Wireless start up advice needed

monkeyspanner

I know there are loads of posts on wireless with great advice but I'm having trouble finding one that fits my situation. So if someone could point me to the right place that would be great or if you have time give me some first hand advice even better.

I am currently using a wired broadband 1meg connection from Wanadoo on my Dell desktop running xp sp2. This uses a Thomson Speedtouch 330 ADSL unit supplied by Wanadoo.

I have just taken delivery of a Dell Inspiron 1300 with Dell wireless 1370 802.11b/g Mini PCI card which my daughter wants to use wireless around the house.

My questions are these:

-Should I upgrade my Wanadoo package and take their wireless offering or would I be better off buying my own router? (any suggestions on what to buy would be appreciated).

-Is it possible to remain hard wired for my desktop and add wireless for the laptop and if I do this would my desktop files and online transactions be more secure?

-Or should I go wireless for both desktop and laptop and how best to do this?

Thanks in anticipation.

albertross_2

Netgear DG834G or GT (ebuyer.com, broadbandbuyer.co.uk etc..)

Yes and the router will make both more secure, provided that you setup WPA encryption for the wireless.

If you don't need to go wireless with the second PC (it is near a phone point), wired is better.

mikemoate

Review for Router mentioned above - also some good set up advice,

http://www.adslguide.org.uk/hardware/reviews/2004/q4/3com-g72.asp

Reviews of a lot of routers

http://www.adslguide.org.uk/reviews/