Don't know much about this, as previously mentioned, but I've been offered by a housemate, half my monthly fee, to join in on the broadband. First of all this necesitates a move to wireless broadband, so might be able to jointly buy the Netgear DG834G which I understand is one of the best. I just wonder how that will work, as two of my housemates would like to use their laptops with it, and me with my desktop PC. First of all, do these routers allow people to access other people's PCs that are also connected to the router? I personally don't fancy even a trusted housemate snooping around my PC while I'm unaware. Or does this "sharing" merely extend to use of the broadband connection alone?

Also, what should I check the laptops involved have? I have an ethernet card already, old one though, but not convinced either of the two laptops will have one. Does the Netgear DG834G come with "all the bits" needed, and if so in what quantity (bearing in mind three PCs might be wanting to connect)

Thanks (again) in advance!

Hiya, nothing to do with your wireless network thingymijig but did you like the way we turned your conversation about cruzing last night into somethign completly different for loads of pages???!!!:P

Lorna

Wireless is the best way to share a con J.

I have cable modem, then into a wireless router (D-Link DI-714P...has its own print server too) off of which my PC is wired to a network card. Eldest daughter is upstairs, using a PCI wireless card which accesses the router by my computer. She does not need or have a network in her pc.

When the youngest gets her own pc, she will also be wirelessly connected, whether its desktop and pci card, or laptop and pcmcia card.

HTH.

You'll need wireless cards for all the laptops (unless they already have built in wireless) - try for Netgear ones as sometimes different brands don't talk too well to each other.

I'm no expert, but I'm sure you can simply set up wireless internet without having to share files and folders across a network.

Or at least I managed to connect to the internet wirelessly weeks before I got connected to my home network

You would need a wireless LAN card for each laptop , and you could just put the router close to your PC and then use a wired network connection to your machine so it won't cost you much extra.

As for access to your PC , just because your machines are all accessing the net via the router doesn't mean that you have to enable file sharing on the various PCs to let you get at each others data easily.

Of course once they are all on the same router they aren't 100% secure from each other but your average home user isn't going to know how to get through the security and it would be much easier just to walk into your room while you are out

J,

you can do a couple of things:

1) use the ADSL Router completely wireless.. i.e you both have wireless LAN PCI Adapters in your pc/laptop

2) you connect to the ADSL Router via ethernet, enable the wireless function with encrpytion and your mate connect via LAN adpater after you give him the keycode.

I just wonder how that will work, as two of my housemates would like to use their laptops with it, and me with my desktop PC. First of all, do these routers allow people to access other people's PCs that are also connected to the router?

All the network traffic is routed through the router - so you will be able to set up a "home" network. However, if you disable file and print sharing (it's been while since I used Win98, but I think it's disabled by default) then people won't be able to access your files and that, so you should be safe.

If they're running Windows 2000/XP and haven't disabled certain things, there is a default way to gain access if you know the username/password for the machine...

Also, what should I check the laptops involved have? I have an ethernet card already, old one though, but not convinced either of the two laptops will have one.

They'll either need an ethernet port if they're happy to connect using a cable, or wireless devices (either PCMCIA or USB) if they want to connect wirelessly.

Does the Netgear DG834G come with "all the bits" needed, and if so in what quantity (bearing in mind three PCs might be wanting to connect)

No, it'll just be the router - this has a wireless aerial, and 4 ethernet ports on it. You'll then need either a USB/PCI card for every computer which wants to connect wirelessly, and a USB/PCMCIA device for every laptop which wants to connect wirelessly. You can connect up to 4 machines to the router using cables if you have ethernet ports on them...

Rob.

If they're running Windows 2000/XP and haven't disabled certain things' date=' there is a default way to gain access if you know the username/password for the machine...

[/quote']

Administrative shares are hardly a big secret , and if you have valid usernames and passwords or physical access to the machine for ten minutes then no data is secure.

Administrative shares are hardly a big secret

Did I claim they were? Was just making sure Jason was aware of this in case any of the machines were connecting were W2K/XP...

