Wireless Computer

It's an over the counter plug and play attached to your broadband modem. If your machines are already wireless fitted, if not then you will have to get the senders as well as the beacon, they plug into one of the usb ports on each machine; xp will do the rest with the disc. Do yourself a favour and put your printer in so that you can move that anywhere in the house as well. And also make sure that your neighbours are not using your connection.

There are many ways to to this, let me tell you my experiences

1. solution

Add to your desktop a wireless card, pci, usb, etc, if your laptop doesn't have wifi card, you can use pcmcia or usb, then share the internet connection of the Desktop, configure the wifi in your laptop to receive the ip automaticaly and that's about all.

2. soluition

Buy an Access Point(AP), small switch or an AP that has 4 ethernet RJ45 ports , and 1 wifi card for the laptop (if it doesn't have one already).

In this solution you have to configure the AP (Access Point) and connect the modem to the switch from the switch to the AP and from the same switch to the Desktop, if the AP has more RJ45 ports, cable from the modem to the Desktop and that's about it.

the difference between the solutions is that in solution 1 you have to let your desktop turned on if you what to have internet in the laptop.

as Davah posted you could find a WIFI print server so you can connect your printer as well.

Thank you for your suggestions. Another question though. Do I have to connect my printer to this Access Point or wil the print command go from my laptop to desktop, then to the printer. Also can I access files and programs that are on the desktop. Sorry for the very simple questions but I don't yet have any concept of how this works and how it is setup. I see alot of networking stuff in windows but am a little afraid of messing up two functional computers.

Thanks Again

Another idea is just to use a wireless router. Your Broadband modem is connected to the router as well as your desktop. The wifi card in your laptop willl find the router from anywhere in you home as well as a wireless connection for your printer.)like Linksys) affordable. Works well simply and affords multiple connections to be used by all in wifi. I use this in my home and requires no special wiring. I can even work from my shop 150 ft. away with laptop. Good luck!

Hi ckartson,

First, if you want your desktop to go wireless, add a wireless card.

New model of laptops have built-in wireless, some older models don't. If your laptop has no built-in wireless, you can add either a PCMCIA card or a USB wireless adapter.

You said you have internet connection that is plugged directly to your desktop. Is the connection through a cable modem? If it is, then you can actually have your internet connection be available to both to your desktop and your laptop.

You need to buy a wireless router for the convenience of wireless connectivity to the internet as well as between desktop and laptop. Connect the wireless router (using a cross-over cable) to the cable modem that was provided by your ISP.

Any brand will work, but for the advantage of easy (user-friendly) set-up, I will recommend Linksys. But don't forget to make your setup "secured".

Have a nice wireless set-up and enjoy.

Willy

Hi Ckartson, Once you get your wireless up and running you will probably find that your desktop computer has an IP address of 192.168.0.1 If you want to use [literally operate] the machine from your laptop, use Remote Desktop Connection which comes with XP. Usually found in Programs -> Accessories -> Communications. RDC is a great little program and it gets me connected into my clients here if I'm away from Bali. To do that, you issue the machine you wish to connect to with a public nic and voila.

If you have the printer installed in the desktop and you want to print from the laptop all you need to do is to SHARE the printer in the desktop and from the laptop enter the ip of the desktop in an explorer window, i.e. \\192.168.1.3 there you will see the shared printer right click it and select CONNECT it will ask you something just click yes. Now you can print from the laptop. Again in this solution you need the desktop running so you can print, you can buy an Wireless Print Server, it's like an AP only that it has USB connection.

Thank you all for the great suggestions. I'm on my way out to get this Linksys router.

Hi, ckartson!

I use an "N" gigabit router. Powerful and fast enought to transmit visual images, even video. Good range, too. I use it for my video projector three rooms away from my home office, and share my internet with the guy next door as well.

I don't know if you can get the brand I have, but it's called "Xtreme N Gigabit Router" by a company called D-Link.

Hope this helps, even though I don't know what your requirement parameters are.

Mark