, you need WEP and MAC address filtering, this will make sure you're pretty safe from other idiots connecting to your wireless LAN.

Netgear do a wireless version of their router I posted earlier, it also has 4 UTP ports on it too! I really do recomend this one, I set one of these up for a customer of mine last week and it really is a nice router! Good security, WIFI, UTP, DHCP server, NAT and port forwarding are some of its many features. And no I don't work for Netgears advertising department :lol:

Here's an interesting fact, a lot of people advertise their routers having NAT and a firewall, did you know that the firewall isn't really for protecting you from the outside world, the firewall is usually for setting up rules on the internal LAN. The NAT (Network Address Translation) is what actually protects you!


Yep, that's my router too!

Warm, my instructions are all in German, can I ask you - does using mac filtering slow the network down? And is it easy to do.........? :blink:


edit just realised I can read the manual on that website in English!!!!! Ta
 
Last edited by a moderator:
lubidog posted on May 19 2005 at 09:58 AM said:
Yep, that's my router too!

Warm, my instructions are all in German, can I ask you - does using mac filtering slow the network down? And is it easy to do.........? :blink:

edit just realised I can read the manual on that website in English!!!!! Ta

A little note on Mac filtering with that router:

I'm assuming you're also using a WEP key as security, if so, you may find it impossible to add a new computer to wireless lan when Mac filtering is enabled. To add a new computer, first dissable mac filtering, connect the new machine to the wireless lan and enter the wep key, then you may enable the mac address filtering again. Oh and don't forget to add the new machines Mac address to the filter list on the router :lol: Quickest way to find this is by typing this into the run box CMD /K IPCONFIG /ALL for win95/98 machines type WINIPCFG .

TTFN,
Clare.

Edit,

Oh and no, mac address filtering doesn't slow your network down. What will slow down your LAN is if you did something mad like add a UTP Hub. Hubs only work at half duplex you see!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
WarmFluffyUK posted on May 19 2005 at 12:49 PM said:
lubidog posted on May 19 2005 at 09:58 AM said:
Yep, that's my router too!

Warm, my instructions are all in German, can I ask you - does using mac filtering slow the network down? And is it easy to do.........? :blink:

edit just realised I can read the manual on that website in English!!!!! Ta

A little note on Mac filtering with that router:

I'm assuming you're also using a WEP key as security, if so, you may find it impossible to add a new computer to wireless lan when Mac filtering is enabled. To add a new computer, first dissable mac filtering, connect the new machine to the wireless lan and enter the wep key, then you may enable the mac address filtering again. Oh and don't forget to add the new machines Mac address to the filter list on the router :lol: Quickest way to find this is by typing this into the run box CMD /K IPCONFIG /ALL for win95/98 machines type WINIPCFG .

TTFN,
Clare.

Edit,

Oh and no, mac address filtering doesn't slow your network down. What will slow down your LAN is if you did something mad like add a UTP Hub. Hubs only work at half duplex you see!


Thanks Warm, I'll have a fiddle later....

:eek:
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Back
Top