Help with modems and connecting wirelessly.

[katyorr]

My Dad recently had me do a favor for him. He has one computer that connects to the internet through a cable modem. Computer A - an iMac from 2007.

He wants to also take his old PC and get internet on that as well. Computer B - A compaq PC that is at least 5 years old and runs Windows XP.

We have Comcast, and they were happy to send a router to us (a Netgear model that was a breeze to install). I installed the router with the cable model (Cisco 2100) on Computer A.

It is safe to say that computer B should be able to detect a wireless connection from the router, yes?

This is were my problem lies. Computer B doesn't detect it, and I'm beginning to wonder if the internal modem has wireless capabilities. It's running on Windows XP and the computer it at least 5 years old. It doesn't even say anything in setting up an internet connection about wireless.

I thought it would be a good idea to then hook the router and cable modem up to Computer B and let Computer A work off the wireless signal. He doesn't want to do this because our cable feeds from under the house and would require him to go in the crawl space, hook up a new connection, drill a hole and feed the cable through.

So then I thought, I could just upgrade the modem in his computer to a newer model. This is where I end up confused.

If I purchase just a regular modem, and hook it up to his computer via ethernet, will that modem detect the wireless connection? Can a regular cable modem detect wireless at all? My mac can detect wireless signals without being hooked up to the cable modem, which shows me that it's connection to wireless signals is because of it's intern modem, not the cable modem.  Am I correct in this train of thought?

Im afraid of spending money on something and having it not work. And how would I upgrade an internal modem? I keep searching online for modems but they're all external modems!

Basically the only two options I have is for him to go under the house, feed another cable through and run the router off of Computer B, which is the scenario I favor. OR, I can replace the modem so that we don't have to change the router situation, which is what he favors.

These are the only options, he wont budge on any other solutions.

Any help?

[jason2074]

I'm just wondering when you said that your old PC can detect wireless connection and i read you said yes. But it seems now it doesn't... It may be a sortware or hardware issue. First your internal modem(built-in?) or network set-up. Is your Win xp OS still working properly from your compaq PC? You may want to look also at your network connections thru my network places by clicking My Computer icon. And your device manager for your driver signing.

[Sodde]

There's a kind of muddled feeling to your explanation ot the issue you've encountered and so lets try to clarify the situation.
Can you tell us whether the PCs are desktops or laptops?
It appears that via comcast, you now have a wireless router set up with cable internet access, but what we havent really established is whether pc 'B' contains a wireless LAN adaptor. That part is the key.
If it does have a wireless adaptor then we can diagnose from there, if it doesn't have, then there's your answer but I need to know that before progressing down that road.
If you want to 'wire' 'B' to the wireless router, you would use the LAN socket on the PC and a CAT5 cable to connect and not a 'modem'. You are basically setting up a 'simple wireless network'.
I think your confusion comes from this and you might want to replace 'modem' with 'wireless adaptor'.
You can buy wireless adaptors for desktops and laptops pretty cheaply and really there's no reason why your simple wireless network wouldn't work.
You might also want to make sure that the XP machine is upgraded to SP3 as the wireless configuration is much easier.