internet question?

homealone_2

forgive my ignorance here but i have a standard computer in front room linked to wanadoo for internet (not sure if best deal but hey) and my husband is keen on buying me a lap top as i am disabled and sometimes unable to get out of bed. it sounds great but do i then connect to another provider or pay extra at wanadoo, how does running 2 computers at home work work out with internet????

skiddy2k

get a wirelessADSL router.. enables you to use the internet anywhere in the house. you dont need to get another provider or tell wanadoo anything... only expence is the one-off expence of the router... should be around £60 for a half-decent one... no other expences after that

peter_the_piper

Just make sure you arrange for encryption to be enabled to prevent other users piggybacking onto your internet connection.

scheming_gypsy

skiddy2k wrote:

get a wirelessADSL router.. enables you to use the internet anywhere in the house. you dont need to get another provider or tell wanadoo anything... only expence is the one-off expence of the router... should be around £60 for a half-decent one... no other expences after that

edited.........

timm_2

Are you on Broadband or dial up?

skiddy2k

timm wrote:

Are you on Broadband or dial up?

OMG!!! good point! forgot about that... people still use dialup!

tigermatt

If you are on Broadband then just get a Router as previously suggested - if wireless this allows you to use the laptop anywhere in the house but it needs a built-in wireless receiver or this has to be bought as an extra PCMCIA or USB device.

The router would replace the modem so then you can run both computers at the same time on the internet and you don't need to tell wanadoo anything. You can even get the two computers "talking" to each other over your network that the router will create so this will allow you to transfer files between computers.

Hope this helps

homealone_2

hi, yes i am on broadband but have never heard of a router, would this be something i could buy at pc world when buying the laptop???? and does it need fitting or something??

krishna

Yes you can buy a router at PC world, Amazon, broadbandbuyer, lots of places. Just make sure you buy one with built in modem. Manufacturers often do near identical ones in near identical packaging; one described as a "broadband router", which is usually used on cable connections, and one described as "broadband modem and router" or perhaps mentions "ADSL" in the name, which is what you want for connection with Wanadoo. And if you are buying from PC World, the staff don't always know the difference either!

It doesn't need fitting as such, it acts as a separate piece of equipment connected to your phone line. Usually you would also connect it with the special (Ethernet) cable provided to your desktop PC and then enable the wireless side of things to connect to your laptop (assuming you take the advice to get a wireless router, which I would strongly recommend. You don't want to have too many cables dangling around if you are sitting in bed.) Installing a router is only slightly more complicated than installing your ADSL modem and if you get stuck you can always put the ADSL modem back in place and get help from here. I did!

homealone_2

just wrote to wanadoo to see what they would suggest as i had a feeling they may offer something with a monthly charge and surprise surprise they did. apparently they suggest i upgrade to something called wireless and talk which will cost an additional £4 a month. what did surprise me though was they had a £17.99 package which included wireless. now i already pay £17.99 a month and know nothing about the plus factor. have written back and asked them just what exactly am i getting for my £17.99. either way looks like i am being ripped off. may as well switch to their plus package, it will cost no more than i am paying now and it should enable me to use laptop on the net as well as standard computer?? or have i missed a real major point here???? can someone let me know before i ring wanadoo and make a fool of myself?

scheming_gypsy

an ISP doesn't need to do anything to enable wireless on your broadband. The only thing they could be doing is leasing you a wireless router.

broadband is broadband and wireless is just the equipment you plug into your phone line / computer.