Hi, I hope someone can help, what I need is to be able to connect my laptop
wirelessly to my ADSL internet connection which is downstairs in the house.
Most of the time it will be in the same room.

I have seen loads of products but I am baffled to what I need.

Do I need just an adaptor for each PC or do I also need an access point? Can
anyone recommend one that is easy to set up and maybe a starter package?

Many thanks for your help - Mark


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"SSol" wrote in message
...

Hi, I hope someone can help, what I need is to be able to connect my
laptop
wirelessly to my ADSL internet connection which is downstairs in the
house.
Most of the time it will be in the same room.

I have seen loads of products but I am baffled to what I need.

Do I need just an adaptor for each PC or do I also need an access point?
Can
anyone recommend one that is easy to set up and maybe a starter package?

Many thanks for your help - Mark


---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.497 / Virus Database: 296 - Release Date: 04/07/2003


Mark,

You don't mention whether you have a router or a modem providing your ADSL
connection?

If we look at both scenarios:

USB ADSL Modem to existing PC:
In this scenario it would be possible to install a Wireless network adapter
in both your pc and your laptop, set up internet connection sharing on the
PC to share your ADSL network connection and set the two wireless cards to
operate in ad-hoc mode: Cost would be around £35 for a PCI Wireless card and
a similar amount for a PCMCIA Card to go in your laptop. Downside? Plenty of
fiddling about to configure it, not great if you're not sure what you're
doing and relies on the PC being turned on to work.

If you already have an ADSL router with a switch/hub built in, then you can
plug a Wireless Access Point (WAP) into the switch/hub, and put a PCMCIA
card into your laptop and you're away - total cost around £110. Easy to set
up and only needs the router and WAP to be turned on.

I believe Simply computers are doing a bundle of the 54Mb wireless access
point and a PCMCIA card for around £109 at the moment:
http://www.netgear.simply.co.uk/?sn=...1GD1XAN9C C7D

The most elegant solution would be to get a combined WAP/ADSL Router such as
the popular Netgear 824. One box does everything, your PC plugs into its
built in switch for a 10/100 BaseT/X connection and your laptop uses a
wireless PCMCIA card to connect.

Again you can get various bundles: Try Simply Computers
http://www.netgear.simply.co.uk/?sn=...1GD1XAN9C C7D

or http://www.broadbandbuyer.co.uk or http://www.dslsource.co.uk

HTH

Grant

On Wed, 30 Jul 2003 17:11:21 +0100, "Grant"
wrote:
The most elegant solution would be to get a combined WAP/ADSL Router such as
the popular Netgear 824. One box does everything, your PC plugs into its
built in switch for a 10/100 BaseT/X connection and your laptop uses a
wireless PCMCIA card to connect.

One problem with the combined products, however, is the way they make
your non-wireless PCs vulnerable to attack. By some relatively simple
steps, an attacker can access your PC via the WAPand act as a trusted
member of your domain.

Details are in a paper called "Wireless Access Points and ARP
Poisoning: wireless vulnerabilities that expose the wired network" by
Fleck and Dimov - download from http://www.cigital.com

The 2001 Defcon and Usenix Security conferences of 2001 were famously
disrupted in this way.

jay