Need Help. Networking Laptop with PC

photoshop · 10 Jan 2007 at 08:09

Hi Guys

My brother brought a laptop yesterday, the Dell Inspiron 6400, which has wireless intergrated. How could i network his laptop to my pc?

My pc is upstairs in my bedroom and has got broadband. The laptop will stay downstairs so i need to network them both together so that he can share my broadband connection aswell as some folders/drives which i give him access to, and file transfering from one to the other.

Any suggestions guys?
Ideally under £100 but can push it to £150

Thanks

oddjob62 · 10 Jan 2007 at 08:57

What are you currently using to connect to broadband?
Modem? Router? ADSL or Cable

pukeater™ · 10 Jan 2007 at 09:00

Wireless setup would be best. Get a Wireless router (Either a cable one or a Dsl one). Should be quite straight forward to set up. Follow instructions with Router.

JaseUK · 10 Jan 2007 at 10:40

pukeater™ said:
Wireless setup would be best. Get a Wireless router (Either a cable one or a Dsl one). Should be quite straight forward to set up. Follow instructions with Router.

I agree with pukeater

I too have the inspiron 6400 and use a wireless router (etec 845G) and it runs like a dream. The laptops integrated Intel PROSet Wireless adapter is very easy to configure.

If you have a modem you can use ICS to connect the laptop through yer PC to connect to the internet, and if you want to transfer files between the both ensure PC and Laptop are on the same workgroup.

photoshop · 10 Jan 2007 at 13:05

oddjob62 said:
What are you currently using to connect to broadband?
Modem? Router? ADSL or Cable

Cable. Plugs straight into my 10/100 on the mobo.

photoshop · 10 Jan 2007 at 13:06

pukeater™ said:
Wireless setup would be best. Get a Wireless router (Either a cable one or a Dsl one). Should be quite straight forward to set up. Follow instructions with Router.

any good suggetsions for a good quality wireless router? Looking for a complaete package where i dont need to be a router and then seperate cards. Ideally under or £150
bearing in mind the range needs to be good and capable of good speeds as the laptop will be downstairs and main pc upstairs.

photoshop · 11 Jan 2007 at 06:59

any ideas?

kbc · 11 Jan 2007 at 11:54

photoshop said:
any ideas?

Get yourself a Linksys WRT54G (Wireless Router Only). Plug the cable modem using the ethernet cable into the WAN port of the Linksys.

Connect yourself up using one of the 4-ports on the Linksys (if you wish to use wired) and then just configure the wireless on your brother's laptop.

Works fine on NTL.

photoshop · 11 Jan 2007 at 12:12

kbc said:
Get yourself a Linksys WRT54G (Wireless Router Only). Plug the cable modem using the ethernet cable into the WAN port of the Linksys.

Connect yourself up using one of the 4-ports on the Linksys (if you wish to use wired) and then just configure the wireless on your brother's laptop.

Works fine on NTL.

That only has 54Mbps and drops to 11Mbps when transfering files.
Can you recommend any 200/300Mbps ones....?

how about Linksys WRT300N-UK Wireless-N Broadband Router/4-Port Switch"

kbc · 11 Jan 2007 at 12:46

photoshop said:
That only has 54Mbps and drops to 11Mbps when transfering files.
Can you recommend any 200/300Mbps ones....?

how about Linksys WRT300N-UK Wireless-N Broadband Router/4-Port Switch"

I've not tried the Wireless-N routers, so can't really comment on how good they are in terms of speed and transferring files over the network (All I know is that - they aren't cheap). But I believe the Inspiron 6400 only has a 54Mbps wireless adapter so it would seem pointless to get the Wireless-N router unless you're thinking of getting a Wireless-N adapter for it.

I would've thought transferring a few files in the home - a 54Mbps would be more than adequate.