The-r? Wireless network guide
Wireless networking has become very popular over the last few years, its main appeal is the flexibility it offers in terms of no wired restrictions, being able to connect to the internet from literally anywhere in your garden, house or anywhere where the range of the wireless router/modem permits a decent enough signal.
Just how do we go about connecting to the internet wirelessly? A wireless network needs to have two components a Wireless Router/Modem to share the internet connection a suitable Wireless card in your laptop or desktop Just about every new laptop has a wireless card built in, the actual type is the mini PCI
But what if you have an older laptop that does not have a wireless network card built in?
Luckily though there is a number of options available to us to make virtually any desktop or laptop computer wireless. The best type of wireless card, which is suitable only for laptops, to install is the mini PCI type, you will need to make sure your computer has a mini PCI slot to accommodate this type of card, and then you will need to either remove the keyboard or small panel on the bottom, but once fitted its totally unobtrusive.
Now we have the USB wireless card known as a dongle, it resembles a memory stick or pen drive. This type of network cards is perhaps the easiest to install, just run the software install plug in the USB wireless card and your ready to connect to your wireless network. The disadvantage of this type of network card is, it sticks out and can be easy to catch, it must also be removed if you need to travel with the laptop. Make sure the laptop has USB2 type ports as opposed to USB1 which is much slower.
If your using a desktop computer, the most common type for you is a PCI wireless card, you will need to install the cards software, power off the computer, open up your computer to install the card, but it really is just a case of remove the case removing the blanking plate fitting the card and putting the case back on, once done power on and it will install itself.
The final type of wireless card is the PCMCIA type, just about every laptop has a PCMCIA port or 2, which in 99.9% of laptops is unused (PCMCIA ports are the long thin horizontal ports usually in the side of a laptop) so if your short on USB ports or your computer only has USB type 1 then this would be a good choice for you as these ports are usually redundant.
There is now a real abundance of wireless network cards on the market and as such this has really pushed down prices, decent cards can now be picked up for less than 20 pounds, when I mention decent I mean a card using the faster 802.11g and not the much slower 802.11b
Installing
When installing a wifi network card, make sure that you read the manuals prior to installing, most cards need to have the software installed before the wifi card is connected or plugged in, otherwise the software drivers may fail to load or Windows will attempt to locate a driver from elsewhere, giving driver or configuration issues which can be a hard to resolve it may mean removing the card again.
When your ready to connect to your chosen wireless network you should see a popup from the wireless icon on the bottom right of your screen advising that wireless networks are in range, or simply right click on the wireless icon.
Notes
Only connect to wireless networks you trust, especially if you need to disclose credit card details for any reason. If you have setup your own wireless network you must ensure that you have some form of wifi security, if your router is not protected, not only can anyone simply just connect and browse from your Wifi network, but if so could be much more malicious, performing such actions as changing your router passwords, stopping you from accessing your own internet connection, they will also be see any able to see any computers or devices attached to your router and may try to gain access to these.
So please make sure any wireless connections are secure, feel free to checkout more on Wireless security, plus all of our other articles at computer-adviser.com
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