I am planning on networking my laptop and my mum's computer via a wireless network.
I was gonna do it over the internet but then thought it would be to slow, so I decided to check and see what you guys would suggest.

So what is the best way to network them? Even if it isn't wireless, what would be the best way?

And roughly how much would it set me back?

This post has been edited by miCRoSCoPiC^eaRthLinG: Feb 21 2006, 11:40 AM

Wired Ethernet:

£10 per machine that does not already have an ethernet network card.
+ £15 for a boradband router router (also acts as a switch, and allows shared internet)

Alternativle Wired Ethernet,
£10 per machine that doesnt already have ethernet card
Just connect thwm both with CROSSOVER cat5 ethernet cable directly, no router or swtich.(no sharde internet)

Wireless:
£35 Wireless Access Point (allows shared internet connection)
£15 per computer that does not already have a wireless network card.

Alternative:
£15 per computer that does not have a wireless card.
NO wireless access point ( called a Ad-hoc network, no shared internet)

basically, it will cost anywhere between almost free, if both machines already have ethernet cards.

and £65 if you ned to buy two wireless cads and an access point.

And what I can say it's that if you have only 1 card per PC you can share internet. But one PC must be gateway. This can be easy done with XP Pro. (Network connection-> RM -> Additional -> Look there some settings about shared internet)
Also you can share internet with proxy server (for example UserGate) or with NAT (WinGate).
Good bye!

Another thing to note is that you don't need to have a 100% wired or wireless network. THe majority if not all wireless routers have some wired ports on them, so you can save a few bucks and wire one or two systems to the router and use wireless for the rest if money is tight, this can be useful since alot of comps hav e wired ports built in but would bee a wireless card often.

Regardless for a couple computers the setup won't cost -too- much money as the prices for things have dropped to reasonable prices.

Ok, thanks for that. It saves me a whole lot of mucking around looking at shops. I should be able to get a BroadBand router reasonably cheap. (My boss is having a major sale) and I can get a few cables to. I may just have to do it with wires, as my money is reasonably tight.

If you know any builders who have done any work in offices, ask them if they have any "grey cable"

A friend of mine had been working clearing out an office builng, he saved al the cable (he didnt know what it was) It was Cat-5.

i managed to borrow a Crimper to attach the end sockets.. now i have 50 meters of cat-5, and it only cost me 1£

Wow!! what a saving, I will try and do that. It should be resonably simple, I tend to know alot of people. (Well they seem to know me)

Thanks for all your help guys

Seems like everything is taken care of, but I'll tell you what I did.

After consulting many people on the forum, I ended up with a Linksys 802.11g router. I bought a 802.11b card...my mistake there , but it was a nice card and works fine with my connection 1.2 mbps. Everything went smoothly except for my wired connections. I had some trouble with one of the computers finding the router. I think I had ICS on, because once it off everything went alright. The router was about $45, and the card was about $40. If you have a wired connection already, and you notebook (or desktop) has a wireless pci card already it'll just cost you the cost of your router. Expect about $40-$60. I saw a nice card for about $20, I probably would have been better off with it, but since it was my first time networking, I didn't know what to expect at the distance I wanted to broadcast the signal.

I get about 1/2 the signal strength and so far no complications.

Already Had: A few cat5 cables
Parts: Router, Card
Total costs: $90

Outcome wired 2 desktop pc's and 1 wireless desktop pc.

This post has been edited by minnieadkins: Feb 24 2006, 04:31 PM

If you want a cheap solution, I guess a wireless network would cost around less then 100 dollars. I mean all you really need is a router and a networking card wither for your laptop or even for your desktop. I personally got my setup, a netgear 108 router and pci card for my desktop for less then 100 dollars on ebay. It works perfectly and it not that expensive.

For my wireless network setup I had to get a wireless router, which was $40 and it came with a free ethernet cable so I didn't have to buy that and I already had Network cards in both computers so I didn't have to buy that either; I also had to but a wreless USB network adapter, which cost $40 so that my old computer could connect to the router. My wireless setup cost in total was $80.

This post has been edited by nickjuly4: Mar 23 2006, 07:14 AM