Rob.

Did I claim they were? Was just making sure Jason was aware of this in case any of the machines were connecting were W2K/XP...

Rob.

I think the two laptops will both be XP - I know one is for sure, not seen the other. So, in other words it sounds like my PC will be OK to take wireless, using the ethernet card instead of the USB like now. But it sounds like both laptops (which I suspect are not the most modern machines) will both need LAN cards. I was hoping the router would come with at least two "receivers" for wireless though, or is that another thing that needs to be bought alongside the Modem/Router setup?

Did I claim they were? Was just making sure Jason was aware of this in case any of the machines were connecting were W2K/XP...

Rob.

I was agreeing with you

I think the two laptops will both be XP - I know one is for sure, not seen the other. So, in other words it sounds like my PC will be OK to take wireless, using the ethernet card instead of the USB like now. But it sounds like both laptops (which I suspect are not the most modern machines) will both need LAN cards. I was hoping the router would come with at least two "receivers" for wireless though, or is that another thing that needs to be bought alongside the Modem/Router setup?

All you need is:

1) the ADSL Router......DG834G should come with an ethernet cable and a microfilter. I assume your pc has an ethernet port?

2) 2 x wireless LAN adapters for the laptops.

I'm running a SMC7804 ADSL Router..connected to my pc via ethernet. SWMBO's laptop has a wireless LAN adpater (PMCIA card). Wireless is enabled along with WEP encryption...I also have ESSID broadcase enabled as I don't get strong signal strength with it disabled....should be ok with the encryption on though.

I was agreeing with you

Ah, right...got the wrong end of the stick...

Jas - you won't be able to use your ethernet card for wireless, but you'll be able to use it to connect to the wireless router using a cable. Probably worth having one computer connected to it by wire anyway, it makes administerng the wireless settings easier...

They don't usually bother packaging wireless devices in with the router these days, as people generally want a mix of PCI/PCMCIA/USB, so there's no effective way of doing it.

Rob.

I went out and bought three actiontec wireless adapters (usb) and that works a treat but then with myself my son and daughter on here I don't have to worry too much about them getting into my files!

the only thing that slows it down is when they both get on to MS messenger :eek:

I went out and bought three actiontec wireless adapters (usb) and that works a treat but then with myself my son and daughter on here I don't have to worry too much about them getting into my files!

the only thing that slows it down is when they both get on to MS messenger :eek:

MSN messenger!! But i am on here more than messenger! How sad??? :eek:

Me still connecting to the router with a cable kind of makes the whole move silly, as I use a cable from my modem to connect to the filter downstairs now. :( I think might look into someway I can make my PC here wireless too, time in admin is of little need, as I don't plan to do any. Hope something wireless can plug into a USB port of mine, the same the current modem does?

Hope something wireless can plug into a USB port of mine, the same the current modem does?

Hi,

I know very little about all this wireless stuff, but wonder if this is the item you are maybe looking for (well, the USB part of the package anyway...)

Click me

Hope something wireless can plug into a USB port of mine, the same the current modem does?

Yeah, that's an option...we were just trying to save you a few quid...

Rob.

or try this

http://www.dooyoo.co.uk/network-devices/actiontec-usb-802-11b-wireless-adapter/prices/

When the machines are connected to the network via wireless, they are on the same network segment. As such they are not shielded from each other.

You can turn part of the windows firewall on in addition to protect against file sharing, disabling it will also help for sure.

On the wireless side of things, make sure you use the MAC address based filtering as that will prevent others from attempting to connect to your wireless sharing

Use some form on encryption, WEP is fine for that job if that's all you wanna do - keep it pretty simple but enable it as it will make it all a little safer to use, generally

Remember that when you're sharing a connection like this you may wish to make some guidelines to avoid a lot of P2P going on concurrently as the wireless side of that will make it less than reliable in my experience.

Definitely also - as soon as you have the router connected, upgrade to the latest released stable firmware for it. Often it will fix stability issues