Installing WiFi PCI cards

[MorseLady]

I have a 1mb NTL DSL Cable Broadband connection installed on an XP Pro machine. I want to use WiFi to share it with my husband's XP Home machine in our bungalow. I have bought the Linsky G Router and obtained permission from Evesham to install the WiFi PCI cards in our new and under Warranty computers but I am not sure if I need to install a card in the machine the Broadband is installed on or just the client machine(s)? I will be using Linskys PCI cards.

I have only had broadband for a week but I could never go back to dial up.

[TechZ]

Hi MorseLady

We need to know more about your setup, you get DSL or Cable Broadband? And what kind of modem do you use, via USB, or via a DSL/Cable Router?

[MorseLady]

Hi TechZ,

It is NTL cable modem broadband and is DSL. The modem is connected via Ethernet.

I am getting very confused but all I really want to know for now is do I need a WiFi PCI card in the host computer as well as clients? I will worry about setting up the ICS when I have all the things I need.

[TechZ]

ok, a simple solution (nowadays not many people use ICS, its just not needed with routers and the like)

1] Get a cable modem/router/wifi (three in one device), it gives you internet access, 4 port router, and wifi in one. Then you can connect multiple wireless devices to it, and 4 wired ones.

or

2] Connect the ethernet modem (NTL cable) to your new Linksys G Router, from that, connect the 1 pc via ethernet, and another via wifi (you need to have the wifi card in the client pc).

What exact model is this Linksys G Router?

[confus-ed]

... I have bought the Linsky G Router..am not sure if I need to install a card in the machine the Broadband is installed on or just the client machine..

You want cards in all the machines you intend to connect to the net or each other. Your router becomes the 'front door & hallway', & each network card is a door to a 'room' of your network & acts as a portal to allow traffic to & from bits of your network & 'outside' to the world/net.

The bit that most folk need telling about is this :- NTL cable uses 'mac authenication' (to control who can use its services) so if you have an existing activated account, what you do is note the 'mac address' (6 hex figures e.g. 08:00:39:00:30:EF; running 'ipconfig/all' from a prompt should reveal this value )

This value then needs 'cloning' into the router for any existing NTL account to work without setting up a whole new one. (NTL's server asks for this value , if its not there 'right'== no connection).

Generally what I do, is to connect the router & existing machine (the one that may already be connected up on its own) either via wireless or cabled (whichever I'm installing), & use the inbuilt feature found in most models to copy the mac address from 'already conneceted' to my new first point of entry into my new network, my router. Or just override the mac value in the router mannually.

As ever if you need 'more' .. speak up

[confus-ed]

Hi TechZ,

It is NTL cable modem broadband and is DSL. The modem is connected via Ethernet.

I am getting very confused but all I really want to know for now is do I need a WiFi PCI card in the host computer as well as clients? I will worry about setting up the ICS when I have all the things I need.

Hang on ... this & another reply from techz popped up while I was 'composing' ..

Morse lady: you don't use Internet Connection sharing & a router together, well not generally anways..

The router becomes your 'host' in this instance & works to share your outside connection like I described above, so it replaces any need for it to 'pass through' a 'host' like with ICS. Very simply I guess ;

'outside' (NTL's line ) talks to router. Router talks to cards. Cards talk to pc (& vice versa but with those 'joins')..

[TechZ]

This is why I initially asked whether it was Cable or DSL, the Mac address issue

[MorseLady]

Thank you very much for the tutorials and I think I have got the idea now. I should be ashamed of myself having to ask if I am supposed to be taking MCP exams(I keep putting them off as do most of my class, those who took them mostly failed).

No problem with the MAC address it is safely noted and in fact I had to quote it when I rang NTL to activate my broadband.

Right I will buy two cards one for my main XP Pro computer, one for my husband's XP Home machine. My two older machines will be connected via cable as and when I want to use them on the Internet.