new wireless router installation questions

[Sweed]

Bought a new wireless router today and have some questions before I attempt to install.

I got a linksys wireless g with speedbooster (wrt54gs). Replacing a d-link604.

Is there any software I need to uninstall from the d-link before installing the linksys? I don't see anything in add/remove for d-link.

Will I have to set up my in home network from scratch or will I just be able to plug into the new router?

The three computers in the house all have cat cables that will plug into the new router. The only wireless one will be my son's laptop however he is away at college now. When he comes home as long as he has a wireless card will he be ready to go? Or since there was no wireless computer here during installation will I have to go back and "activate" ,for lack of a better word, the wireless capability?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Sweed

[Router Help]

Nothing to uninstall from the old router.

Will you be able to just plug it in and have it work? Probably yes, but hard to tell. As long as your old router was set as a DHCP server for the network then everything should just be plug and play.

For your son's laptop, it should just work put of the box, but this isn't really the best setup. You should set the security for wireless computers for wep. Your son will then have to enter the password on his laptop. After he does that it should remember it forever.

[Antmeister]

Since I just went through this recently, I may be able to help out a bit. If you have moved from a cable set up to wireless, you will have to start the Wireless Network Setup Wizard under the Control Panel.

Make sure you have some sort of flash device so that you can have the wizard set up all the computers in the house. Plus I would take that extra step in securing the network, so don't skip that option during the process.

[Sweed]

Thanks for the quick replies, very helpful. The cable company runs home users on dhcp so that is the way the old router was set so hopefully that all works out. A couple of things to clear up though..

Since I just went through this recently, I may be able to help out a bit. If you have moved from a cable set up to wireless, you will have to start the Wireless Network Setup Wizard under the Control Panel.

Make sure you have some sort of flash device so that you can have the wizard set up all the computers in the house. Plus I would take that extra step in securing the network, so don't skip that option during the process.

Forgive my ignorance :) but I'm not sure what you mean by the bolded part.


Nothing to uninstall from the old router.

Will you be able to just plug it in and have it work? Probably yes, but hard to tell. As long as your old router was set as a DHCP server for the network then everything should just be plug and play.

For your son's laptop, it should just work put of the box, but this isn't really the best setup. You should set the security for wireless computers for wep. Your son will then have to enter the password on his laptop. After he does that it should remember it forever

Is this setting on the router only or is there also a setting on the laptop?

One more thing from the "chronically nervous about messing up the intenet connection guy":confused: ;)

When I get this done if for some reason it doesn't connect would I be able to
just plug the old d-link back in and still connect until I figure it out?

Thanks again,
Sweed

[jeff061]

You would initially set wep and an associated passcode on the router. Then you'd configure the laptop to use wep and type in the same passcode.

When I get this done if for some reason it doesn't connect would I be able to
just plug the old d-link back in and still connect until I figure it out
Should be able to, you may need to change back any wireless configuration changes you make on the laptop. The hardwired connections should work fine.

[Sweed]

You would initially set wep and an associated passcode on the router. Then you'd configure the laptop to use wep and type in the same passcode.


Should be able to, you may need to change back any wireless configuration changes you make on the laptop. The hardwired connections should work fine.

Sweet. It's always nice to have a safety net :D

[Antmeister]

Forgive my ignorance :) but I'm not sure what you mean by the bolded part.

Ooops....I should have just said portable storage device. If you set it up under Windows, it will ask for one so that you can set up the other computers to be on the same network.

[Sweed]

Thanks to all that helped. The install was a success on the second try. Not sure what happened the first time but it didn't want to connect. Went back to step one and started over. Was sure glad that jeff061 said I could just plug the old router back in, and yes it did work so averted a panic attack :D

Unfortunatly my son is at school so will have to wait to try the wireless connection. Should be interesting. If it goes well I don't think it will be to hard to talk the wife into picking up a laptop for us ;)

[Sweed]

Ooops....I should have just said portable storage device. If you set it up under Windows, it will ask for one so that you can set up the other computers to be on the same network.

Ok, got you now. I'll want to save a file that windows makes when setting up the laptop. I thought you ment to save a file that linksys made during setup, my bad. After re-reading I see you were talking about the windows wireless network wizard.

Thanks for the info though. At least now I'll know to look for it when the time comes. And both my kids have one of those keychain usb devices so that will be easy too.

