How Easy Is It to set up my Laptop to be Wireless

jasmin10

Bearing in mind I don't have any techie background.

I have Virgin Broadband on my Desktop PC but would like to use my laptop out and about etc. I know there are some security issues too.

Sorry about all the posts, but I did say due to having a new PC I would be posting a bit

albertross_2

There's home about and about, and there's wifi hotspot out and about.. If you mean the latter, you just need a wireless laptop and some money (usually), if the former you need a wireless router, cable/dsl for cable broadband, adsl for BT phone broadband.

if you mean everywhere out and about, then you will need some sort of phone data card, not cheap, and not easy to get for express slots.

Little_John

How good do you think wireless is?
Genarally wireless has a range of up to 100 metres but the signal is degraded by everything that is in its way like walls and desks etc so it is rare for you to get anything like 100m.

So out and about will pretty much mean your back garden and thats it.

If you are looking to make use of wireless access points provided by the tilkes of btopenzone, the cloud and any of the other wireless providers then you need to either subscribe to their service or buy PAYG cards or pay online when you connect.

If you want to maky your own connection wireless you will need to buy a wireless router and have a wireless enabled laptop. most laptops now are wireless enabled some have a switch to turnt he wireless adaptor off others don't read your manual to find out if it does. or tell us waht you bought and we will tell you.
A wireless router comes in 2 forms, years ago it was easy there was ADSL and cable broadband now everyone calls their service broadband. ADSL uses a BT phone line and requires a router to have a modem built in. a cable broadband connection has a cable modem or a set top box for the TV. and your PC connects to that or your new wireless router. the cable modem's are normally blue and about the size of a hard drive

As your a VM user normally that are almost all cable connections but do check as I know they are not all. One you know we can advise of which wireless router to buy. it doesnt really matter which on you buy as most are as good as each other.

stebiz

Little_John wrote: »

One you know we can advise of which wireless router to buy. it doesnt really matter which on you buy as most are as good as each other.

And that usually means cr*p. These wireless routers account for so many calls on the computer helpdesk I work on - and in most cases result in poorer speeds and intermittent connections, forgetting for a moment about the possible health issues. Get yoursef a wired router and save yourself a lot of heartache.
Stebiz

Little_John

maybe i should have wordedit different

they are as good or as bad as each other

stebiz

Little_John wrote: »

maybe i should have wordedit different

they are as good or as bad as each other

Hi Little John,
Please don't think I was having a 'go' at you. I just find wireless very unreliable.
Cheers
Stebiz

alanrowell

Given that most wireless routers have sockets for wired connections & most laptops have the appropriate socket it's pretty much of a moot point

Little_John

I know you wernt having a go, I have been using wireless for years and its great no problems other than poor reception on my laptop I only get a low signal when Im in bed the pc in the room next door is fine with an excelent signal.

I have noticed that the majority of posts on here are regarding netgear kit and I have had stupid problems with net gear kit in the past not accepting usernames over a certain lenght for the connection, unable to log on to secure websites like intenret banking and all the websites that a travel agent needs to use. Netgear were far from helpfull in solveing the problem even though they knew the problem existed.

and the radiation thing well panorama spout out bolocks 99% of the time so im not worried.

mascherano

stebiz wrote: »

And that usually means cr*p. These wireless routers account for so many calls on the computer helpdesk I work on - and in most cases result in poorer speeds and intermittent connections, forgetting for a moment about the possible health issues. Get yoursef a wired router and save yourself a lot of heartache.
Stebiz

There are NO health issues with wireless. Its been intensively studied, I mean seriously thousands of hours of research into health issues and every reliable study has shown the same thing- NOTHING. At the last count, 37 independent research articles- NONE show any problem (well 3 did, but they have since been exposed as flawed and unreliable).
Since when did the truth get in the way of a good story though.
One thing I am 100% certain of; worrying about the ill effects of wireless is harmful to health.

jasmin10

So without causing a feud. What would be the simplest and cheapest way. I would have liked to be able to go on-line when working away from home but if that causes to much hassle how about being able to pick up my connection in another room in my house.

albertross_2

A wireless router.