Wireless for a desktop.

[Euphoric]

I just bought a house. I have 4 desktop PCs and a laptop. Right now my main PC is downstairs hooked up to the DSL modem via ethernet. The modem has wireless and I can use my laptop upstairs with a wireless card. I'd like to set up a desktop PC upstairs to also use wireless but I don't know what I need. Can anyone help me out? The desktop PC has an ethernet card and will be running either Windows 98SE or Windows ME. (Don't give me any crap! :P )

[The Unknown Gomer]

Theoretically, I think you should just be able to install a matching wireless card into your PC upstairs, set its security settings to match your other computers and you should be good to go. Although there are other more geek people here than me, who can probably tell you better how to do it. ;)

I did run into a few snags with my wireless network set up, something about one PC being XP and the other being Win98SE (so if you get any crap about your OS, it won't be from ME! ;) ). And my Win98 machine still cannot see my XP machine (it used to but then something happened to the settings and I've not been able to get them back to the way they were), but the XP machine sees the Win98 machine just fine.

And both PCs can access the internet off the same connection at the same time, unless I'm downloading a bunch of stuff down here and stealing all the bandwidth, then the machine upstairs surfs at a crawl. Bwahahaha.

[Euphoric]

So it's just a PCI card to replace the current ethernet card? That would be good. I just don't have to run CAT-5 all over the place like I did at my last place.

[larryl]

you could do that, or put the PCI in a different slot, and not take your current one out.

or you could do what i prefer, and use a USB wireless adaptor. mine is a belkin, and i used it for a while last year when i was in a similar situation. i loved it.

the usb connection is faster than PCI, so you actually get better performance, and it's easier.

[Sharon]

I just bought a house. I have 4 desktop PCs and a laptop. Right now my main PC is downstairs hooked up to the DSL modem via ethernet. The modem has wireless and I can use my laptop upstairs with a wireless card. I'd like to set up a desktop PC upstairs to also use wireless but I don't know what I need. Can anyone help me out? The desktop PC has an ethernet card and will be running either Windows 98SE or Windows ME. (Don't give me any crap! :P )


Hey .... I have Win98SE also with a cable internet connection .... I tell people it's like grandpa on steroids :P

[Euphoric]

you could do that, or put the PCI in a different slot, and not take your current one out.

or you could do what i prefer, and use a USB wireless adaptor. mine is a belkin, and i used it for a while last year when i was in a similar situation. i loved it.

the usb connection is faster than PCI, so you actually get better performance, and it's easier.Well, I won't need the Ethernet card if I use a wireless card so I might as well rip it out. I don't think this particular box has USB-2 - I can't remember but I think the PCI might be faster than USB-1. Someone can tell me if I'm wrong.



Hey .... I have Win98SE also with a cable internet connection .... I tell people it's like grandpa on steroids :P I say if it works, it works! I use to stay on the bleeding edge all the time and not only did it cost a lot of money, it was a huge headache. Now I don't mind being way behind. I can use my PCs instead of spending my time trying to make them run.

[larryl]

it is my understanding that even usb 1 is faster.

when i was on dial-up, a few years ago, my PCI modem got fried, and i bought a USB external modem. my connection was far faster.

[Euphoric]

it is my understanding that even usb 1 is faster.

when i was on dial-up, a few years ago, my PCI modem got fried, and i bought a USB external modem. my connection was far faster.Really?

Well, I got a PCI card today and just set up Desktop #2. Maybe I'll try USB one on Desktop #3 and see what happens.

I seem to recall have USB grief with the machine I setup today - I can't remember if there were Windows 98 issues or not. The ME machine should be ok.

This PCI card I got today is a Linksys and it said 54Mbps. My internet connection is only 7Mbps. So I think either way I'd be fine.

[jabob]

We have only wireless access, so we bought a Linksys USB Wireless Adaptor. It works great. We actually pick up a wireless signal from about 50 yards away.

[Sam!]

USB 1.x is only in the 1-1.5 mbps range as opposed to your theoretical 7mbps Internet connection. However, for anything but very large downloads, a USB 1.x wireless adapter will be just fine - as long as it does indeed support Windows 98. Just make sure you double check the OS compatibility of any hardware you buy.

You will definitely have issues sharing resources between the computers, but everybody should be able to get on the internet just fine.