HELP!IF I HAVE BROADBAND AND THEN BUY A ROOTER CAN I GET WIRELESS?

[annaparkin]

Hi there! We are 3 girls who recently signed up for Virgin Broadband which involves one of us connecting our laptop to a modem via the ether cable. The problem is that we infact need wireless to enable us to all work on the internet at the same time. I spoke to Virgin and they said they do not set up or provide wireless but that if we just buy a rooter and plug the ether cable in to the rooter wireless will be available. My parents had an old rooter they used to use with aol so they gave this to us and when we plugged it in my laptop said it was connected to 'the parkins'(my family's name) but there was no connectivity. Do we need to do something to the rooter to allow us to use it now with virgin? Or do we need to buy our own new rooter? and if we do, will it be simple to set up?

Thanks so much!

Anna

[jjbtcp]

Dear Anna,

First thing I must say is that it's "Ethernet" not "Ether" and it's "Router" not "Rooter".


Indeed you will need a wireless Router. The most likely reason you can't connect to the "old" router is that it's on a different channel to your laptop's wireless card.
You will need to buy a wireless router to match your laptop. Most recent computer's have G or B channels. I'm not exactly sure how to find out what channel you computer is. Most likely it will be included in the documentation that came with your laptop.


Router's are simple to set up, you must first set your modem into "bridge mode".
Your best bet would probably be to ring the manufacturer of your modem and ask them how to put it in bridge mode. Then ring your Router's manufacturer and ask how to set it up. Since you are inexperienced in computer's (well with routers etc) It would probably be hard for you to understand if someone walked you through it on here, would take a long time.



Sorry this probably isn't much help, wait for someone else to reply as they might know more than me.

[The Saviour]

A good place to start:  Setting Up a Home Network

Let me know it that helped...please keep us posted...