connecting 2 computers to 1 broadband

[stanwilcock]

I have a broadband box with computer in my dinning room and I want to know how to connect it up with a laptop, which is up stairs, as well as the computer its with at the moment

[Mattk]

there are several ways.

the easiest is to connect wirelessly via a router

[mattie]

Basically, buy a broadband router with wireless capability, transfer your broadband username and password to the router, put it in place of your existing modem and connect your PC to the router using an rj45 cable, and buy a wireless adapter for your laptop, assuming that it doesn't have one built in.

Your PC may need a network card, but most new PCs have built in network cards.

[TEAK36]

***********,sorry to hijack your thread, but I have a question for Mattie.I have a 1.5mb broadband connection,and would like to set up a wireless connection,but was wondering if connecting this way has any affect on my broadband speed, i.e, would I still get a wireless connection speed of upto 1.5mb?

[TEAK36]

Stanwilc.o.c.k,how bizarre!You are allowed to have a user name with the letters *.*.*.*,but It was edited out of my last post.

[mattie]

Reply for Teak36.

Wireless connectivity is affected by the environment.

For example, people who have large old houses with thick stone interior walls might as well forget it, or have to invest in a wireless router and several booster devices.

Otherwise there should be no problems, unless you have two users sharing the connection, both using bandwidth intensive applications. For example, online gaming and web cams. ( I speak from experience here).

I have installed quite a lot of wireless systems, the way I test it is to get a laptop and walk all round the house, to monitor whether the signal strength varies.

Also you need to encrypt the signal, so that noone else can use your connection.

Hope this helps.

[desertrat]

As has been described already this is very easy to do. However, I do occassionally lose the signal from the PC which has the wireless card in it. Other than that its a great way to maximise your broadband connection if you have multiple PCs in the home.

[OBonio]

Hints for TEAK : 802.11g has a theoretical speed of 54Mbps, 11b has 11Mbps.  In practice the speed is usually about 70% of this.  Still much faster than the 1.5Mbps broadband connection though!  So, no, the bottleneck is your broadband and speeds won't be affected using wireless networking.