I am planning on setting up a wireless home network in my house. It’s just two computers, but we do want to connect both computers ([rimarily for gaming purposes). How would I go about this? I read on About.com that we’d need a wireless router. My computer would most likely be the main computer. Would I have to buy a PCI network card for my computer in order to hook up the router to it? Also, the other computer (a laptop) has an 802.11b D-Link card with it. Would a D-link router be something I look for? If we were to hook up the router to the laptop (it has a network cable port), could I just get a USB network adapter for me? What is a desktop switch??? Oh…my head hurts now. Any thoughts or ideas would be welcome.
This is the way I would do it:
Get a wireless router. Brand doesn’t matter, as long as it supports
802.11b. Then, connect your Cable modem/DSL modem to the router
(If you’re using dialup, this is going to be very different, so tell me, and
I’ll revise the directions). Then, get a PCI or USB Ethernet adapter for
your PC (PCI is better, and often cheaper). Connect the router to your
PC adapter. Follow the router’s directions to “spoof your MAC address”
so your ISP doesn’t get confused by the multiple computers in your
house. Make sure your PC is getting access. Now, you can follow the
directions on your router to setup your Wireless network (this varies
depending on the router).
I would add that you should look into software to encrypt your wireless transmissions, especially if you will use this stuff for anything to do with money, e.g. internet banking, PayPal, etc. I decided against wireless in the home after reading how easy it is for people to snoop on your transmissions from short distances away.
djm
Too true, DJM.
If you decide to go with just Ethernet, then all you
need is a regular Ethernet (not wireless) router,
a PCI Ethernet card for your PC, and some
(possibly long) Cat5 cables.
I use this router for my Ethernet network:
http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=62
Yeah…I have dialup. Would I have to connect a router to my internet. I mean…internet would still be left exclusively to this computer even if we were networked.
For DSL, you get a modem that interfaces to ethernet. You plug your ethernet router into your DSL modem, and then your various PCs, printers, etc. into the ethernet router.
djm
If you only want to have the PC be connected to the internet,
then you don’t have to do anything else. The laptop simply won’t
have any internet.
If you DID want the laptop to have internet, then you have to
go through making your PC share its connection, which is probably
not TOO hard, but it’s been 10 years since I’ve done this, and I
wasn’t using Windows at the time, anyway.
Let me chime in here- I know that for wireless- brand DOES matter- dont get a no-name, and dont get d-link. I like linksys. Just my, and many people I know have had bad experiences with noname- and dlink.
Good luck! I wish I could say more, but I use wires… cheaper and faster..
So for networking two computers with a single cable (a wired network), would one need to get a network adapter card, or a network interface card, or are they the same thing?
Each device (PC, printer, etc.) will require an Ethernet interface card. Each of these devices will be cabled to a router (unless you are going wireless). The router would connect to your modem (DSL, cable, etc.). The router acts like a hub from which your home network extends.
I use a D-Link router and have never had any problems with their equipment. However, the instructions from my ISP on how to use this device were totally wrong. A call to D-Link resolved my problems.
djm
These are the same thing.
The important thing is a card that provides an Ethernet connection.
if it’s just for playing games and not the internet you don’t need a router, you just need a network hub. They’re slightly different things. The good news is they’re dead cheap. But yeah as others have said just pick up a cheap wireless hub that supports 802.11b and you’ll need an 802.11b wireless card for the computer.
I assume you’re answering ShadowBG625’s month-old question,
and not MommaTune44’s new one, correct?
what’s this on the floor? oh it’s my coat… excuse me while I get it… 
Sorry, I wasn’t going to say anything, but I thought MamaTune44 was going to get confused…
that’s alright, anyway to answer the recent question you will need a network card for each computer.
However to connect them using just a single cable as you asked, you need to make sure it’s a crossover cable, otherwise you will need at least 2 cables and a network hub in addition to the cards in the computers.