[FrogMan]

I'm thinking of going wireless/wired in the house and this linksys router is one I'm considering so I'm bringing this thread back from way, way out.

So Sweed, if I get this right, you are saying that you have some wired computers and possibly one who's working on the wireless network, is that what I should understand?

If so, would this mean you originally only bought the router and no other adapters?

I'm pretty clueless when it comes to wireless networking, well to networking period but my wife's boss just offered her a laptop as part of her job, so we will be looking to share the modem with it and then I plan on getting a second desktop pc in the house, so again we would expand then...

Thanks for any help...

FM

[FrogMan]

huh, anybody?

FM

[Eaglesfan27]

I'm thinking of going wireless/wired in the house and this linksys router is one I'm considering so I'm bringing this thread back from way, way out.

So Sweed, if I get this right, you are saying that you have some wired computers and possibly one who's working on the wireless network, is that what I should understand?

If so, would this mean you originally only bought the router and no other adapters?

I'm pretty clueless when it comes to wireless networking, well to networking period but my wife's boss just offered her a laptop as part of her job, so we will be looking to share the modem with it and then I plan on getting a second desktop pc in the house, so again we would expand then...

Thanks for any help...

FM

Just saw this today. If your laptop or whatever computer you want to connect wirelessly has an internal wireless adapter included (like many newer laptops do), all you will need to buy is a wireless router (which can be as cheap as 20 or 30 dollars, but a good one for 50-60 is worth it. Or if you want one of the newest routers it can cost up to 150 dollars)

If the laptop doesn't have a wireless adapter internally, you will need to buy a wireless card for the laptop which will slide right into a slot on it and that will cost anywhere from 20-50 dollars depending upon quality (or if you want one of the fanciest newest ones it will cost about 80-90 dollars.)

You will also need to buy a wireless adapter when you get your 2nd computer if you don't want it physically wired to your router. As far as your 1st computer, the most common thing that is done, is that computer is physically wired to the router since presumably your internet is already near it and wired to it at this time.

Hope this helps.

[CraigSca]

Eaglefan is right - any wireless router I've seen usually had 4 hard-wired ports as well, so you can use both wireless and hard-wired at the same time.

[Sweed]

I'm thinking of going wireless/wired in the house and this linksys router is one I'm considering so I'm bringing this thread back from way, way out.

So Sweed, if I get this right, you are saying that you have some wired computers and possibly one who's working on the wireless network, is that what I should understand?

If so, would this mean you originally only bought the router and no other adapters?

I'm pretty clueless when it comes to wireless networking, well to networking period but my wife's boss just offered her a laptop as part of her job, so we will be looking to share the modem with it and then I plan on getting a second desktop pc in the house, so again we would expand then...

Thanks for any help...

FM

Sorry, FM went to bed early last night and am just seeing this now. Yeah, when I got home with the router only had 3 computers hard wired to the old d'link. But as predicted before my son ever got home with his laptop the wife bought one for herself ;) So did run hardwired only for about a week. Haven't bought any adapters as I got rid of the oldest computer and my daughter's and my computers are still hard wired into the router.

Setup was easy, just followed the instructions on the setup disk. The wifes new laptop already had wireless built in so all we had to do was input the password. Had to buy my son a wireless card which was also an easy setup.

The advice in this thread was all dead on and made the job less stressful, thanks again everyone. As others said do setup the security, before we put in the password for the new laptop we had picked up two unsecured wireless networks in the neighborhood.

I'd highly recommend going wireless, it's very nice and not hard to do.

[FrogMan]

thanks everyone, big, big help in here.

Just saw this today. If your laptop or whatever computer you want to connect wirelessly has an internal wireless adapter included (like many newer laptops do), all you will need to buy is a wireless router (which can be as cheap as 20 or 30 dollars, but a good one for 50-60 is worth it. Or if you want one of the newest routers it can cost up to 150 dollars)

If the laptop doesn't have a wireless adapter internally, you will need to buy a wireless card for the laptop which will slide right into a slot on it and that will cost anywhere from 20-50 dollars depending upon quality (or if you want one of the fanciest newest ones it will cost about 80-90 dollars.)

You will also need to buy a wireless adapter when you get your 2nd computer if you don't want it physically wired to your router. As far as your 1st computer, the most common thing that is done, is that computer is physically wired to the router since presumably your internet is already near it and wired to it at this time.

