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More info?)
On Mon, 27 Dec 2004 23:30:47 -0600, "David Lawson"
<davidlawson@cox.net> wrote:
>My computer and cable modem are in the basement. My two kids who got new
>computers for Christmas are on the second floor of the house. Have been
>told the best was would be to use the Belkin N router. Anyone help me with
>this?
Can you just run CAT5 cable up to the 2nd floor?
>Will the USB adapters work on the kids computers?
Probably. If the computahs are relatively new, they will have USB 2.0
ports which will work with the faster 802.11g hardware.
>If not, how hard is it to put the cards in a desktop? The only work I've
>ever done on a computer is add memory and replaced one CD Rom.
Trivial.
- Load software from cdrom. (Many cards and devices require that
the software be installed BEFORE the card)
- Open cover.
- Install card.
- Close cover.
- Boot. Plug and Play should find the card and install the drivers.
- Configure:
SSID
WEP or WPA encryption key
- Connect to Access Point (by SSID)
- Welcome to the Internet.
If this is the first time you've done this, my guess is about 15-30
minutes for the first machine, and half that for the 2nd (assuming the
access point or router is already configured). The hard part is
setting up the wireless router. It will generally work right out of
the box with the default settings, but may not be secure.
Cable companies also have the irritating habit of using your computahs
MAC address for authentication. The router should have a "clone MAC
address" feature. Do the router configuration from your known working
computah. For a first time install, I would guess about 30-60 minutes
for getting the router installed and configured.
>One person told me this would be a fairly easy project and another
>encouraged me to pay some one to do it. He said it took him 16 hours to get
>one laptop to work, and he is in the business. (At least the sales part)
Sigh. I charge $75/hr which would make that a $1200 labour charge.
Somehow, methinks it will take considerably less than two full days to
configure one router and install two wireless cards.
>Any other input would be appreciated.
Sure. How old are these kids? My neighbors 16 year old got a laptop
with wireless for Xmas. It took him about 15 minutes to get it up and
running, 5 minutes to connect to their wireless router, and about 3
hours Saturday night hacking into my network. I'd say this was about
typical. Let the kids figure it out if they want wireless.
Personally, I would look into adding CAT5 wire between floors.
Depending on what the floors are made from, going through 2 floors may
be a problem. If they're wood floors, with no foil backed insulation,
it will probably work. If the floors are full of foil or are poured
concrete, forget it. It's difficult to tell how well it will work, or
if it will work at all. If you can borrow an access point and a
laptop with Netstumbler running, you might wanna do a "site survey" to
determine if you have a chance before buying any hardware.
Also, my guess(tm) is that you have CATV coax on all floors. MOVE the
cable modem to the first floor, near the center of the house. Get 3ea
wireless cards for each of the computahs. This way, you only go
through one floor, which will probably work much better than going
through two floors. However, I would still go for the CAT5 wiring
instead.
--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us
150 Felker St #D
http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 AE6KS 831-336-2558
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