I was in exactly the same boat about a month ago after acquiring an Acer
notebook with wireless capability built in. I bought a Linksys Cable
Modem from Best Buy for $79.99, but it came with an $80 rebate so it was
essentially free - except for the sales tax. I also bought a cable
self-install kit, also from Best Buy, for $14.99 with a $15 rebate. I
had to outright purchase a Linksys Router which was on sale for $49.99.
All of this came with pretty complete instructions and the self-install
kit had a CD which walked me through the process. I did have to call
Linksys twice (there's a 800 number in the instructions) and made one
call to the cable company. The self-install kit came with a cable
"splitter" so I just unhooked the cable from the nearest TV set, inserted
the splitter and one of the two cables went back to the TV and the other
to the cable modem. The kit came with all the necessary cables. A deal
between Best Buy and the cable company gives me the connect at a monthly
rate of $19.95 per month for six months, then it reverts to the regular
rate of $42.95 per month. But I was able to drop the extra phone line I
had for the computer and also dropped the Internet Service Provider
subscription so, after six months, I'll be paying essentially what I did
before.
So, basically, the cable to your home connects to the modem, the modem
connects to the router and the router "talks" to your computer via the
wireless system operating, I believe, at 2.4 GHz - and it's all lickety
split fast.
It's my understanding that you can also put your desktop machine into the
wireless network with the addition of a wireless card installed in the
machine. I can't do this for my desktop as it runs Windows-95 which will
not support the network. I'll upgrade at some point.
It turned out to relatively simple and I cannot believe the speed of the
wireless cable system compared to my old dial-up phone connection. I
should have done this many years ago.
I don't mean to imply that Linksys is the only way to go, as there are
many companies that offer the equipment. I went for the Linksys because
of the Best Buy offers.
Goof Luck!
Lewis Emerson
On Wed, 26 Apr 2006 13:02:39 -0500 Loy Pressley <[log in to unmask]>
writes:
> I've recently acquired an IBM Thinkpad notebook with a Cisco
> wireless
> card and I would like to set up a wireless network here at my house.
> I
> know absolutely nothing about how to go about doing this. I would
> be
> very grateful for any guidance that could be offered. I need to
> know
> what kind of hardware I need to make it happen and how to go about
> hooking it up to get it to work.
>
> The IBM ThinkPad notebook has Windows 2000 as the operating system,
> runs
> at 1.3 GHz and has 512 Megs of RAM, and a 40 gig HD with 37 gig
> empty.
> It has the Cisco wireless card and also has two RJ-45 network
> connections and an internal modem.
>
> My desktop computer is a Dell L800r with WinXP which runs at 800
> MHz,
> 512 Megs of ram, and a bunch of empty hard disk space. It also has
> an
> internal modem and an empty RJ-45 lan connection.
>
> Having the capability for the laptop to access my internet
> connection
> over the wireless netowork is not a high priority. I live in a rural
>
> area and am restricted to a dial-up connection that runs, most of
> the
> time at 26,400; occasionally at 28,800 baud. I'm not sure that DSL
> or
> anything like it will ever be available here within my remaining
> lifetime. Verizon, our "local" phone company, doesn't seem very
> motivated to provide anything other than the world's worst phone
> lines.
>
> I would be very grateful for any guidance that could be offered. I
> need
> to know what kind of hardware I need to make this happen and how to
> go
> about hooking it up to get it to work.
>
> Thanks...
>
> Visit our website regularly for FAQs,
> articles, how-to's, tech tips and much more
> http://freepctech.com
>
>
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