Advice on near future wireless network

[ghettosamson]

Well, thank everyone again for any help or advice they may provide. I am going to purchase my equipment to set up a wireless network in my home, but I would like some advice first. I have my computer and my fathers computer. Mine has win2k and my fathers has XP. Mine will be in my room, 20 ft away from where the router will be, and my fathers will be right next to the router. I currently have a ethernet NIC which is a linksys lne100tx in mine. I bought one for my fathers computer and the the computer didnt recognize it. I tried installing the drivers but it wouldnt work. Linksys support said I needed to update the bios and my paps said screw it. So my choices for my father's comp are now either a usb wireless adapter like linksys wusb54g, or the linksys usb1000 gigabit usb adapter which would let me connect to the router through ethernet. The wireless router I already have is the linksys wrt54g. For my computer its either PCI NIC like the linksys wmp54g or the same usb wireless adapter. What do you guys/girls recommend? Once again, thank anyone and everyone who helps. It is appreciated. If you need more info, well, i can post it.

[NooNoo]

Well, you will probably get several recommendations so here is mine.

Your father's computer is XP, but what service pack?
Your wireless router is wrt54g, but what revision and what firmware?

I would have another go at your father's machine and put a pci nic in there. Many motherboards now have an onboard nic... are you sure your father's pc doesn't have one? What's the make and model?

The bios update for your father's pc is probably unnecessary and you didn't get good advice from linksys. I would prefer you had another go at getting it to work. This thread is as good as any for doing that. Have you thought about removing the nic from yours and trying it in his? Could be that the nic you bought for your father's machine is faulty out of the box.

You need one wired connection to the router so you can always access the router.

Right now to turn to your computer. If you want to run a usb wireless adapter, make sure you are up to SP4. Even the cheapest wireless adapter (that I have) provides a reasonable connection... it really depends on how many usb ports you have, and how many usb devices you have.

I prefer to keep as much stuff that is connected all the time internal to the pc, so I would recommend you get the internal linksys wireless nic.

Remember wireless signals can be blocked by the materials used in the walls, scattered by filing cabinets and interefered with by next door's microwave oven! Not to mention tv senders, cordless phones and headphones and remote control kids toys and... and...

So be prepared for it either working first time, or having to do alot of troubleshooting!

[ghettosamson]

Thank you NooNoo.
The motherboard in my fathers computer actually has a nic onboard. For some reason, he says he was never able to get it to work. If we can get it to work, that would be great. But how?
We currently have XP sp2.
Where can i find what revision and firmware is my linksys wrt54g router?
For the make and model of the motherboard sys. info says
Sys manufacturer: NVIDIA
Sys Model: AWRDACPI . Need more?

I too like my hardware internal. And my desire was to have my fathers comp hooked up to the router thru ethernet. But if I can gethelp with making my motheroards NIC to work, perfect.

I was also leaning toward the PCI NIC for my computer, and I think that thats what I want to go with. Your advice is well appreciated.

[NooNoo]

OK the revision is part of the model number on the router itself. The firmware version you can see when you connect to it using the web interface.

The onboard nic in your father's computer is probably turned off in bios/setup... enable it and then install the drivers.

The motherboard make/model you posted is not right. NVidia make chipsets, not motherboards. For both yours and your father's machine, download and install this and run the report, then post what it says about the motherboard... and the pci devices.

[ghettosamson]

Model No. for linksys is wrt54g v.5.

I guess my fathers onboard nic is turned off, but to be honest i dont know how to enable it. How would I go about turning it on in bios/setup?

The report for my fathers computer from everest is as follows.

Motherboard Properties
Motherboard ID 07/18/2003-nVidia-nForce-6A61BD4AC-00
Motherboard Name DFI NFII Ultra-AL

Front Side Bus Properties
Bus Type DEC Alpha EV6
Bus Width 64-bit
Real Clock 100 MHz (DDR)
Effective Clock 200 MHz
Bandwidth 1603 MB/s

Chipset Bus Properties
Bus Type HyperTransport v1.0
Bus Width 8-bit

Motherboard Physical Info
CPU Sockets/Slots 1 Socket 462
Expansion Slots 5 PCI, 1 AGP
RAM Slots 3 DDR DIMM
Integrated Devices Audio, LAN
Form Factor ATX
Motherboard Size 240 mm x 300 mm
Motherboard Chipset nForce2-U400
Extra Features SATA

Motherboard Manufacturer
Company Name DFI Corporation
Product Information http://sj.dfi.com.tw/Product/xx_prod...&INDEX_TYPE=MB
BIOS Download http://sj.dfi.com.tw/Support/Downloa...&INDEX_TYPE=MB

I will run it on mine when i get the chance.

