iNFORMATION & ADVICE NEEDED....

I have two computers - one in my dining room, the other in my spare bedroom.

I want to network the two. I am connected to the internet on the downstairs on....ntl broadband. I also have Norton Internet Security on it.

What equiment do I need? I want a wireless system. How much will it cost? Is it difficult to do? Do I need a firewall on the one upstairs, if there is one on the main pc?

Both PC's have windows xp installed.

Any info would be appreciated.

I've networked up a couple of PCs in my house with cables but I'm not an expert on this newfangled stuff - however, I've listened to what a few friends have to say on the subject as I'm also interested in putting a wireless network into my house.

You will need a wireless network card for each PC. You will need a firewall only on your downstairs PC that is directly connected to the Internet - any communications that are then passed through to the upstairs PC will already be filtered through the firewall on the downstairs PC.

If you can update both PCs to Windows XP SP2 (see http://www.microsoft.com/windows), then that is supposed to make wireless networking much more straightforward to set up.

Be aware that, just like cabled networking, wireless networking also comes in different speed ratings, which are as follows (I think):

802.11a - 11Mbps
802.11b - 22Mbps
802.11g - 54Mbps

802.11a will be fine if you're just routing your ADSL over the network (your broadband is only likely to be 0.5Mbps - 512k - so 11Mbps network bandwidth would be ample). However, if you are thinking of using the downstairs PC as a bit of a file server for the PC upstairs to transfer data to and from, then consider a faster protocol.

Your Norton Internet Security can act as a "software firewall" but a "hardware firewall" would be preferable - a hardware firewall is a physical box that filters out attacks before they even reach your PC. Fortunately, all of this stuff (an ADSL modem, a hardware firewall and a network router) are all being bundled together by some manufacturers.

As you would expect, price is dependent upon the speed (802.11a being a lot cheaper than 802.11g) and the brand (Netgear being a cheap brand and 3COM being a more expensive reliable brand).

Click this link for details of 3COM wireless products at Insight.com, one of the UK's largest computer component retailers:

http://uk.insight.com/apps/nbs/index...e=&K=&M=3CM&AM=

3COM 802.11g wireless ADSL modem / firewall / router boxes are £88 + VAT and 3COM 802.11g wireless network cards are £49 + VAT each.


Please let us know if that answers your query fully or if you have any further questions that we can help with

come on just buy a 30$ (candadian) splitter and send some cords threw ur roof dont get that wireless crap

Thanks for your help, DJNafey!!!

It sounds easy enough to do, I will have to get the kit, and I'll let you know how I get on...

Cheers!!!