wi-fi at home

[knoppers]

there has been a few times that I needed wi-fi on my smartphone to download something. was woundering, can I add something to my home PC, so it is a wi-fi connection for my phone?

[delcecchi]

If you have internet on your home pc, there should be a wireless "router" between the pc and the internet modem. If all you have is dialup or something never mind.

If you have the pc plugged directly into the modem go buy a router.

[upnorth]

Not all broadband connections come with their own wireless router. But you can pick one up pretty reasonable at most electronics stores.

[delcecchi]

And if you don't have a router, you should get one. They offer an additional layer of protection due to the hardware firewall, among other benefits.

[bbfenatic]

Get like the NetGear 600n at wally world...only $69 and it has great range if you have a bigger house with a basement u need to use it in, we have 5 computers and 5 cell phones spread throughout our house and everyone has good access, used to have a cheap Dlink Router and it was pathetic for coverage and speed, love the new NetGear! Get a good one is my point...don't skimp.

[Whoaru99]

And be sure you set up good security, change the default router log in name, password, don't broadcast SSID, ensure WPA or WPA2 security in use, etc.

Plenty of moochers around that'll use your connection, and it all tracks back to you.

[upnorth]

Not to mention if they can access your network they can sniff it and capture packets.

There are some pretty sophisticated wireless sniffers, even free ones that will find WLANs that aren't broadcasting their SSID. That used to be a decent added layer of defense but not so much any more.

[knoppers]

thanks for the help, looks like I am going to wally world to get that router. I checked it out on there HSOforum, and it looks like a good one to get.

[hugonian1]

In our house we have Wi Fi set up and all have laptops.

If we want to add a desktop can that be hooked up to the Wi Fi to work effectively?

[upnorth]

Just buy a desktop with wirless card or you can add one. I have a desktop down the basement with USB wireless card in it.

[delcecchi]

In our house we have Wi Fi set up and all have laptops.

If we want to add a desktop can that be hooked up to the Wi Fi to work effectively?

You can hardwire it to the router if convenient using a standard ethernet cable, or many newer desktops come with wireless. Otherwise adding wireless is easy, but you have to open the case and plug the card in, unless you buy one of the USB wireless things.

That was a little incoherent, so to summarize. Answer is yes...

1. Computer might come with wireless

2. Use a cable between router and computer if physically convenient

3. Use a wireless unit that plugs on a USB port.

4. Add a wireless card to the computer. (they are cheap)

[hugonian1]

Thanks for the advice.

We live in a slab on grade house so running cable is very difficult.

It sounds like the USB port unit would be the easiest way to go.

I did a little googling and it looks like they are pretty inexpensive.

[delcecchi]

Thanks for the advice.

We live in a slab on grade house so running cable is very difficult.

It sounds like the USB port unit would be the easiest way to go.

I did a little googling and it looks like they are pretty inexpensive.

I only use cable since the desktop is in the same room with the modem and router. Putting a card in is easy too.

[Sandmannd]

You can hardwire it to the router if convenient using a standard ethernet cable

This is the preferred method for me. Wireless laptops are nice because you roam with them. But a wired connection is always faster and more stable. This is the way to go for a PC in my opinion.

[Moose]

I placed my router and wireless router in the computer room and hard wired my desktop to the non wireless router via a usb port on the back of my router and the usb port on the desktop. That way if your wireless router goes on the fritz you can still access the internet to figure it out. I also hardwired the 2nd desktop to the wireless router via ethenet cable.

[delcecchi]

You have two routers? I thought that was a bad idea. Unless one is configured as a switch and not a router.

[upnorth]

In the networking world, routers connect to routers all the time, it is how data gets from one point to another. PC a sends data to router a which in turn sends data to router b who then sends to the next router and so on.

Every line you see below are routers, starting with the router in my house.

C:\Users\Scott>tracert google.com

Tracing route to google.com [74.125.225.163]

over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 2 ms 2 ms 2 ms 192.168.0.1

2 * 41 ms 41 ms dlth-dsl-gw17.dlth.qwest.net [65.102.106.17]

3 40 ms 41 ms 41 ms dlth-agw1.inet.qwest.net [208.45.120.129]

4 41 ms 41 ms 41 ms dlth-agw2.inet.qwest.net [205.171.165.22]

5 41 ms 41 ms 41 ms dlt-core-02.inet.qwest.net [205.171.165.17]

6 * * * Request timed out.

7 56 ms 56 ms 79 ms chp-edge-02.inet.qwest.net [67.14.38.98]

8 56 ms 57 ms 56 ms 208.47.121.146

9 57 ms 58 ms 57 ms 209.85.254.120

10 58 ms 57 ms 57 ms 72.14.237.108

11 75 ms 75 ms 75 ms 209.85.241.22

12 75 ms 75 ms 74 ms 72.14.239.49

13 74 ms 74 ms 82 ms 216.239.46.145

14 76 ms 75 ms 75 ms 209.85.251.9

15 75 ms 75 ms 75 ms den03s05-in-f3.1e100.net [74.125.225.163]

Trace complete.

[delcecchi]

What I meant to say was that I recall reading that having series routers in your house could be a problem. Say I hooked up two of those n600 routers. One feeding the next one. Would that be a problem (since it appears the ip address of the output ports seems to be fixed)?

[upnorth]

Depends on what you are trying to accomplish Del.

[Sandmannd]

Like UpNorth says, it depends. I have a new dual band router. Then I have to older ones that I have programmed to be repeaters. I now take those and place around the home and have great access no matter where I go. Nice thing is this way I hard wired my Xbox's and Directv boxes to them for very fast streaming.

[Moose]

I have the router supplied by my internet service a netopia hooked in series to my net gear wireless router. Never really tried it without the netopia router. Can I use the wireless router as my primary and skip the router my internet service provider gave me?

[Whoaru99]

Maybe. Is the router from your ISP also the modem?

OTOH, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" is still pretty sound advice.

[delcecchi]

I presume the reason for having multiple routers is to have a large number of devices active at one time. I don't consider a router set up as a switch or access point to be a router anymore.

I am just trying to understand how the stuff works.

[Sandmannd]

I presume the reason for having multiple routers is to have a large number of devices active at one time. I don't consider a router set up as a switch or access point to be a router anymore.

I am just trying to understand how the stuff works.

Correct, once you set them as an access point it's not a router. Not sure why you would want multiple routers unless you want to setup multiple networks (like a guest network).

For the other question, I'm guessing what you have from your ISP is the Modem with a few ports built in but probably not wireless. Thus you plug in your wireless router.

[upnorth]

The average home router/wireless/switch can support at least 254 devices depending on how you setup things up. WIFI probably 25, switch without a second switch linked 4 and if you use one of the ports to full scale network switch of 48 ports obviously 48 more. All of one router and if you link more larger 48 port switches you have a pretty large network. And they would all be able to communicate with each other and access the Internet through a single router. Adding a 2nd router internally wouldn't allow you to segment traffic and with a firewall only allow certain device to talk to each other on certain ports. Or maybe the wireless sux on the ISP supplied device and you want something with better wireless you could add another router with a different IP subnet and run your wireless that way.