Computer advice--internet questions

[Maddy McCall]

I have two computers--a laptop and a desktop. I am currently on dial-up service. I have a phone jack with a 25 foot line in my living room that I switch from the laptop to the desktop whenever I use either.

I am computer stupid. I want to go to DSL and not have to use the phone line anymore. I have researched and read about this, but no one talks in "internet for idiots" terms.

How can I go from dial-up/25-ft.-phone-line to DSL with no phone line? (This is what I completely do not understand.)

What kind of equipment will I have to buy? (Pricey?)

Can I get the equipment at RadioShack or Walmart?

Any advice on this topic will be most helpful.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

1. When you order DSL, tell them you want it for multiple computers

They will assist you.

[Maddy McCall]

2. I just finished talking to someone with Bell South.

I have no idea what he was talking about. :-)

[WLKjr]

3. You can get everything you need for this at Wal-Mart

On Edit: Don't go to radioshack, they will give you stuff you don't need and won't offer much help. I know this from experience at every one I have ever been to.

I work in the Electronics department ( and do "tech support" for just about anyone who comes in or calls about computer stuff, I also go to ITT Technical Institute for Computer Network Systems) So let me tell you what to ask for and to get.


If you want to go wireless, ask about and get these things:

Linksys 2.4GHz 802.11b wireless router (should be around 50 bux)
Linksys 802.11b wireless notebook card (should be around 30-40 bux)
Linksys Wireless PCI card, one that goes into the computer (should be about the same price as the notebook card)

Linksys stuff is pretty easy to set up and comes with little easy to understand instructions. You pretty much just plug the power to it and get your DSL modem hooked up to your router and voila! you just networked your house for multiple computers.

If you ever want to ask me questions, feel free to cuz I have all this equipment myself.

[TrogL]

12. Stay away from wireless unless you absolutely have to

You're already stringing cable, so just get a regular router. Linksys has one with four ports on it. You'll still need a DSL modem.

[WLKjr]

16. From the way it sounded

Jchild didnt want wires

[Maddy McCall]

19. Wow! Thanks for this advice, WLK!

I am reading through the posts now, but I am sure that I will come back and have a few questions for you.

Thanks!!! :hi:

[WLKjr]

25. NP

That's what I'm finding out I'm good for, answering and fixing computer problems, matter of fact I am making a quick 40 bux for removing Blaster on a computer from a person I work with and installing a modem for another for a total of 80 in one day for 2 computers( I run my own little business on the side, repairs cost but consulting as I put it is free depending on what it is, and in this case, free.

[Occulus]

4. Do you wish to go wireless?

If you get DSL and want wireless, you'll need a wireless DSL modem, a wireless router that can act like a firewall (most do), PC wireless card, and DSL service; I know I'm forgetting something because I don't much trust wireless and don't use it in my home; I'll go into that in a moment.

Call your local telephone company and see if you can get DSL. They'll tell you if it's available in your area. If not, call your cable company and ask them if they offer broadband cable. That comes through a cable jack on your wall and also doesn't use the telephone line.

If you want to have no wires, you'll need a wireless modem of either type. You can get these at Best Buy, Circuit City, and other tech stores. Addotionally, the company you're getting your service from may offer these for rent for a monthly fee, in addition to your service fee.

You'll need a router/firewall because you're going to be online all the time after you get your service. Thus, your address on the internet (NOT your email address; this is internal to the software that runs your connection) will change only periodically, if at all. You don't need to know this information, but hackers would love to have it! A firewall, particularly a hardware firewall, will keep those people out.

The reason being online all the time can be bad when using wireless is because it's wireless. When you're sending and receiving information, it's also flying through the air in between, and that can be picked up from outside. Someone else could end up with your CC numbers, SS number, and so on, if they're looking. You'll want to ask about that when you get your equipment.

Try going to a tech store like Best Buy and ask the employees there; there's usually some knowledgable people in their stores. An even better idea would be to find a computer parts store near you, go in there and tell them what you've told us, and they'll be more than happy to point you in the right direction.

Hope some of this is of help to you. You'll love broadband internet, and you'll never want to go back to dialup.

[DS1]

7. You don't need a wireless modem ~and~ a wireless router

Just a wireless router, the modem will connect diretly to the back of it with a standard CAT-5 cable.

[Canuckistanian]

9. No, use non-standard CAT-284-ea cable!

You'll get 23.7 more kilo-jumblats/sec!

