In a couple of days I will be getting a new laptop. It's supposed to be ready to get online, but I've been looking into routers and they've got different sorts of connections. (802.11g etc.) How will I know what type of router I should get? Also, I want to keep my desktop pc hooked up with the wire, and if possible want to make it so that I can access data on the pc with the laptop. I think I can do that by getting a router with a switch built in, is that true?

It depends on the wireless card you have the router you need. And for conect a pc to laptop you can use remote acces

Point is, I don't know what kind of wireless card the laptop has.

Go to Control Panel > Red & Internet Connections > Wireless Red Connections > Properties and i think you'll find what kind of wireless card is

If it is 802.11b/g, any 802.11g router would serve your needs. Just make sure it has at least 1 ethernet port on it, or you wont be able to connect to your computer. Do you have an internet connection youd like to share?

Cloudy

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Originally posted by Rodney
In a couple of days I will be getting a new laptop.

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You wont have to wait. If it has a 802.11g wireless card, all wireless routers (g standard) will access it. Just make sure your wireless router supports WPA and WEP, so you are prepared for any kind of encryption.

Cloudy

Well I'm getting the laptop through my university and all it says in the specs is WLAN, LAN, Modem. However, looking through their site, all of their other laptops seem to have 802.11g so I think it's worth the risk and get one of those.
That leaves my other question: if I buy a router that's also a switch, will I be able to set up a network and access the pc with the laptop and vice versa?

Yes Just after you set your wireless up, set it like a normal network. We have a similar setup here, 2 desktops and 1 laptop on wireless, and a desktop on cable, all connecting and accessing through the router.

Cloudy

PS: If you get a 802.11g router, its backwards compatible with 802.11b.

Right, thanks. I'll be doing some shopping tomorrow then

WLAN is WiFi is 802.11b/g is WLAN It's all just different names for the same thing.
Just like LAN is Ethernet is 802.3 is LAN, and Firewire is IEEE 1394 is Firewire.

And all WiFi G routers will support B, and all N routers will support B and G.

If you have a g card then you can get a b or g router, i suggest getting a G router, its faster but costs more i think.

On a related note, in the future I might want to upgrade the laptop to be able to play games on it (currently using the desktop pc for that).
I've read replacing graphics cards in laptops can sometimes be nearly impossible. This is the laptop I'm talking about.* Does anyone know if I'll be able to upgrade its graphics card?


* I just found out it's called Joybook P51 so I googled and now I know for sure it has a 802.11g card

General rule of thumb: if your laptop dosn't cost more than $2000 US, then you most likely cant upgrade more than ram and hdd. Only specialty gaming laptops usually let you upgrade stuff like graphics. I think alienware makes at least one model with removeable graphics cards.

Not sure about any other routers apart from the NETGEAR RangeMax NEXT wireless routers which have the Draft N Standard. Having a few devices on a g standard, I found that it was pretty easy to cahnge it's settings to allow WEP ecryption.

The RangeMax NEXT may cost a bit more but provided you set it up right, you won't have a problem.

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Originally posted by MattyRid
WEP ecryption

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Originally posted by RaceProUK

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Originally posted by MattyRid
WEP ecryption

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Is not very secure at all. It's recommended that you use WPA, which all wireless devices should support now.

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