Resolved Does a wireless network need one ethernet connected device?

I'm trying to help a friend go from dial-up to wireless. I'm not at her computer, so I can't give you guys any configuration info a this time.

My question is very general. We've hooked things up according to the instructions, with her laptop wired to the router by ethernet. I can use a netbook to get access wirelessly while the laptop is hooked up.

She wants to have just her laptop and printer accessing wirelessly, no other devices.

I can't find any instructions on how to unhook her computer's ethernet connection and get it to access the router wirelessly. If I do unhook it, "my network" shows a disconnected hook-up. It never shows that the laptop is communicating wirelessly, even though the "radio tower" icon shows it to be switched on.

Does a wireless network need one device to be ethernet connected to act as some form of server? Belkin's documentation makes no mention of unhooking the ethernet connection when you've finished the installation.

 

No. You don't need either one device connected thru cable or wifi. You can connect any no. of devices in any fashion subject to your router capacity.

A cable connected device is required only for configuing the wifi router. After configuration you can just go wireless.

You have to setup your wifi router once. Refer to the manual for exact procedure.

If you can connect wirelessly only when your laptop is connected by cable, it may be that your laptop is working as a wifi router & your netbook is connecting to your laptop & not to wifi router.

 

Agree with the above. You don't mention what OS they are running. This should work in all OS's. Don't know if that is the problem you are having, but have seen it cause a problem like you have before. Make sure NEVER dial has tic in it.

http://ask-leo.com/why_does_my_computer_keep_wanting_to_dial_a_connection.html

 

Taking fdamp's post at face value, he's trying to distribute a dial-up connection wirelessly through a wireless router.

If true, the Internet may be coming from the wired computer via Internet Connection Sharing and the wired computer must remain connected to supply the Internet. He never said they were setting up a broadband connection. Maybe he'll post more details.

 

It may have been set up wrong. May have been set up "Allow other network users to connect through this computer's Internet connection" instead of thru the router.

 

Thanks, guys. The problem turned out to be much more simple than I expected. Since DW's netbook went on line through our friend's router even when her 10/100 cable was disconnected and her Dell laptop couldn't connect wirelessly, I deduced there was a problem with her laptop.

We found the original build schedule from when she bought it 6 years ago and found that she had NOT purchased 802.11 capability. For some screwy reason, Fn+F2 seemed to switch it on and off, but there was no wireless presence in Network Connections.

She will be getting a Belkin USB wifi adapter shortly, which will solve the problem. She decided to go with the Belkin module because it's very reasonably priced and specifically identified as being compatible with the Belkin Router she bought.

I'll mark this thread as "Resolved ".

 

Tony:

I did check Device Manager and there was no entry for a wifi system.

 

I discovered today, while still trying to get this friend on line with wifi, that her 6-year-old Sony Vaio only has 250MB of RAM and Norton Security needs at least 512. She's off to a local computer store tomorrow to see how much additional RAM she can add.

Incidnetally, with a USB wifi adapter, the computer can now communicate wirelessly, but it's preventing a full hook-up because there's no anti-virus program in place. With Comcast (who she signed up with) Norton Security is included with the enrollment. A pity the Comcast installer didn't check that her computer was up to the task!

 

A hardware device is not supposed to look for specific softwares present [unless it needs them & in that case the software would be bundeled with it & get installed automatically]. Absence of anti virus is NOT going to impact full hook-up. Something else is missing.

 

Could be as said by TonyT.

As I haven't used any of their services being in India, I can't comment on that. But it seems rather strange - to me at least.

What if you want to download an AV from internet ?

 

I know a couple of people that use Comcast. they don't use Norton from them. They use what they want. They just offer Norton for Free to their users.