do i buy another router?

[uniqueen1508]

ive searched and havent found an answer....

i just bought a laptop and i am on the second floor of our house. my aunt has her office on the first floor and has a wired router... i want to buy my own router so that i can use it just for my laptop. do i have to connect it to my aunts router or can i connect it to the phone outlet and get internet from there? p.s. i want to use wireless.


my aunts is an ewire router and when she called att ( thats the internet provider we have) they told her that she needed to buy another router so that we can get wireless... but i want one that only i can use in my room... i dont know if i am making any sense...

 

[Guest]

Assuming you have ADSL (though probably still true of cable) you can only connect one modem to a line (that's the bit of the router that interfaces with the incoming data).

You could link a wireless router or wireless access point to your aunt's present wired router by ethernet cable.

But replacing the existing unit with a wireless router supplied by the ISP is a much simpler option as it should connect to the ISP straight out of the box.

You'll have to work out how to link it to your computer by wireless -- so be prepared to read the manual for it and your wireless adapter.

 

[SizroSpunkmire]

Short answer: No.

As long as your aunt has her router hooked up to the modem you will be unable to do what you're describing. You do however have a few options:

1) As mentioned above, you can disable the DHCP server on your wireless router and connect it to her wired router via a cat5e cable. Essentially all you have done is added a wireless access point that will let you connect.

You can also apply what is known as MAC address filtering so only your computer will be able to connect wirelessly; but you will still be sharing the same network that her computer is on.

2) Get a second internet connection. While this will clearly cost a monthly fee you can then have your own connection/router and she can have hers.