Broadband

HUFCsteve

About to receive broadband through the Post Office. However, I understand that the wired router/modem they provide will only allow me to connect one PC (we have 2 PCs in our house). Dumb question but BT tried to sign me up previously and sent me a wired router/modem that seems to support more than one PC connection. Could I use the BT router/modem instead?!? I don't want to go wireless by the way! Grateful for any advice - thanks in advance!!!

TiTheRev

Wireless would be the obvious way around this (and you can make sure the connection is password encrypted if you are worried about security), but you should be able to connect more than one PC to a router, most have more than one port, but if not then any other router will suffice, it makes no odds.

PaulK_3

Are you sure you are getting a router to start with as one package only has the modem. The other package has the wireless router in it, from what I can see its a netgear so it should have more than one port on it.

fwor

Beware if the BT modem has only one USB and one Ethernet port.

As I found out the hard way, that type will often only support one or the other, and if you try to use both at the same time it won't work properly...

HUFCsteve

Blimey. I didn't think it was so complicated! I don't think wirelesss would work that well in our house so thought wired was the way to go. Will check out what the Post Office are sending us and also check what BT have sent us. Otherwise, what equipment should I be buying if I wanted to attach 2+ PCs to a wired modem/router?!?

bigkevgray

If you can change the settings of the router yes but the chances are BT will have password protected it to prevent it's settings being changed so it cant be used on other networks.

If you have sky tv you should sign up to there broadband you will get it free and you'll get a free Wireless Router that will take 2 physically connected computers. I've had sky broadband for a few months now and it's been great.

If your BT router cant be used and you dont switch to another supplier you can purchase an ADSL router. ebuyer and dabs are a good place to look.

You could also setup "Internet Connection Sharing" within windows. I've never used this and the big downside to it is the PC that is connected to the broadband needs to be up and running to get a connection to the internet from the other PC.

Why dont you want to use wireless? Modern wireless routers and cards are very secure, the only real downside is for internet gaming as response times can be a little higher causing games to be a bit jerky.



Cheers,

Kevin - www.bewareofwimpey.com

HUFCsteve

I guess I thought that wired would give better performance than wireless but from the sounds of it, wireless seems a better option. I was also lazily thinking that wired would be more difficult to set up. Do I need to buy dongles, etc as our PCs are a few years old. Does wireless interfere with other devices? i.e. Sky+, phones, etc...

bigkevgray

Hi HUFC,

Wireless wont interfere with anything in your home, my wireless router sits on top of my sky plus box. I've got my PC, Laptop, Printer/Scanner, PS3 & Work Laptop all connected wireless and never had a problem with any of them. If your PC doesn't already have a wireless card in it then yes you would have to get one, there are a couple of option for how they are fitted you can get a PCI adapter which plugs into your PC's motherboard or you can get a USB adapter which is by far the easiest to fit as it plugs into one of your USB ports.

If you have spare USB ports on your computer I would stick with USB. Preferably in the back of your computer as they stick out a bit and can be easily broken off. You can get these for £15.

If you keep the wireless router next to one of your computers you can connect it using a network cable and the other computer wireless. Does your PC have an network port in it aka ethernet port?

Cheers,

Kevin - www.bewareofwimpey.com