Set up a wireless network at home

Bought the router in early May. Just now got around to installing it: I kept putting it off until I had the magic combination of time, energy, and willingness to be offline for a while if it proved tricky.

Took all of 15 minutes, and most of that was spent looking for the wireless switch on my laptop.

:-D

I can now hang out on 43T from the comfort of my living-room couch.

... when my desktop computer suddenly died of fried capacitors and I had to race out and buy a laptop (which I was on the verge of doing, anyway). While I was at the store – and had a ride home from a friend – I picked up, er, a couple of other items.

Including a wireless router.

It isn’t installed yet – I was too keen to have Internet access again (having been without for some 20 hours), so I set up the laptop first and have been messing about customizing my Windows experience (a desert photo as a screen background – with hoodoos! – woo-hoo!) ever since.

I won’t mark this goal off until the network’s up and running. I hope to manage that this evening, if I can tear myself away from my new toy long enough. ;-D

Got to use my laptop from bed the other night. I loved it! The wireless router cute our internet speed by about five times, though – maybe we’ll invest in a nice one in the future. For now, it’s good enough!

Donald’s co-worker apparently wants to donate his old wireless router to our cause. Fine by me, except he forgets to bring it in EVERY DAY. Maybe on Monday ….

We’ll see.

For now, I won’t be actively working on this goal until the home-office reorganization is closer to completion.

I work with a MAC and I bought a simple device to set up my wireless network but I never just sat my butt down and did it.

It was not hard at all.

Plug the device in an outlet and plug your modem wires wherever they have to be.

Just name your wireless connection.

Set up your security codes and it is done.

I have Aiport Express. The best thing!

It took me about 45 minutes (should have taken me less time but I was trying to understand it better) to set it up because I was tired of always sitting at my desk and not being able to take my laptop to my sofa or in my chair.

I was so bad at one point where I bought a long cable wire to connect from my modem so it would reach to my sofa. That is so lazy!

This is a link to what I have:

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/wa/RSLID?mco=182E4B7C&nplm=M9470LL/A

This is what you can do with a PC and Mac:

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/wa/RSLID?mco=83C90BF3&nplm=MA073LL/A

I bought a refurbished wireless (netgear) router for £15 from E-Bay. It was cheap because the original manual and installation CD were not supplied. Instead I downloaded them.

I then bought a single WiFi USB adaptor (or dongle) for £8, again from E-bay.

I downloaded the manual from netgear.com and followed the instructions.
I spent about 5 minutes placing and setting up the hardware (it’s at my staircase, mounted to the wall).
I then spent a further 15/20 minutes messing around with the settings. Note that this would’ve taken me 5 minutes if I’d figured out that I needed to change the password setting.
I then successfully connected to the internet without the network wire in the laptop =)

So I’ve spent a total of 25 minutes and £23 and I now have a wireless home network!

Next step is buying a couple network cards for my PCs and another dongle for my other laptop.

I’ve been amazed at how simple this was and how easy installing new components (PCs, phones, laptops, etc) is. I’ve also been able to get rid of those nasty cables snaking their way accross my floor and walls. Well worth it.

Oh and I’m creating this entry on my laptop from my front garden in the sunshine, wire-free =)

Our new PC has Vista, which made the USB access point I had in mind not work (the drivers weren’t updated). I went back and got a deal on a name brand USB access point and was able to download an updated driver. Now, everything’s working and our house is wired (er, wireless)!

So I priced the wireless router and the wireless adapter for my Xbox and I can’t justify the cost to my wife. . . yet.

After forgetting my wireless router at work again, I decided to break down and put more on my credit card. I can’t use the internet at my flat with out a wireless connection.

So I paid the “I want it now” tax and paid $20 more for it that than I could have found online.

I do have praise for the Airport express, which is a passable audio bridge and a fair USB print server.