Wireless Access Point / Router

albreda

Hi

I purchased a router to enable me to use my laptop in any room of my flat without having to trail wires around the floor. It is a Belkin product and promised to be easy to install "in under 3 minutes". That was a week last Sunday and despite many hours of my best efforts (and half@rsed helpdesk efforts), it's not gonna work. Having now read reviews on it it seems to be a 50/50 split on who likes it an who doesn't. I will be taking it back to swap for something else.

I'm on Telewest Broadband and till now have connected via an external modem and USB wire. Can anyone recommend a router/access point that is easy to use and reasonably priced?

Thanks

Joe

Bob63

Does your Telewest modem also have ethernet? If not then you are on a hiding to nothing as connecting a USB modem to a wireless router is going to prove challenging. I seem to remember that the Telewest modems have both connections so you won't have a problem.

Assuming you have ethernet then I would highly recommend the Linksys WRT54G or WRT54GS. They are cheap, easy to get hold of, have been around for years and (best of all) can be used with freeware firmware that allows you to boost the signal power use multiple routers in a "mesh" for distribution around a large property. The router also does MAC address spoofing which allows it to present the same hardware ethernet address to the modem that your PC has. However, if you are currently using USB then this won't be an issue.

The WRT54G is the "standard" router and should cost £40 or lest. The WRT54GS has "speedbooster" to double its speed but this is only useful if you have a matching card in your PC/laptop.

Amazon sell both - http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00008DOYO
It is also worth keeping your eye on special offers at places like PC World. I recently bought a second WRT54GS and it came with a free USB adaptor.

Mike

albreda

Thanks Mike. It does have ethernet connection.

I will take a look at the products you suggested. This is a lesson to me to research things properly before buying!

buglawton

Depending on your provider, a MAC address is locked to your broadband account when you first install the broadband CD-ROM from the isp (this is how NTL works who I am with). When you later install a Router, it's MAC address is not known so no service. Need to run a procedure to clone the address from your PC to the router so the isp thinks it's looking at your PC. I wonder of that's why yours does not work?

espresso

Lots of information on this site. I would persevere as Belkin do have a lifetime warranty even if their documentation is rubbish!

HTH

:eek:

albreda

Thanks for all the tips, I have gotten as far as getting the wireless network to work (I swapped the belkin for a netgear) though I'm now attempting to sort out two other issues.

1. Although the laptop connects to the wireless router I cannot get onto the internet.

2. The wireless seems to disconnect and reconnect every couple of minutes.

If anybody has any tips for these I'd be very grateful. I would not have bought a router at all only the boxes all say how 'easy' they are to install.

Chippy_Minton

First, try running the Network Setup Wizard in Control Panel.

If no joy, you need to check your IP configuration. To do this, click Start - Run - type in cmd and click OK. In the new window that's just opened type:

ipconfig/all > temp.txt
notepad temp.txt

Copy and paste from Notepad into this thread.

buglawton

Also worth a try if you are getting disconnections:
With your Router switched off, do a Site Survey from the Laptop and note if any other Wifis are around - note their channel numbers and use a different one from them.

albertross_2

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=2471408&postcount=37

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=2471410&postcount=38

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=121274