Wireless networkINg? I think?

[bolo1g2]

Hey, I' m pretty new to all this tech talk, but here's the situation. I'm gonna be running two laptops and I want to share our cable modem connection and Printer. I have read lots of articles about routers and hubs and what not. I'm still pretty clueless. Can some one lay it out step by step on what I should be looking for? Both laptops have wireless cards... that's about all i know.
any help is appreciated.
Thanks

[leopold]

Hmmm, I like a nice open-ended question to kick-start my afternoon!

Okay, so you have two laptops and a printer, and you basically want a home LAN and Internet access. Pretty straightforward, really. Presumably you're not looking to having a laptop powered on permanently, nor use one as a gateway for everything else, so we're definitely looking at a router of some description.

D-Link make this unit which will pretty much do everything you want: It's a wireless router with print server. What this will give you is permanently available Internet access and a networked printer. This model also has four switch ports (so you can connect computers directly to it) and has 256-bit WEP encryption to boot! Hell, if this thing had 54Mb wireless I'd be buying one myself!!!

To make it all work:

- Connect up the router to your cable connection, and fire it up! Most will work pretty much straight away. They may need a little tweaking to get the connection up (usually MAC addresses or logon details) but once done it's pretty much ready.

- Set the laptops to use DHCP, they'll get an address from the router.

- Connect up the printer to the router's print server port (make sure you get the right cable beforehand!), and follow the instructions to get it connected.

Check the wireless spec of the laptops before you jump in, though. Although they are mostly compatible you do need to be sure you're getting the right kit. My advice is to stick with the same standard throughout. You have three standards (potentially), which are:

(1) 802.11b: Common now, connects at 11Mb/s, which is fast enough for Internet access, and perfectly acceptable for copying files between the laptops. Works with the other standards, allegedly! Watch out for the 22Mb/s versions of this, they are very manufacturer-dependant.

(2) 802.11g: New-ish standard, connects at 54Mb/s. Makes no difference to Internet access, but shared files will be faster. Signal distances are sacrificed for speed, more so in some models than others (Linksys especially), check reviews to see which are best if you plan to surf in the garden. Works okay with 802.11b, but watch out again, as this will adversely affect the operation of other 802.11g connections. Not compatible with 802.11a. Pretty expensive.

(3) 802.11a: Old-ish standard for 54Mb connectivity, not available outside the US due to conflicts in the 2.4GHz frequencies used by emergency services. Tsk! Much better connection speeds and distances compared to 802.11g. Allegedly works with 802.11b. Not compatible with 802.11g. Dunno much about this standard, really, being European...

Other things to check for:

- Make sure the router is compatible with your cable provider! Some require a fixed MAC address, and if the provider won't reset it for you then you need a router that can clone the MAC address of the network card you used to set the link up with.

- Make sure your cable provider won't get the hump if you do this! Most don't, but it's best to check first.

- Wireless security. If you don't want people to hijack your connection, make sure you get a router with good security measures, such as restricted MAC addresses and WEP (Wireless Encryption Protocol). For WEP, the higher numbers of bits are better, but can take their toll on the speed of data transfer.

In summary, if you buy a wireless router with print server (such as the one above), you won't need anything else.

[Fister]

router review: http://www.pctechtalk.com/view.php?id=2024
PCI card review: http://www.pctechtalk.com/view.php?id=2255