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General discussion

Where to start?

Jun 13, 2005 6:31AM PDT

Hello, my husband just bought a gateway notebook computer for home and travel use. Went into this without really knowing much about notebooks, but he really wanted one (happy early father's day to him Happy)
Anyway....where do we start about getting wireless internet? What do we need to buy? We have a one level house currently using DSL (Roadrunner) for our 2 desktops. Should we get wireless through Roadrunner? Someone mentioned said NO...use wireless cards?????
Any information would be appreciated.
Thanks

Discussion is locked

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2 questions:
Jun 13, 2005 6:57AM PDT

1) Did the new laptop come with integrated wireless. These days, most all do, but that's not absolutely universal. If it has WiFi, then you don't need anything more for the computer. If it does not have built-in WiFi, you'll need to buy a PC-Card WiFi adapter (it slides into the little slot on the side of the computer).

2) Are you using a broadband router for sharing the DSL between your two desktop machines? If so, you'll need to replace it with a WiFi unit. That will be a one-for-one swap. The new router will have 4 wired ethernet ports for the desktops, but will have a radio chip and antennae too for the wireless. You'll have to follow the directions for setting it up for your specific connection, but that's usually pretty easy. If you are not using a broadband router for sharing the DSL, then you will need to tell us a bit more about that. If you are using some sort of routing capability in the DSL modem, then you'll need to disable that to put it in bridge-mode and then install a WiFi router.

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thanks
Jun 13, 2005 1:48PM PDT

thanks for the information. The notebook did come integrated for wireless. so we are okay there.
We will need to get the new router so we will start there. thanks again