Help with buying a wireless router needed.

saxonrosecliff

Hi

I've spent several hours reading about wireless networks and am a bit confused! What I am trying to find out is which router would be best for the following:

Our ISP is Virgin Cable. Connected to the wireless network we want to have an old PC with no built-in wireless facility (this is the only item currently connected to the internet, via a cable modem), a laptop which tells me it has wireless networking standard 802.11b/g (no idea what that means) and finally a Wii (apparently its essential that my youngest son can play mario kart online with his friends!). We have between 2 and 3 meg broadband.

First question is, is the broadband fast enough for the wii to work and secondly what routers can we choose from and thirdly do we need to buy anything else to make everything work as we want it to?

fletty

we've just got a wireless router from virgin free! we run a pc, laptop and the wii from it, the pc has a usb reciver, I'm not technical minded at all but thought this may help x

penrhyn

As above poster says, just get one from Virgin, it comes with instructions set up disk etc. Dead simple, and if you have problems you can give them a call.
Sweet talk them and you may get it for free.
BTW Don't worry about your desktop, you would just plug in to one of the wirelss routers 4 wired ethernet ports.

http://allyours.virginmedia.com/forms/customerWireless.html

stone7

I think you will now be getting (up to) 10mb of broadband from Virgin as standard.

I have a belkin wireless g router with upto 4 laptops (mine, wife's and 2 kids), an x-box 360 and PS3 (hardwired), plus my cctv is streamed so it can be viewed remotely. Never had a problem.

DonnyDave

As you're on cable, you do not want an ADSL router as ADSL is the system used for non-cable broadband services over BT lines.

If you have a wireless router, it does not mean that all devices must connect wirelessly. Some or all could be connected using a wire (ethernet cable) as wireless a router will have one or more ethernet sockets on. So your desktop PC can be connected by a cable to the router.

The "802.11b/g" means that your laptop will connect to a router that uses either the 802.11b standard or the subsequent 802.11g (or just "g") standard. The standard is like the language that devices (router, laptop etc) talk to each other in, but don't worry too much about this.

pitkin2020

all good advice, only thing i can add is if you are going to buy a router opt for an N network router over a G, N is backwards compatable so will be fine with your laptop, but in the future most items are moving over to N. Also make sure you get a cable router and not an ADSL router.
But if i were you id be getting on to virgin and see if you can get them to supply one FOC

C_Mababejive

Non ADSL routers are cheap n cheerful on ebay. Get a wireless G router as a minimum..not essential to get wireless N. A new one would be affordable also.

saxonrosecliff

Thanks for all the advice. I rang Virgin but they will only supply a free router if I take up a new service, otherwise they want me to pay £40!!!

I've been looking at Belkin routers. Is this a good make? After reading the guide to buying routers in the Argos catalogue they say to get an 'N' router for online gaming. I assume this means the wii as well so I might go for one of them.

I didn't realise that the old PC could still be wired and was prepared to buy an adapter for that so thanks for telling me - that really is moneysaving!

Anyway I'm off the work shortly (first day back) and so won't be able to check in until tonight!

penrhyn

£40 is not a bad price.

BillScarab

saxonrosecliff wrote: »

Thanks for all the advice. I rang Virgin but they will only supply a free router if I take up a new service, otherwise they want me to pay £40!!!

I've been looking at Belkin routers. Is this a good make? After reading the guide to buying routers in the Argos catalogue they say to get an 'N' router for online gaming. I assume this means the wii as well so I might go for one of them.

I didn't realise that the old PC could still be wired and was prepared to buy an adapter for that so thanks for telling me - that really is moneysaving!

Anyway I'm off the work shortly (first day back) and so won't be able to check in until tonight!

Argos are talking out of their backside.

The Wii doesn't support wireless N so it would be of no benefit to you whatsoever.

Belkin are OK, not great but OK.

Personally I've always used a Netgear router with Virgin Cable, the same model Virgin supply, unless they've changed recently.

This is the one I've got Netgear WGR614 If you get one of those you won't go far wrong.

If you do decide to go fro wireless N all of your current kit will work with it but will only run at woreless G speeds anyway. By the time wireless N is the defaut the routers ill have dropped in price anyway so I'd stick with G for now

JasX

penrhyn wrote: »

Virgin, it comes with instructions set up disk etc. Dead simple, and if you have problems you can give them a call.

I'd suggest avoiding installing any bloatware from any disk that comes with a router, its not necessary and you can do all setup and connecting from within windows and using a web browser......