2nd computer

loulou41

My cousin is giving me his computer. He just bought a mac 27 ins. How do I connect & run two computers with one router? I guess with the 2nd computer, I will have to set it up using my sky wireless router and use it wirelessly. Also if you have a wireless laptop and you go and visit a friend, can you use their internet? Thanks

Eric_Pisch

loulou41 wrote: »

My cousin is giving me his computer. He just bought a mac 27 ins. How do I connect & run two computers with one router? I guess with the 2nd computer, I will have to set it up using my sky wireless router and use it wirelessly. Also if you have a wireless laptop and you go and visit a friend, can you use their internet? Thanks

most routers come with 4 ports that you can connect upto 4 computers on with "cat 5" cable

WiFi can support multiple computers at once

At your friends house you would only need to know his "key" to be able to access his WiFi

exup

just to add to what Eric wrote - the only problem may be if there is a static IP address on the PC your cousin has given you.
I would expect your router would be set to dynamically give any PC connected to it (wirelessly or wired) its own seperate IP address, most of the time PCs/laptops would be set to pick up this dynamic address automatically (DHCP)

If you have a problem with the connection - try going to your Network Connections (I take it that it's a windows PC)
Right click on the correct neticon and select properties.
In the little window scroll down to " internet protocol -TCP/IP" - Click on it to highlight and then click Properties
Then make sure "Obtain an IP address automatically" is checked.
Click OK

kwikbreaks

The default is to use automatic (DHCP) so anybody with a static local IP would certainly already know that already or they'd just ask the friend who set it up for them in the first place to sort it out again.

JasX

yup, either cable into a spare router port.

could add a cheap wireless card to the 2nd PC if it has a spare slot and you want it to access the net wirelessly

if your existing router/modem has no spare ports you might need to buy a replacement non-wireless or wireless modem/router with more ports (make sure you get the right sort corresponding to cable ot phone line delivered broadband), or some kind of network switch/hub would do too if you had one lying around.