Need advice on setting up wireless in apartment....

chat2joe

Hey,

In our apartment we have broadband access in each bedroom. I simple connect my laptop with a crossover cable (meant to be a Cat5 cable, the same?). It just plugs in and it works. The whole block seems to be connected as one network or something as I can share files with others in different apartments and all.

Anyway, here's my problem....

Two of us have wireless enabled laptops (which we use around college). How do we setup wireless access in the apartment??

This is what I'm thinking (probable wrong though as it sounds too easy ). We're thinking it's just a matter of buying a wireless router off Ebay or something and plugging that into the connection in one room, presume it needs a power connection too in there. Then we can access that modem through both laptops from the living area. It isn't that easy is it? The college setup the wireless setting we have so we're not sure what's involved. What else would we need to do???????????

Any advice would be GREATLY appreciated! what we need to buy etc.

Cheers guys!

mtracey

I'd imagine all you need to buy is an wireless access point, which will plug into the ethernet connection in the wall. get that and you'll have wireless access in the room at least, maybe further. not sure of their range

philologos

you need a large aerial which you can buy from komplett.ie and on the net. Get a huge one lol tht will cover the whole of the area u need it for

rsynnott

Erm, any decent access point should cover a sensibly-sized apartment quite nicely...

philologos

(which we use around college) got decieved by that whoops

Fobia

Crossover cable is indeed Cat5 - it's all in the crimp.

As for your wireless, a WRT54G should work ok for you, just hook the cable you normally use into that, fiddle around with the settings on it and connect up using the wireless cards on your laptop. Seeing as everyone in your apartment block can already get this internet access you probably wont have to fiddle around too much with security, either.

philologos

Fobia wrote:

Crossover cable is indeed Cat5 - it's all in the crimp.

As for your wireless, a WRT54G should work ok for you, just hook the cable you normally use into that, fiddle around with the settings on it and connect up using the wireless cards on your laptop. Seeing as everyone in your apartment block can already get this internet access you probably wont have to fiddle around too much with security, either.

Crossover is Cat5e I thought?

Fobia

You can make crossover out of both Cat5 and Cat5e cables afaik.

chat2joe

Thanks guys,

a WRT54G should work ok

.....looks good but a bit expensive, we're students!! Would this work as well?! Is it possible to connect one of these devices to a printer too? (Or does the printer need to be directly connected to a computer that's computer?)

philologos

ye it would work fine. To be honest I think that Linksys are far too expensive for what they are. But remember that b is only 11MB while G is 54MB but there are far cheaper G routers to be found apart from Linksys
To connect the printer to a wireless router you need a print server which are at about €70 from komplett.ie which changes your parallel printer to Ethernet and can be configged from a HTML interface

chat2joe

Well I bought this this evening;

Motorola WA840G 54 Mbps 802.11g Wireless G Access Point

I think this should do it! It cost me €34 including shipping and all. It's from a seller in Kerry. It looks good to me anyway, is it?!!


Anyway thanks a million guys for your help with this!

chat2joe

Just to let you guys know....I've been using this for nearly two months now and it's working a treat!! Just plugged it in and my laptop just logged into the network, sweet!!