Idiot newbie wireless question

[Greg Wak]

To set up a wireless network at home I understand you need to buy the device that will create the wireless signal in your home. From where does this device get the signal? Does it pull it out of the wall like your normal desktop would? If it does and DSL is unavailable in your area and your limited to 56k is your wireless network limited to 56k? thx.

[tiny ogre]

To set up a wireless network at home I understand you need to buy the device that will create the wireless signal in your home. From where does this device get the signal? Does it pull it out of the wall like your normal desktop would? If it does and DSL is unavailable in your area and your limited to 56k is your wireless network limited to 56k? thx.

Every wirless router I know of (which isn't to say I know of them all) requires an ethernet uplink. Which is to say DSL or a cable modem. It goes like this:

Coax Cable or Phone line ==> Cable Modem or DSL Modem ==(ethernet)==> Wireless Router ==> computers via ethernet or wireless

What you need if you can't (or won't) get DSL or a cable modem, is a router (wireless or not) that supports analog modem connections. I don't know if such a thing exists, but it may.

Though it would take some technical know-how, you could certainly build a cheap Linux (or, I'll concede, even Windows with connection sharing) computer with a plain old analog modem and a wireless card and get a wireless network for the rest of your home.

[Campy]

Wireless just connects the computers inside your home. It won't do anything to speed up your internet connection. And if you are sharing the dial-up connection (more than one computer using it at once, the effective speed for each computer will be slower.

Also, most home networks connect their broadband modem to a wireless router that then communicates with all of the PCs on the network. Your network will need to be different. The dialup will still connect to one computer and then you use wireless to connect to that "host" computer to achieve internet connection sharing (ICS). There are several ways to accomplish this using either a wireless router or access point or an ad hoc wireless network (no router, the wireless cards communicate with each other). However, most instructions for routers and wireless cards don't talk about how to set up this type of network. So you will probably need to get instructions online.

[Campy]

To tiny ogre's point, there is at least one wireless router that accepts analog: www.wiflyer.com. However, it is fairly pricey and it won't do anything to change the fact that you still only have a 56K connection from your home to the rest of the world.

[Vagabond]

To set up a wireless network at home I understand you need to buy the device that will create the wireless signal in your home. From where does this device get the signal? Does it pull it out of the wall like your normal desktop would? If it does and DSL is unavailable in your area and your limited to 56k is your wireless network limited to 56k? thx.

Why would you want to set up a network like this? If you are just using dialup you have a home network already, it's called the phone jacks in the house. Doesn't make any sense.

[Jeff V]

You don't need Linux to set this up (Win2K or XP work just fine), but unless you are looking to network things like printers or do file sharing between computers, I probably wouldn't bother. Sharing a dialup connection in this manner is not a pleasant experience.

The wireless router could be setup as a DHCP server and route traffic among a local workgroup. To route traffic to the internet, though, it would need to be connected via its WAN port. You would need a normal NIC in a computer that is connected to this port on the wireless router. The PC containing the modem would be setup as a gateway, and all internet traffic pointed to its IP address. Both Win2K and WinXP can do this inherently, XP has additional "wizards" to make setup a little easier.

[Greg Wak]

Thanks , I had a friend who wanted to set up a wireless network and wasn't sure if he had acess to cable or dsl. He will be getting cable so all is good.

[tiny ogre]

Why would you want to set up a network like this? If you are just using dialup you have a home network already, it's called the phone jacks in the house. Doesn't make any sense.

Laptop. Back Yard. 'Nuff Said?

[Vagabond]

Why would you want to set up a network like this? If you are just using dialup you have a home network already, it's called the phone jacks in the house. Doesn't make any sense.

Laptop. Back Yard. 'Nuff Said?

Running a wireless connection off a dialup would make the speed so slow you would be back inside very quickly because you could move inside faster than the data would.