Wireless advice needed please

[chelle7272]

Hi

I have 10MB broadband supplied by Virgin. I would like a wireless connection for my new laptop.
Virgin have said it's either £60 for their Hub or £30 for the SUperhub plus (with Superhub) I have to increase my broadband which will be another £13 per month.

Am I correct in thinking that I could purchase and attach my own router (at less cost)? Do i need any other equipment?

Can anyone recommend the equipement I would need?

Thanks

[rockyracoon]

My mum's with Virgin, I bought her a Belkin router, set it up and off she went, wireless now.

[rockyracoon]

Just make sure the router is for cable.

[MarkRae]

You could purchase something like this, though it's right at the low end:
http://www.broadbandb...s.asp?QSearch=WNR1000

[erin-x]

We're with Virgin as well and we have a Belkin router. Works fine :-)

[chelle7272]

Thank you all for your replies.

Are the belkin ones simple enough to set up? I've read that they have to be able to 'spoof' the ethernet card and this can take some setting up?

Thanks for any advice.

[chelle7272]

Markrae, thanks for the link. I don't need anything too fancy - would you recommend Netgear over Belkin?

[MarkRae]

Should be fairly simple. Just make sure that you enable WPA-2 security and MAC address filtering.

[MarkRae]

Personally, I prefer Netgear, though that doesn't mean that Belkin are no good - they make superb KVMs...

[chelle7272]

Thanks again

[rojash]

"they make superb KVMs"

Do they?

I've just replaced my Belkin Dual Monitor KVM with an Aten. In all the years that I had the Belkin I had to have 3 keyboards, one for each machine, and one to stop the KVM from beeping to let me know there was no keyboard attached.

If I tried to use it with a single keyboard, 4 times out of 10, on switching machines, the keyboard would stop working. I tried with umpteesquillion different keyboards, and got no help from Belkin whatsoever.

The Aten cost one third the price of the Belkin and works perfectly.

[ChuckFickens]

I think MR might have been referring to their "proper" KVMs, which are very good.

I prefer netgear home routers too (though I don't rate or trust their business class switches at all)

[MarkRae]

I've never had a single problem with mine:
http://www.google.co....829Bw&ved=0CGIQ8wIwAA

[ChuckFickens]

I've been using a couple of these for 5years now with no problems.
http://www.belkin.com...ess?Product_Id=379176

[MarkRae]

I had a similar model for a while until I downsized the network. I have only three physical machines now: the main development one, the recording studio one and the Mac Mini. Everything else has been replaced by VMWare. The four-port SOHO KVM is all I need now - I make use of the spare port when people bring their machines round for me to fix, though I hardly do any of that these days...

[Bigears49]

I'm with Virgin on 10mb. My bb slowed til it was unusable. Virgin said the modem was u.s. and replaced it with a modem and router combined rendering my router surplus. However neither this technician or the next could get their router to connect wirelessly to my laptop. I was left with my laptop wired and it was me ,an old goat, who connected my old router to their router/modem (with the router switched off) to get perfect wireless. Buy your own. Mine's a Netgear.

[chelle7272]

Thanks bigears. I will definately be buying my own now, thanks to all who gave advice.