Wireless numptyhead

sal

Hi,

I haven't got a clue about wireless. Please can you help me with a question?

We have a spare laptop, albeit several years old, we're wondering if it could be used away from home by our son and daughter with a wireless connection at a bar/cafe or whatever. If so, what do we need to do to enable it?

As you can see, complete numptyhead when it comes to techy stuff. Just need to know if it's worth pursuing or not.

Hope you can help without baffling me!

Thanks, Sal.

JonnyThunder

Of course! Your laptop probably has a PCMCIA port on it (a card sized slot). Just go to a shop and ask for a PCMCIA wireless network adapter.

malamute

You can also get a USB adapter which will do exactly the same but i would only consider this if the laptop was USB 2.0 compliant. As previous poster i use a PCMCIA Adapter and works perfectly have a look at Ebuyer.co.uk it will give you an idea of the prices of both (I'm not recommending Ebuyer but it's prices are hard to beat) you can also get £10 off if you order through Google and the order is above £30.
Another source for the device is eBay some good bargains there as the demand for these devices has fallen due to laptops having on-board wireless.

MercilessKiller

When you do get a PCMCIA card make sure you know how to enable the wireless security and enter it into the network connectionwhen you connect to your network..

I know you say you're new to wireless, but I'm assuming whoever set up the network added a WEP key or a WPA key (password authentication for your wireless).

NB: If its WEP, and you speak to the person who set it up, tell him/her to make it WPA WEP has been found to be pretty useless nowadays

EDIT: Just re-read and noticed its for external use! OOPS silly me! ^-^ Do apologise.

sal

Thanks for that, I'm on the case!

Sal