Seriously, you need to explain to him what CAT-5 cable is. The poor guy is techno-challenged, fer gawsh sakes!
:D

[DS1]

11. It's phone cord with a hemi

:evilgrin:

[Canuckistanian]

14. THATS more like it!

[sandnsea]

5. wireless networking

My DSL uses the same phone line as my phone so that would take care of that. We have two computers hooked up through a line, but Bluetooth or some other sort of wireless networking would get you what you're looking for. It seems we checked into this for a friend with QWest and I think they required their own wireless cards, etc. My husband isn't home right now, he knows more about it than I do, but that's what you're looking for. And if the person on the phone doesn't know what you're talking about, ask to be transferred to the tech dept.

[TrogL]

23. Wireless networking is insecure (out of the box)

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/TECH/05/31/wi.fisecurity.ap/index.html

[truthspeaker]

6. a few basics:

DSL uses your phone line, so that phone cord will still be there. What they mean when they say it doesn't use your phone line is you can still talk on the phone when connected with DSL. DSL uses a different part of the phone signal to transfer data. If you get DSL, part of the installation cost will include "filters" to attach to all your phones to take out the DSL part of the signal (which sounds like static).

Usually when you sign up for a DSL service you buy the equipment from whoever is providing the service (your internet service provider). This will include:

* a DSL modem. This is what converts the DSL signal on the phone line to the regular computer network signal (ethernet).

* An ethernet crossover cable to go from the DSL modem to the network port on your computer.

What you *might* have to buy:

* A Network Interface Card (NIC) for your desktop and another one for your laptop. Unless they are more than a couple years old they probably already have them built in. If not, you will have to buy them. You can get one for your desktop PC for $20 or less. It will be a little more expensive for the laptop. But, as I said, they are probably built in.

If you want to hook up more than one computer (a separate issue from DSL):

You will be building your own home network. Don't worry, it's pretty easy. You will need to buy:

* A switch/router. Both your computers plug into it, so they can talk to each other. Then you plug the crossover cable from the DSL modem into the WAN port of the router, so your router is what talks to the internet; both your PCs go through it to connect to the internet. Router: about $50.

* two ethernet cables. $20 total (maybe less).

[Xithras]

8. Wow, everyones making this way too difficult.

It's simple enough. Call BellSouth and ask them if "DSL with a wireless home network" is available in your area. Ignore the technical jargon that the guy will fire back at you, and just listen for a "Yes" or a "No". BellSouth offers DSL service and their techs will install everything you need including the wireless network as long as you're in the right area, so you don't need to worry about 802115BCDEF.G or any of that other stuff.

If it's available in your area, get the price, and if you can afford it, order it. It's much easier to let their technicians install it than to pull your hair out over what wireless standard works with what wireless base station and whether you need to actively or passively bridge your DSL modem and wireless router or whether your firmware patches are up to date.

There's only one technical question that you need to remember and ask the technician when he's done installing your network: "Is WEP encryption on?" If the answer is anything other than "Yes", don't let him leave until he activates it...any answer other than "Yes" means you have no security and that strangers can access your files.

[BigMcLargehuge]

10. lemme simplify with a diagram

try this Jchild and let me know if it helps. feel free to IM me of your need more (simple) information (AOLIM in my profile)

[Maddy McCall]

20. OMG! You ARE da internet bomb!

How very NICE of you to go to all this trouble!

So, here's what I understand:

I will plug my phoneline into the DSL modem. (DSL modem comes with DSL package, I believe.)

I will then use plug the ethernet cable in the DSL modem and the router. (I will buy a wireless router, so that means no cable from router to PCs)

Since I am going to go wireless, I need something on the PCs to pick up wireless signal from router. (will look at posts above to see what that "something" is.)

And then I am set to go, right?

[BigMcLargehuge]

24. you need wireless networking cards

one for the desktop and one for the laptop. I'd recommend getting the USB ones for the computers because they are very easy to install... just plug them in.

then you can cofingure, and you are good to go.

[sandnsea]

26. Call your DSL provider FIRST

QWest requires an Actiontek wireless adaptor for the Actiontek router and it has to be purchased through Actiontek. So before you go through all of this, you better call AT&T or whatever company you're going to use and find out the details. Like that poster above said. DSL with wireless networking, that's what you want to ask about. Trust me.

[truthspeaker]

13. btw, DSL is one of two forms of high-speed home internet

The other is cable, which is quite a bit faster.

[Xithras]

15. Yes and no

It all depends on what you're looking for. First, cable tends to be more expensive in many areas, but it does vary so you should always check your local rates (where I live, SBC DSL starts at $24.95 a month, while a cable modem through Comcast will set you back over $40 a month).

