upgrading eircom broadband to wireless

GadgetFiend

hi,

i've currently got eircom broadband (i know its ****, but hey, i'm not paying for it!) in the study in my gaff but need to be able to use it on my laptop upstairs..

does anyone know how much it costs to get it upgraded to wireless broadband, so it could be used on both computers- i'd ring eircom but dont want to be put on hold all through lunch

cheers

irlrobins

to make your setup wireless you'd need to buy a wireless router (or a wireless dsl/router combo) and a wireless card for laptop if it doesn't already have one. You'll hook ur dsl modem to the router and then use wireless card in laptop to connect to router.

Komplett have a package for €99 which include a router and a wireless card.

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=303770&cks=PRL.

This should work imo.

GadgetFiend

cheers

so its just a case of running the exisitng modem through the wireless thing?

will i need to buy a separate wireless card for the main desktop computer- a USB one perhaps?

irlrobins

yep

Most routers allow wired connections as well as wireless ones. So if desktop is beside router you could connect via a wired connection. So if you want a wireless connection use a usb wireless card as you said.

GadgetFiend

irlrobins if you're out there..!

i bought that komplett router and its all connected up, but the laptop signal is very low and I cant access the internet

the desktop is located in the 'office' out the back of my house, and the laptop is in my room- the two are no more than 15 metres away- give or take the walls of the house

having said that, when the laptop is also 'in the office' the signal is excellent and 100%

surely i should be able to pick up a stronger signal? occaisionaly a message flashes up on the desktop there is an IP clash- is that the problem?

steve

irlrobins

ip clash means that there are 2 pc's trying to use the same ip address. Either use DHCP to assign ip addresses (that way it should only assign an unused ip address to each pc) or statically assign different ip addresses to each pc.

(i.e desktop=192.168.1.100 laptop=192.168.1.101)

Signal strength can vary. What are teh walls made up of? Have u any thing that might cause interferance? Microwave, cordless phone etc?

Try updating the firmware of teh router and the drivers of the wireless card.

When ur in the office and get 100% signal strength can you connect to internet then?

GadgetFiend

in the office, i get 100% and full connection to the net

i'll try using dhcp and get back to you

i'm not sure what the walls are made of- although there is a satellite dish on the wall- not sure if that would interfere?

Laguna

Wouldn't say the dish would interfere. Most likely the walls are granite or something m8!, wireless isn't completely hindered by walls in houses but is severely hampered!

GadgetFiend

its a very old house (1920s) so there could be granite or asbestos or anything in them..

I'm going to get a long rj45 cable and just run it from the modem (in office) to the router (inside)- kinda defeats the purpose of being 'wireless' tho..

would that be a good course of action?

irlrobins

did u update the firmware and drivers of the devices?

GadgetFiend

no, where would i do that?

Its literally brand new, so would I really need to update them?

irlrobins

go to the support section of the manufacturers website and loook up your model. should give u a link to drivers downloads, so just follow the instructions.

Never had a piece of hardware that didn't need updating out of the box

dmeehan

its probs as the walls are too thick

i have the same problem in my house, which is only 6 months old.
first floor is Ducon concrete so i would assume that that is the reason why i cant get a signal upstairs. signal down stairs varies depending on which room im in and if doors are open (sonds silly but it makes a small difference)

try opening windows in your room and where the router is to see if it makes a difference. if you can access net downstairs then its unlikely to be a dhcp/ip problem

also, if you previously used the l;aptop with dialup then you will have to run the Internet Connection Wizard again as the laptop will default to the old settings and in some cases ignore the broadband and launch the dialup dialog