[NooNoo]

OK, to enable the onboard nic, start hitting the del key as soon as it starts up (the monitor may not even be showing a picture yet). You will get a menu (which is described in the motherboard manual). this is the manual link but it is not working at the moment

Usually things like onboard nics are called onboard LAN and are found under the peripherals or advanced section of the bios menu.

But before you do any of that, is there actually an RJ45 port on the back of his pc? It will be near the usb ports and sound ports near the top of the case.. I have found conflicting information about the onboard lan for this board.

Have you checked in device manager in his computer for a network card? How about any pci controller devices with a ? or ! next to it?

What about the firmware version for the router?

[ghettosamson]

Yes it has the rj5 port. when we first got our bellsouth modem, westell wirespeed dual connect modem, we set it up and then tried to plug it in thru ethernet. The green light next to the rj5 port lights up, only the green light, and the modem ethernet light doesnt light up. When i bring my comp to make sure it works, i plug mine in using the same cable and vuala, the modem works thru ethernet. But, not for my paps comp.
As for device manager, funny thing. when im plugged in to the modem there is a spot for
network adapters and it says westell wirespeed dual connect modem.
when i disconnect the modem, nothing. but under ?other devices it says ?!ethernet controller, with the yellow question marks and a yellow question mark with a yellow exclamation point inside the question mark next to the ethernet controller. everest says bus 0, device 4, function 0: nvidia mcp2- LAN controller
under network.
I will see if it is the nic is turned on next.

[NooNoo]

ok the nic is turned on if you have that other devices ethernet controller... you just don't have the drive installed correctly. Do you have the cd that came with the motherboard for your father's computer? The driver should be on there. It is also possible that windows updates has the driver.

If you double click on the ethernet controller and reinstall driver and allow it to look on the internet, it may well install itself... if not, you will have to either find the motherboard disk or wait for the DFI website to wake up again.

[ghettosamson]

Just what the doctor ordered. I got the onboard nic going. went to dfi and got the driver. Thx. I always wonered why it wouldnt work. Now as for my comp, I am still waiting for my monitor ac adapter to reach. Should I go ahead and order my linksys pci nic for my comp?

[NooNoo]

Sorry it's been a while replying, I hope you already ordered the nic... and fitted and got it going... if not, post again!

[ghettosamson]

Hey. Sorry for the delay. I just got my B.S. and Im job searching so sometimes I dont have time. Well, I kept on reading reviews on the linksys wmp54g and I read that my PCI slots have to be 2.2 or greater. Well, how do I know if they are? As soon as I know that, I will order the NIC. here is the results from my computer

Motherboard Properties
Motherboard ID <DMI>
Motherboard Name Asus K7M

Front Side Bus Properties
Bus Type DEC Alpha EV6
Bus Width 64-bit
Real Clock 100 MHz (DDR)
Effective Clock 200 MHz
Bandwidth 1600 MB/s

Memory Bus Properties
Bus Type SDR SDRAM
Bus Width 64-bit
Real Clock 100 MHz
Effective Clock 100 MHz
Bandwidth 800 MB/s

Chipset Bus Properties
Bus Type PCI
Bus Width 32-bit
Real Clock 33 MHz
Effective Clock 33 MHz
Bandwidth 133 MB/s

Motherboard Physical Info
CPU Sockets/Slots 1 Slot A
Expansion Slots 1 ISA, 5 PCI, 1 AGP, 1 AMR
RAM Slots 3 SDR DIMM
Form Factor ATX
Motherboard Size 210 mm x 300 mm
Motherboard Chipset AMD750
Extra Features JumperFree

Motherboard Manufacturer
Company Name ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
Product Information http://www.asus.com/products1.aspx?l1=3
BIOS Download http://support.asus.com/download/dow...Language=en-us
Thank you

[NooNoo]

You have a legendary motherboard!! The asus motherboard that isn't....

a review with specs are here You do have pci 2.2. This revision was introduced in 1998 so you are definitely safe.

[ghettosamson]

Im gonna go ahead and order the NIC. As soon as i get it ill update u. Thx for all ur help.

[NooNoo]

my pleasure

[ghettosamson]

Well, Im glad to tell you that I am actually on my computer right now enjoynig wireless networking. I bought the NIC, my brother had given me the router and everything relatively went smoothly. When the router wouldnt connect to the internet then I called Linksys. Man I was really blessed to have gotten such a smart woman. She walked me thru everything and it was done in no time. I enabled my wep to 64bit, named the network, and chose my admin password. Well, Im where I wanna be. Thx for all your help. Oh, should I take any further steps to secure my wireless network. Thank you. Hey just one question, are you a football fan?