yeah, I'm not to savvy on this kind of thing so advice is appreciated.
my sister in law has satellite internet due to geographical remoteness.
the router box thing doesn't have wifi antennae.
how can she easily and cheaply set up a wifi network in her house?
the network will be used by her family on their various devices.
can she set up a network without leaving her laptop (main pc) on all the time?
thanks
Wifi routers are <$50 these days so there's no real reason to avoid getting one. It'll save you the headache of figuring out some other workaround.
This guy is right. I've never seen a workaround for creating a wifi network from your PC that didn't involve headaches. Plug your satellite box into the router and then you can piggyback off from it. Make sure you're actually getting a router though and not a modem.
Altomic you post a lot of deals on China phones but I find it hard to believe that you can't find a deal on a router nor understand how a router works !
In any case, there are some routers out there which makes it dead simple to set up the router. Some come with a setup CD that you run on your windows computer, and it will automatically setup the entire thing for you — you simply plug the router into the computer directly by Ethernet initially. Then plug the satellite modem into the router.
Then you simply provide three bits of information as the setup will promot you.
Once setup, you can join the Wifi network and unplug the LAN cable from the router.
LOL yeah, it's never been an area that i've had to have any involvement. so i've never bothered to learn. I assumed it it may be something as straightforward as plugging in a router with ethernet and enter some settings. I've an old bigpond modem in my shed that should suffice.
cheers
router setup is very straightforward, these days most routers have some kind of auto config utility that makes setup a breeze.
Let us know the model number / or make of the satellite modem and your budget.
i have to return to my sister in laws place to get that info. won't be going there for a while.
OK, some basics. Most ADSL routers that people use have three bits in one - the ADSL connection to handle talking on the telephone line - the router, which directs packets, delivers addresses to machines, does Network Address Translation, etc. - and a switch that has 4 or more ports for multiple machines. A wifi version of this bolts on a fourth, a WiFi access point to the switch part.
Simple answer is probably to put a router designed for cable on it - one without the ADSL parts. I assume your satellite box has an ethernet port, and doesn't do DHCP itself.
If it's USB instead, then you have issues and it much harder.
If it does do the router functions (eg NAT and DHCP) then you need a wifi access point.
Personal hotspot on your phone.
You can buy a wireless access point and plug that in worst case scenario or some ADSL routers can be turned into access points as well.
Being that it's a satellite connection usually they run into the house to a coax modem and I don't believe there are any that have WiFi built in.
That's what a WiFi router is for!
Assuming there isn't any special hardware or software on the PC and it is allocated an IP address via DHCP via the satellite box, then it's just a matter of plugging the WiFi router into the satellite box and voila you have a home (W)LAN. The PC can be plugged into one of the router ports.