Noob question on wireless / WRT54GL

DCat · 21 Jan 2009 at 23:25

Probably about as noob a question as you can get, but here goes:

I have 20Mbit Virgin Broadband. Bought the wife a laptop (with built in Wlan card) for xmas so she now wants wireless broadband access. I'm thinking the Linksys WRT54GL looks good.

In my desktop PC I have no wireless adapter and prefer not to install one (space issues). Am I right in thinking that if I just get the router, I can connect the WRT54GL to my Virgin modem and have my usual 'wired' connection to my broadband ... but with the possibility to just 'flick a switch' on the WRT54GL when the wife wants to surf wirelessly (and could this work simultaneously)? Or do I need to have my connection wireless i.e. via USB adapter?

Basically, I want to have the flexibility of wirless for her, but keeping the same wired connection for me ... but with minimum of fuss.

Am I talking rubbish and if not are there any practical drawbacks to this? Wireless networking is one thing I've never had to get to grips with until now

.

tolien · 21 Jan 2009 at 23:30

You can use wireless and wired at the same time. That's why there's 4 switch ports on the back of it, to connect machines with a cable.

bledd · 22 Jan 2009 at 10:50

it's a lot easier than you think it will be

have you owned a router before?

-basically you just turn off the cable modem, and connect it up to the 'WAN' port on the router, via ethernet/cat5e/network cable

-turn the router and modem on.

-connect your pc using an ethernet cable to the router (NOT via usb to the modem, you don't need this connection now)

-your pc should now have internet access.

-in your web browser, type in the address bar.. 192.168.1.1
username 'admin' password 'admin'

now use the manual / setup guide to setup WPA security on the wiresless, and choose a name for the wireless., click save etc.

done

now on the laptop, 'search for wireless networks', find your network, and type in the WPA key that you chose in the setup.

as toilen said, it'll have 4 ports on the back for any machines you want to connect up using a netowork cable, and you can connect as many wireless things as you want to it

it's all a lot easier than it may look at first

DCat · 22 Jan 2009 at 22:16

Guys, many thanks to you both! I was hoping for these answers and I'm now pleasantly surprised

DCat · 16 Feb 2009 at 11:12

When using the wired connection ports on the router to connect my desktop to my modem - is my desktop connection now also behind a router (even though it is using the wired connection)?

Reason I ask is becuase I'm having issues with DC++ connectivity and which I never had before. It looks like I may need to forward ports which I didn't expect to have to do unless connecting with wireless devices?

megatron · 16 Feb 2009 at 11:27

DCat said:
When using the wired connection ports on the router to connect my desktop to my modem - is my desktop connection now also behind a router (even though it is using the wired connection)?

Reason I ask is becuase I'm having issues with DC++ connectivity and which I never had before. It looks like I may need to forward ports which I didn't expect to have to do unless connecting with wireless devices?

Your modem is connected to the router, all outputs from the router have been through its firewall, including the wired connection to your PC. It doesn't make any difference apart from that you have to open certain ports to play games and use P2P.

Yes you have to open a port for DC++ to be in active mode.

http://portforward.com/cportsnotes/dc++/dc++setup.htm

DCat · 16 Feb 2009 at 12:40

megatron said:
Your modem is connected to the router, all outputs from the router have been through its firewall, including the wired connection to your PC. It doesn't make any difference apart from that you have to open certain ports to play games and use P2P.

Yes you have to open a port for DC++ to be in active mode.

http://portforward.com/cportsnotes/dc++/dc++setup.htm

Thanks mate, that's all clear for me now. Thanks for the link too.

spikey57 · 16 Feb 2009 at 14:31

Sorry to hijack this thread, but I have the same router as the OP. We have set up wireless, and have it encrypted. Every now and again the wireless light on the router starts flashing as if someone has connected to it, even though we have nothing wirelessly connected.

Does anyone know what the cause of this might be?

megatron · 16 Feb 2009 at 17:38

spikey57 said:
Sorry to hijack this thread, but I have the same router as the OP. We have set up wireless, and have it encrypted. Every now and again the wireless light on the router starts flashing as if someone has connected to it, even though we have nothing wirelessly connected.

Does anyone know what the cause of this might be?

http://192.168.1.1/Log.asp

Go there and enable logging - see if you have an IP connecting at the same time the light is flashing. Might be a good place to look although I've not tried it out myself.