Hope this helps.

My wife doesn't have her laptop yet, so I'll wait to see if she inherits an old one from her workplace or if they buy here a new one (that would probably have the network adapter) and yeah, I'll probably leave the router near one of the computers, probably the main one so it would be wired to it. That was probably my main question, trying to figure out if that first desktop pc would need a wireless adapter or not. Now I know it won't :)

This is the router I'm thinking of getting, probably the one mentionned atop the thread by Sweed:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1030266&CatId=373

Staples.ca currently has it for $70 canadian after some instant rebates.

Eaglefan is right - any wireless router I've seen usually had 4 hard-wired ports as well, so you can use both wireless and hard-wired at the same time.

thanks for confirming the information :)


Sorry, FM went to bed early last night and am just seeing this now. Yeah, when I got home with the router only had 3 computers hard wired to the old d'link. But as predicted before my son ever got home with his laptop the wife bought one for herself ;) So did run hardwired only for about a week. Haven't bought any adapters as I got rid of the oldest computer and my daughter's and my computers are still hard wired into the router.

Setup was easy, just followed the instructions on the setup disk. The wifes new laptop already had wireless built in so all we had to do was input the password. Had to buy my son a wireless card which was also an easy setup.

The advice in this thread was all dead on and made the job less stressful, thanks again everyone. As others said do setup the security, before we put in the password for the new laptop we had picked up two unsecured wireless networks in the neighborhood.

I'd highly recommend going wireless, it's very nice and not hard to do.

very cool, thanks for the info. How do you like that router? Is it stable, i.e. does it lose signal often or not, when connected via the laptops of course?

Thanks for the info, I'll keep this thread bookmarked for when I install anything...

FM

[Eaglesfan27]

I had that exact same router and it worked very well in my old apartment. My new home is bigger and the router had trouble reaching upstairs in some rooms. However, if your home is under 2400 feet and doesn't have a lot of materials that will block the signal, that router should work very well around your entire house and certainly will work well if you are only a room or two away from the router.

If you have to buy a card for the laptop or 2nd computer, I recommend getting an 802.11g speed booster compliant card so that you take advantage of the increased speed that router offers.

[FrogMan]

I had that exact same router and it worked very well in my old apartment. My new home is bigger and the router had trouble reaching upstairs in some rooms. However, if your home is under 2400 feet and doesn't have a lot of materials that will block the signal, that router should work very well around your entire house and certainly will work well if you are only a room or two away from the router.

hrm, our hous isn't too big, 24x34 but one of the desktop computers might end up in the basement (my playroom) and the other on the second floor (my son's bedroom). Could that cause a problem?

Mind sharing what kind of router you are using now, if any?


If you have to buy a card for the laptop or 2nd computer, I recommend getting an 802.11g speed booster compliant card so that you take advantage of the increased speed that router offers.

That was my plan, that if/when I'd go with that kind of router, everything bought under my control would be speedbooster compliant. By "under my control" I mean, I would not kick out anything already in laptop for example, but if I need to buy something, I will go with something with speedbooster...

Thanks again for the info.

FM

[Eaglesfan27]

I'm using Belkin's N1 Router now. It's expensive (about 130 dollars), but it is supposed to have significantly improved range and speed. So far, I've been happy with it, but have not found it as impressive as I thought it would be. It works in every corner of our house, but there is a significant performance hit if the computers are far away. That will probably be better when I get an 802.11n card for the laptop (802.11n is the new, still a work in progress standard for wireless communications.)

As far as the 2 floor differential, it depends upon the makeup of your house. It could create a problem having the router 2 floors from the wireless receiver, but it could work fine. If you are going to do that, I'd recommend putting the router on the 2nd floor as opposed to the basement. Of course, the ideal might be to put it on the 1st floor between the 2 computers. It really depends quite a bit upon the makeup of the materials of your home and how "Reflective" they are to the wireless signals.

[Sweed]

Been very happy with the router. Never had it lose the signal to the laptop.
My house is a single level with a basement. The modem and router are in the basement "playroom" while my wife usese the laptop anywhere in the house.

Just from the top of my head I'd say the house is approx. 2000 sq ft. Certainly under 2400. I would think if it was on the first level reaching the basement and upstairs wouldn't be a problem.

And yes that is the same router that I have.