Wireless Routers
Welcome to the Wireless Routers page, a wireless router is essential if you have a wireless laptop and wish to use your wireless laptop wirelessly in your home. A wireless router broadcasts information to all of the computers in your home and can also receive your broadband connection so this allows all of your computers and laptops to use the same broadband connection and also communicate with each other.
Sharing the broadband connection is a huge bonus if you have allot of computers in your home and doing it wirelessly is easier than having cables all over your home. To be be able to access the wireless signal the laptops will need to have a wireless receiver built in or use an adaptor and the desktop computers will need an adaptor installing that can receive the wireless signal. Most wireless routers also have ethernet ports though so if a desktop computer is close to the wireless router then you can use an ethernet wire to connect that computer and this is easier as it requires no adaptor and most desktop computers have an ethernet port so all you need is an ethernet cable (which most wireless routers come with).
Wireless routers come in several speeds which is stated like 54MPS with the MPS standing for Megabytes Per Second, the speed dictates how fast the wireless router can send information to the computers on the home network. If you are only using the wireless router for broadband and a bit of file sharing then the speed of the wireless router is not so important as they are easily fast enough for that, however if you are playing games on your home network or transferring very large files then you will want to buy a wireless router that is very fast.
If you wish to share your broadband connection then it is also best to buy a wireless router that has a broadband modem built in, these do not cost much more than the standard wireless routers and they are excellent as they are so easy to set up with your broadband connection. Most wireless routers with a modem built in are compatible with ADSL broadband which is the broadband that most people use, if you use some other kind of broadband then you should find a wireless router that is compatible with that type of broadband.
Security is also very important with a wireless router and most have a firewall built in which will stop any unauthorised attacks. It can also be necessary to use encryption on your wireless signal as if you did not anyone within range would be able to access your broadband connection and any files on your home network, the range for wireless routers is generally 50 metres so that can cover allot of near-by homes and it is quite common for people to use other people's broadband connections that do not know how to use encryption. So you really should set up encryption on your wireless home network and this is easy to do, you simply set up a WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) key for your network which is like a password and then you have to enter this WEP key onto all of the computers and laptops that you wish to access the wireless network.
Setting up a wireless router in the home is easy and there are generally only a few things that you need. Firstly you will need to place a micro filter onto every telephone in your home, this sits between the telephone and the telephone line and stops the broadband connection from interfering with your telephone calls. You must also place a micro filter between the wireless router and the telephone socket if it has a broadband modem built in, if you are using a separate broadband modem then you should place the micro filter between the modem and the telephone socket.
It is then a matter od setting up the wireless router and any computers and laptops that you wish to use with the wireless router. If you are using a separate broadband modem that is already set up then it is a simple matter of connecting this to the wireless router so that the wireless router can access the broadband connection. If you are using a wireless router with a built in broadband modem then you will need your broadband settings and these will have come in the letter or email that you received when you signed up for the broadband and you will need to enter these settings during the set up process of the wireless router.
Before you set up the wireless router you need to configure the computers and laptops so that they can access the wireless network. There is a configuration utility in windows that sets up the networking for that computer and this should be ran on each computer, also make sure that each computer has the same Workgroup name as if they are different the computers will not be able to communicate over the network.
Setting up the wireless router is generally easy and they always come with instructions, the first step is to enter the IP address of the router on one of the computers that is connected so that you can access the set up program. You then enter the settings that it asks for and if it has a built in broadband modem then you should enter your broadband settings, you can also set up a WEP key at this point to keep your home network secure and this is very much recommended.
You will then have to enter the WEP key onto all of the computers and laptops that use a wireless connection with the wireless router and after that you should be ready to go, if it is still not working check the micro filters and the connections and also check that there are not firewalls on the computers blocking the connection to the network (this happens with Norton). So if you have a firewall blocking access to the network then it is usually a simple matter of running the networking utility within the firewall which will allow access to the network.
So with a wireless router you can easily enjoy wireless broadband and home networking all over the home, there are lots of shops that sell wireless routers and we have listed lots of cheap wireless routers on the right. We have only included wireless routers that have an ADSL modem built in so they offer al that you need to start a wireless network at home, all you need then is a wireless laptop for the best comfort in computing available. The wireless routers are listed with the cheapest first too so it is easy to find and buy a cheap wireless router with a built in ADSL modem built in here.
© UK Laptop.co.uk 2007.
