I want to change from broadband to wireless.?
Right now I have comcast broadband for internet and I want to upgrade it to wireless so I can us my Wii and DS to the fullest.I called comcast and they told me the cheapest way would be to buy my own router.So Ive been looking around and noticed that some said the come with free adapters. First of all, what is that, and second is, do I need it?
3 Responses
elven_rangers
09 Aug 2010
Michael
09 Aug 2010
If you buy a router that is wireless it most likely will have some outputs for LAN connections, the wireless you get to set up how you want and you can have many connections.
The adapter should be something that looks like a USB stick. This is used for computers that do not have a wireless card installed into them so that they can use the wireless. The adapter basically acts like the wireless card and receives the signal from the router.
If you have a laptop that does not have a wireless card then yes you do need it. You could use it to hook a desktop up wireless if you wanted as well. If you have a laptop that has a wireless card then no you don’t need it.
jimmymae2000
09 Aug 2010
The adapter is the thing that goes on your computer, so if your computer has one then no you don’t need. Here is what you can do cheap. Get a d-link model WBR-1310 $19.95 at Fry’s. Connect the either net cable from your modem to the router ( with both device power off) then turn on both device power at same time (that is modem and router) the two units will talk to each other and automatically set up. That’s all there is to that.
Having your own router is indeed the cheapest (and also the best) way to get yourself wireless internet.
Free adapters are good if your equipment doesn’t already have wireless capability. The adapter is actually a wireless receiver, good if you have a desktop that doesn’t have a wifi card already inside, otherwise the adapter is not interesting.
Important things to watch in a router are a good firewall (you don’t want your neighbors using your bandwidth for free, do you?), good encryption and the ability to manage a broadband connection like PPPoE (since your old broadband cable will be plugged into the router which will then share the connection between all clients you may want to connect).
What I strongly recommend is the Asus WL500G Premium V2 (which I also use) or the WL500N (which features WiFi N, faster than G). It has an excellent firewall, easy to follow setup routine, good encryption (I recommend you to use WPA2 with AES, the best security to prevent hacking, seems teenagers nowadays make a sport of hacking wireless networks) not to mention you can plugin a USB drive straight into the router and use a torrent client to download stuff while all your computers/Wii are off.