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Connecting a wired PC and wireless notebook to same internet cable

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by wals1

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We have an internet cable that is currently attached to our 2400 Dell desktop computer. I have an Apple ibook G4 (late 2005 model with Airport Extreme-internal wireless)that I use at the school where I teach. I would like to purchase the correct piece of equipment in order to be able to still have the Dell desktop hooked up to the internet and my notebook to have wireless internal capabilities (ie. I could access the internet in another room) and also possibly my daughter could access the internet on her ibook as well. What piece/s of equipment would allow both a single wired PC and multiple wireless notebooks to access one single internet cable? And does it make a difference that the computers are Dell and Apple ? I want to make sure that the equipment is compatible with both. I only need to be able to use the internet and send email--I do not wish to have file sharing, etc..... I'm a neophyte in this area--thanks for your help.

2 replies

by churdoo

Well there are a ton of choices, and in reality, just about any of the common off the shelf Wireless G/N Routers should do the trick, but one of my favorites in the SOHO arena is the Linksys WRT54GX4. This should be compatible with your Airport cards.

I'm assuming that you're talking about your home setup and that you have broadband cable or DSL coming into an appropriate cable or DSL modem, and then that hooks up to your Dell Dimension 2400. This new device will hook up in BETWEEN your Dell and your broadband modem and in addition to it adding the wireless functionality to your network, it will also add a layer of security between your Dell and the internet, which is a good thing.

Re your compatibility questions, the important things here, have to do with your Airport Extreme card; which appears to be an 802.11N wireless implementation ... from late 2005 however, the reality is since the n-spec was still in development at that time, that the greatest common compatibility with anything will likely be 802.11g (unless you find the exact matching airport base station). The wireless-G spec should be a backward compatibility of the airport extreme card, and is a compatibility of the Linksys router I've identified. This is a 54mbps spec, so performance and security options are good.

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