Setting up older PC on broadband

Conor_3

Dead easy. Buy a cheap PCI network card from PC world and also a network cable (not a crossover one). You'll need a philips screwdriver. Turn off PC. Take off lid and insert card into a spare slot. YOU CANNOT FIT IT IN THE WRONG SLOT. IT PHYSICALLY WONT FIT IN ANY BUT THE RIGHT ONE. Put the lid back on and start up the PC. It'll hopefully find the driver for the network card automatically or ask you for the installation disk.

Once you've done that, connect the network cable from the PC to the AOL router, go into Control Panel, Internet Settings, Connections and select "Never Dial a Connection". Job done.

poppyoscar_3

Is it really as simple as that?

Will give it a try!

POxx:D

mdbarber

It aint so bad but you will have to watch as windows me did not support many network cards without additional drivers an pc world may not be the best choice to purchase one from.
Ideally a card based on the "realtek 8139" chipset is the best option as ME has built in drivers, i have a windows me machine here on broadband.

TonyLisaP

Do you have USB ports on your ME PC? You could just but a Wireless USB dongle and install the software...

poppyoscar_3

Well that was the first thing I tried - I borrowed one, but I couldn't make it work - it detected the router, but I could only find options for dial-up on the connection places thing.

I wanted to find the Windows search for networks window but it was nowhere to be found!

Am complete tech-numpty!!

PO xx

TonyLisaP

if you connect to the router you just need to set the options in your internet explorer for Local Area Network (lan) or to never dial a connection. It has been a long time and I cannot remember back 100% but I am sure that is it.

espresso

poppyoscar wrote: »

Is it really as simple as that?

Will give it a try!

POxx:D

Yes it is, just get a cheap network card, no Ethernet cable is needed as you should have one with the router.

Using a USB dongle is not a good idea, as WPA wireless encryption was only available from XP SP2. No security issues to worry about when using an Ethernet cable!

TonyLisaP

espresso wrote: »

Yes it is, just get a cheap network card, no Ethernet cable is needed as you should have one with the router.

Using a USB dongle is not a good idea, as WPA wireless encryption was only available from XP SP2. No security issues to worry about when using an Ethernet cable!

Or you could just setup your router with MAC address filtering. The choice is yours in the long run and there solutions for whatever problem you encounter.

Nilrem

mdbarber wrote: »

It aint so bad but you will have to watch as windows me did not support many network cards without additional drivers an pc world may not be the best choice to purchase one from.
Ideally a card based on the "realtek 8139" chipset is the best option as ME has built in drivers, i have a windows me machine here on broadband.

Great advise.

The realtek chipset is/was used in many of the cheap cards, and has been very well supported over the years (I think I used cards with that chipset in my windows 98 machines).
I ended up at one point with about a dozen of them spare because I was fitting them to almost every machine I worked on that didn't have an network adaptor already, because they were so easy to get working* (unlike some of the "brand" name cards which can be a pain in the neck to find older drivers for).


*And being able to hook a machine that you're working on up to the home network/internet is very handy (it saves a lot of mucking around with disks when reinstalling etc).