Devoto. Posted December 13, 2004 Share Posted December 13, 2004 Hello all, Right, for Xmas I may be getting a laptop, I was going to get an iBook but i'm not so sure anymore because of the problems that may occur with what I want to do with it. Anyway, basically if I did get a laptop I would want to be able to surf the net from anywhere in my house. I haven't really thought about any of this up until the past few days so I don't know much but what equipment would I need? I have a wired router connected to my main PC upstairs via a USB port. For me. sharing files between the two computers wouldn't be a neccessity, I just want to be able to access the net connection thats running on my PC upstairs but do it from my laptop downstairs, thus no wires. I was going to get an iBook but seeing as my main computer upstairs is a PC I don't know whether you can sort of network the two together so the iBook would be able to share the PC's internet connection? I was told by a friend that he thought it would be really problematic and too much hassle. But really, all I need to know is what equipment would I need? Is my wired router all I need or would I have to buy a wireless one? Any help is much appreciated, sorry if I haven't explained it enough! Cheers all, Lee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistical Posted December 13, 2004 Share Posted December 13, 2004 You need to have a wireless router if you want to surf the net anywhere in the house without any wires at all. There are other ways around this as well, like buying a wireless adapter for your computer that is wired to the net, and just connecting from your wireless to your computer then to the net, I say just get the wireless router. It is almost sure that your laptop will come with a wireless adapter, built in or not, whichever, check on it, probably is, but if not, you will have to buy one for your laptop, but most likely most do come with them now a days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josh Posted December 13, 2004 Share Posted December 13, 2004 ^^^ or a neighbor that has an unprotected WiFi access point ;) Seems to work just as well :whistle: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred Derf Veteran Posted December 13, 2004 Veteran Share Posted December 13, 2004 It also depends on how big your house is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devoto. Posted December 13, 2004 Author Share Posted December 13, 2004 You need to have a wireless router if you want to surf the net anywhere in the house without any wires at all. There are other ways around this as well, like buying a wireless adapter for your computer that is wired to the net, and just connecting from your wireless to your computer then to the net, I say just get the wireless router.It is almost sure that your laptop will come with a wireless adapter, built in or not, whichever, check on it, probably is, but if not, you will have to buy one for your laptop, but most likely most do come with them now a days. 585093760[/snapback] Thanks mistical. But does anybody know if it would be problematic trying to do it with a PC and a Mac laptop? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josh Posted December 13, 2004 Share Posted December 13, 2004 I have a PC Laptop and a PowerBook(w/ Panther - 10.3)... Use use a Netgear wireless router w/ WPA and I can hop on anywhere... (Y) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamatfu Posted December 13, 2004 Share Posted December 13, 2004 XP and OS X play well together in my house all the time. My girlfriend has a powerbook and I have a variety of XP and *nix machines. Everyone gets along just fine via my Netgear wifi-enabled router. You shouldn't have any problems setting up file-sharing and the like. Are you asking, though, whether you can share the wired network connection of the PC via a wireless card so that your new laptop can use it? If so, I've done that easily on a PC-to-PC connection, but never tried using a shared PC connection with a Mac. Anyone else given that a shot? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devoto. Posted December 13, 2004 Author Share Posted December 13, 2004 I have a PC Laptop and a PowerBook(w/ Panther - 10.3)... Use use a Netgear wireless router w/ WPA and I can hop on anywhere... (Y) 585093799[/snapback] Thats cool man. The iBook I'm on about getting has Airport Extreme built in, so all I would need to buy is a wireless router and I'd be set up fine to surf the net from downstairs and share files etc? @ jamatfu: All I want to do really is just share the internet connection that my PC has with an iBook. I don't really need access to any files or anything. All I want to do is be able to surf the net wirelessly from throughout my house. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josh Posted December 13, 2004 Share Posted December 13, 2004 Correct. As long as you have OSX 10.3 then WPA is supported (much better than WEP) and so you have a protected Access Point and can get on with any computer anywhere the connectoin is in reach. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devoto. Posted December 13, 2004 Author Share Posted December 13, 2004 Correct. As long as you have OSX 10.3 then WPA is supported (much better than WEP) and so you have a protected Access Point and can get on with any computer anywhere the connectoin is in reach. 585093870[/snapback] Phew, thanks dude. You've been a big help! Seems that my dream of getting an iBook isn't over! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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