The bigger issue, to me, is speed. I have a 3Mbs DSL package that sets me back $36 a month, a speed that Comcast offers for $42 a month. With DSL, however, it's NOT SHARED...it doesn't matter if I jump on it at 3AM, 5PM on a Saturday, or a weekday afternoon, my 3Mbs connection is always on and always running at top speed. With DSL, you pay for BANDWIDTH.

Cable modems, on the other hand, are shared. I have many friends who fell for the whole "Cable modems are faster" argument and are now stuck in contracts that they hate. Sure, cable is theoretically slightly faster than 3Mbs DSL, and theoretically twice as fast as the standard 1.5Mbs DSL, but you are SHARING that bandwidth with all of your neighbors. If you want to actually see that entire 3Mbs, you'll need to jump on at 3AM while your neighbors are sleeping...at peak times, you're real bandwidth will only be a fraction of the advertised speed. With cable, you pay for a CONNECTION.

Then there's the usage issue. Because you're buying bandwith with DSL, most DSL providers don't care what you do with it. There are no firewalls, no blocked ports, and no 90 page list of nonots that you have to deal with. With most DSL providers, there are absolutely no issues with setting up and running your own web server, email server, DNS server, or FTP server. There are no usage or transfer limits and no big brother looking over your shoulder.

Try any of that with a cable modem and see how long it takes them to turn your service off.

Personally, given the choice between a lower cost DSL line with greater freedom and more consistent service, or giving those up for the occasionally seen speed advantage of the cable modem, I'll choose the DSL line any day. Cable, IMO, is only a good choice if you live in an area where DSL isn't available.

[trof]

17. My DSL BOX HAS 4 OUTLETS

You can connect up to 4 computers to the box. It's a Lucent DSL Pipe.
The phone co. owns it.
All 4 computers can simultaneously be online from what I understand.

[welshTerrier2]

18. Step One

lots of good info in the other posts ...

Step one, before you buy anything, is to make sure that DSL is available at your exact house address ... there are still many areas that do not have access to DSL ...

to keep this simple, DSL uses your existing phone line but does not "tie up" your phone line ... this means, you can use your phone while you're on the internet ... the DSL signal can create noise on the phone line, however, so you'll need to add a little filter gizmo to your phone outlet ... you just plug the gizmo into your phone jack and then plug your phone into the gizmo ... it's very easy to setup ...

the other equipment you'll need is a "DSL modem" ... it's a little electrical device that also plugs into your phone jack ...

the good news is that many DSL providers give you a free DSL modem and even a filter gizmo when you sign up for their DSL service ...

fwiw, I have verizon as my local phone company and also have verizon DSL ... it costs me $29.95 a month and it works great ...

now, once you have the DSL signal coming into your DSL modem, you have a number of options ... you could just connect the modem directly to a computer and you would be all set ...

or, you could connect your modem to a router which is yet another electronic device that can be used to distribute your DSL signal to multiple computers ... the main choice you would have here is whether to have multiple computers "wired" directly into the router or whether you want to go "wireless" ...

if you choose to wire everything, you just need to run special cables from the router to each computer ... these cables are called "ethernet" cables ... they look just like phone cables but the plugs are a little bit wider ...

if you choose wireless, you need to spend even more money ... wireless means that the router sends a signal through the air to your computers ... but the computer needs a special card to receive (and transmit back) the signal ... a popular configuration is to hardwire (using an ethernet cable) your desktop computer directly to the router and use a special "wi-fi" card in your laptop ...

so, the bottom line, and my recommendations, are:
1. make sure DSL service is available at your exact address
2. shop around for the best rate and best provider
3. once you get DSL working in your house for one computer, buy a wireless router (linksys or netgear) and a mathcing wi-fi card for your laptop.

i would suggest doing this in stages ... you can always add the router and wi-fi card later ... btw, check out: http://www.dslreports.com/

hope this helps ... it really is much less confusing than it sounds ... for the most part, you just plug stuff in and you're in business ...

one last tip, I don't like COMPUSA very much but anything you buy there they will install and train you on how to use it ...

[Maddy McCall]

21. Whoa! Thanks!

This is becoming crystal clear to me. It isn't as confusing as I was attempting to make it.

Thanks!

[Maddy McCall]

22. Everyone, THANKS! I have bookmarked this thread and will refer

to it as I set up my wireless network.

You guys are the BEST! (The graphic in BMLH's post is supremo.) I will report back when I'm in bidness.

:hi: