I am trying to get wireless internet for my house and I am totally clueless so I hope you guys could help me out here.

Firstly I want to share my internet between like 3-4 computers (2 desktop, 2 laptop) through a wireless router. I also hope able to connect all of them through a lan network using that router at the same time. Would different OS work together on LAN? I heard that it's a nightmare configuring networks

I am currently on a 512kbps connection using adsl modem that is connected to my computer through a USB port. There will only be 2 of the computer sharing the connection at any one time so I hope that 512kbps is OK.


They also said it would be cheaper if I wired one of the com to the router directly. If so do I need to keep the computer constantly on?

Should I also upgrade my net connection and is there anything I need to change or is unnecessary?

First, you may have to replace your ADSL modem. Most broadband wireless routers use an Ethernet connection to the modem, not USB. Unless you can find a wireless router that support USB on the WAN side or your ADSL modem also has Ethernet connectivty you will need to replace it. However, your carrier may not offer such a modem which could severely limit your options.

Assuming that you can connect your ADSL modem to the wireless router, you should then be able to do what you want. As background a wireless router is actually three main devices in one. The router part connects to your broadband modem and allows sharing the connection to multiple devices. Next is a wired switch which allows you to connect multiple devices into a LAN. Finally is the Wireless Access Point (WAP) that does the same function as the wired switch but for wireless devices.

These devices are not OS specific so you can mix multiple OSes on the same device. Configuration issues depends on the OSes and what you want to share on the LAN.

The speed of your ADSL connection is not a major factor here. The switch part will function faster the connection so there is no issue there.

The only reason wiring a PC to the device is cheaper is because its more expensive to buy a wireless network adapter, especially for PCs with a built in one. However, you should wire as many devices as practical since wired is faster and more stable (though not be much). You wouldn't need to keep any computer on unless you want to share resources of that PC.

Upgrading is up to you. I wouldn't do anything until I saw what performance you get.

I did this a week or two back, and can tell you my experience. First of all, you should listen to ScottGem... he said everything that is important. I will just add my experience.

I had a plain LAN at home, with computers connected through a wired switch. All computers could access the internet through one main computer which was connected to ISDN line. That computer had to be turned on constantly for other computers to be able to use it.

Now, because I had to move the main computer in another room (on another floor) and routing wires would be a major pain in the , I decided to get myself a wireless router and wireless adapters for all computers. I now have a wireless network in my home. I'm waiting on cable modem to arrive to my house, and will hook it up to the WAN port on the router, and my network will be able to share that internet connection (through a cable modem) independently (meaning: no computer needs to be on for others to use internet). Modem has an ethernet port that will be connected to a router via it's WAN ethernet port.

One major thing to read about (if you decide to go all wireless) is securing your wireless network. I decided to secure it via physical MAC address filtering.

Hope that helps.

Ok thanks for the help. I will be buying out some stuff and trying it out in a couple of days time. I just hope that the connection issues will not be an hassle e.g mozilla not functioning or something.

I think I can get an ethernet modem(btw ethernet is sort of like a phone jack right?)

Ethernet does look like a phone jack but its larger.