Wifi ?
- Thread starter rich p
- Start date
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rich p said:
Rich, yep thats pretty much it from another technophobe. I went with the BT broadband 2 option and seem to recall that I just had to tell my PC the WAN code (I think that is what it was called) which was on the back of my wireless router and hey presto.
Aperitif
Meme bar
- Location
- ...I don't have much idea - really.
Make sure you have the cat's whisker pointing in the right direction rich - as for the ferrite rod...
wifi is at work at the moment - it means I get called less
ouch!
Back to work
wifi is at work at the moment - it means I get called less
ouch!Back to work
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
If it is a new laptop it will almost certainly have the wireless hardware built in. A Dell I bought about 4 years ago didn't and needed a wireless network card.rich p said:
Make sure that you get the right type of wifi router. If you want it to work on a normal telephone line, you need the ADSL type. If you are going to connect it to a Virgin Media (former NTL) cable box, you need a Cable type (surprisingly!).
Some wifi routers are better at the wifi job than others. If it is a small house and there aren't too many walls for the signal to go through it might not be too critical. If you have a large house, you might need quite a beefy signal to get decent performance at a distance (for example at the far end of a big garden). If the router has a detachable aerial (some do, some don't) you should be able to replace it with a bigger one if you need to. Normally you wouldn't need to bother.
Take a look at somewhere like eBuyer.com. They have a wide range of stock and some good prices. Remember to read the customer reviews. Pick something that has a large number of good reviews and you should be okay.
Make sure to secure your connection properly. You don't want people to be able to nick your bandwidth, capture your passwords flying across the airwaves, and you definitely don't want someone sitting in a car outside your house to be able to download child porn using your wifi connection
!! WPA is what you want to use NOT WEP (the latter can be hacked very easily. Make sure that you use a nice long and impossible to guess encryption key.
Like FFFF I have the BT Broadband. I would add that my broadband only works in certain rooms of the house (okay in all rooms except the kitchen. Haven't tried it in the bathroom or the pool yet . So I'm not sure if it's the router (BT standard issue) or the laptop that's at fault. It will actually work in all rooms but only if I boot it up alongside the router first. So possible quirk that applies to mine - my house is quite big and may need a booster or a better router.
. So I'm not sure if it's the router (BT standard issue) or the laptop that's at fault. It will actually work in all rooms but only if I boot it up alongside the router first. So possible quirk that applies to mine - my house is quite big and may need a booster or a better router.
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
Chris - my brother-in-law bought one of these and found it made a big difference to his wifi signal strength. As I mentioned above though - not all routers have detachable aerials (I'm not sure if all the ones that do also have compatible plugs/sockets either).ChrisKH said:Like FFFF I have the BT Broadband. I would add that my broadband only works in certain rooms of the house (okay in all rooms except the kitchen. Haven't tried it in the bathroom or the pool yet
The BT router I used to use would have been okay but it popped its clogs a few weeks back so I'm back to using my old wired router until I get a replacement.
fossyant
Ride It Like You Stole It!
- Location
- South Manchester
Just read the easy set up to secure it - it will show you how to do it !!
Easy !!! Honest. I've got a standard issue Netgear one - the white one that just about all ISP's give away - it's good and has a good signal. Got two PC's hard wired in, and laptop, PSP Wifi'ed and 2 x DS's shortly.
Easy !!! Honest. I've got a standard issue Netgear one - the white one that just about all ISP's give away - it's good and has a good signal. Got two PC's hard wired in, and laptop, PSP Wifi'ed and 2 x DS's shortly.
barq
Senior Member
- Location
- Birmingham, UK
If you have any choice, try to locate the router upstairs as you'll get better coverage. If the router has rotatable (is that a word?) external aerials, or can be stood up vertically rather than laid down, you might want to try out different orientations which can affect the signal in your house. That said, these are tips for if you have a problem - most routers will cover a house fairly well.
The router will come with instructions for setting up the security features. WPA is preferable to WEP, but either is better than nothing. Usually it consists of entering the same password into the router and each computer connects. Don't use an obvious password.
The router will come with instructions for setting up the security features. WPA is preferable to WEP, but either is better than nothing. Usually it consists of entering the same password into the router and each computer connects. Don't use an obvious password.
ChrisKH said:Like FFFF I have the BT Broadband. I would add that my broadband only works in certain rooms of the house (okay in all rooms except the kitchen. Haven't tried it in the bathroom or the pool yet
I have BT which I use with some very hold computers (leftovers when school ones were replaced) and belkin usbs no need to put network card in then. Works a treat the trick is to set it up first time very close to router then you shouldn't have too many difficulties.
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
Well, you asked... WPArich p said:incidentally, how do I secure the connection with WPA and what is it?
.Blimey, talk about 'hot-off-the-press' - I just spotted this article from 5 days ago - that could put the cat amongst the pigeons! Looks like we might all have to switch to WPA2 eventually.
ColinJ said:Well, you asked... WPA
Blimey, talk about 'hot-off-the-press' - I just spotted this article from 5 days ago - that could put the cat amongst the pigeons! Looks like we might all have to switch to WPA2 eventually.
I presume if you only do secure stuff like banking on the main pc then you're safe. I'm not bothered if anyone wants to hack into my holiday snaps.
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
No, but as I hinted at above - do you really want to risk having the police knocking on your door with a warrant to confiscate your computers, search your house and arrest you on suspicion of downloading/uploading child pornography?rich p said:
If I was going to something really dodgy online, I wouldn't use my own internet account to do it! I've been able to detect insecure wifi signals from across the street so I know that it would be possible for someone outside to hack into the neighbour's system. If some cyber low-life hacks into your insecure connection it might be his holiday snaps you have to worry about
!It only takes a few seconds to set the security settings properly (once you've spent 12 hours trying to work out what the router manual is telling you to do
).
fossyant
Ride It Like You Stole It!
- Location
- South Manchester
Erm. if you make your own passcode up, with lots of numbers and letters that you remember some of then it's harder to crack, and at least you can put a few characters of it in as you look for where the hell you put the code - I can't remember mine....
