We’d like to remind Forumites to please avoid political debate on the Forum.

This is to keep it a safe and useful space for MoneySaving discussions. Threads that are – or become – political in nature may be removed in line with the Forum’s rules. Thank you for your understanding.

📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!

adding wireless to a pc and laptop

Before I start I am rather stupid when it comes to computers and changing things so please bear with me, in fact im very stupid .

Right I have a family pc, I am on virgin media broadband to access the internet on cable, the wire comes in from outside and connects to the back of my pc, i see somewhere its an ethernet cable (if thats right),
My daughter has a school laptop that is wireless and she can not use it, we can not get internet on it, I have been told I need to change this main pc to wireless and her laptop should pick up the signal and work like magic, How to do it is completly beyond me, so anyone that knows that has the next week to explain it to me in idiot terms would be most helpful, I was also told that if i go out and buy a very long ethernet cable i can connect it to the back of my modem and that should also work, but pricing them up yesterday it was £40 for a 15mtr one and to be honest i really dont want a huge blue wire running round the house and up the stairs.

Any help would be brilliant, i dont even know where to start changing settings or if i have to ring virgin and ask for wireless.

thanks in advance.
Jayne

Comments

  • You need a Wireless Router which will enable your daughter to use her laptop all over the house, while you can still retain your Ethernet Connection but instead of connecting into the Modem you would connect the Modem to the router and then your PC into one of the other ports.

    If you ring Virgin Media up they will provide (for a small fee) a Wireless Router which is very easy to set up.
  • missstropy
    missstropy Posts: 7,763 Forumite
    anewhope wrote: »
    You need a Wireless Router which will enable your daughter to use her laptop all over the house, while you can still retain your Ethernet Connection but instead of connecting into the Modem you would connect the Modem to the router and then your PC into one of the other ports.

    If you ring Virgin Media up they will provide (for a small fee) a Wireless Router which is very easy to set up.
    well that sounds simple enough i will get onto it right away, many thanks. :T
  • missstropy
    missstropy Posts: 7,763 Forumite
    Well that was simple, rang them and ive got my broadband upgraded to 20mb from 2, and it costs a fiver a month and i get the router free. If was just going order the router it would of been £40.00 one off charge but might as well get the faster speed for us all for the £5 a month. and daughter will be very happy
    thankyou again anewhope
  • Feel free to bump the thread when it arrives if you need any help in setting it up
  • malkie76
    malkie76 Posts: 6,170 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    You've done the right thing in getting a free router from Virgin as they'll continue to support it, help you with the set-up and fix issues if things go wrong (whereas they won't support third party routers).

    Set up is simple - follow the instructions you get with the box. It's as straight forward as plugging the thing into your PC and the internet cable at the same time and letting it detect settings from your PC. Your laptop should automatically detect the new wireless network and allow you to connect to it.

    You'll continue to have your desktop PC hardwired to the wireless router, which means you won't need to make your desktop wireless (unless of course you want to).

    Critical thing is to make the network secure so that your neighbours can't use your network (or look at your files) with your permission. Again it's easy to do and then easy to give your laptop access to the network.

    Got any other wireless gadgets which may benefit ? eg a wifi enabled phone or printer ? You can get them into your wireless network too with ease and enjoy the benefits :)
    Legal team on standby
  • penrhyn
    penrhyn Posts: 15,215 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    Or even a Wii!
    That gum you like is coming back in style.
  • D.K.
    D.K. Posts: 596 Forumite
    Please be careful and do make sure that your wireless is as secure as possible. People can use your internet for all sorts of illegal stuff that could be traced back to yourself. Sometimes a long wire is not such a bad idea...£40.00 is a bit steep though
This discussion has been closed.
Meet your Ambassadors

🚀 Getting Started

Hi new member!

Our Getting Started Guide will help you get the most out of the Forum

Categories

  • All Categories
  • 352.1K Banking & Borrowing
  • 253.6K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
  • 454.2K Spending & Discounts
  • 245.2K Work, Benefits & Business
  • 600.8K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
  • 177.5K Life & Family
  • 258.9K Travel & Transport
  • 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
  • 16K Discuss & Feedback
  • 37.7K Read-Only Boards

Is this how you want to be seen?

We see you are using a default avatar. It takes only a few seconds to pick a picture.