Wireless Internet folks: HELP!

[skoosiepants]

Bare with my stupidity here: How does this work? Does Verizon have to come out and install something, or do I buy my own router and they just turn something on? Can someone who's set something like this up let me know what you've gone through? Customer Service is unhelpful if you're just asking questions. It's like, sign up or eat shit. No in between. And right now I'm just sort of researching options. So. Any advice??

Comments

[aisu-iki.livejournal.com]

I dunno how your internet works (i.e. cable, phonelines, etc) but when I got wireless I went out and bought a router. I installed it at home by myself, it had a disc that pretty much tells you what to do. Just don't make the mistakes I did: make sure your laptop has wireless capbilities and (unlike myself) make sure they're turned on. I'm not sure how that'll work with anything but cable (which is what I have).

Uhm...hope I didn't hopelessly confuse you more (I'm not so good at explaning myself sometimes). Good luck!

[skoosiepants.livejournal.com]

THANK YOU! See, we have comcast high speed, and I THOUGHT all I had to do was buy a router and set it up, but comcast was saying we had to pay them 180 to come out, and then another 45 a month on top of what we were already paying to get it to work. Which sounded really fishy. I had customer service.

[(Anonymous)]

No problem! *salutes*. Glad to be of service that doesn't suck.

[aisu-iki.livejournal.com]

uh, that was me. lousy actually having to log in and stuff.

[absolut-jmo.livejournal.com]

We used Roadrunner but here's how we did it. Hubby was too cheap to pay for them to set up the router - so he had them hook it up. We bought our own router and it took us three months and a service call from a guy we know who does computer work PLUS getting a new router the first one was defective before we could use it.

Yes - I gave hubby hell and still do. Yes, I wished we had had them set it up because then THEY do the service(at least that's the way it was with RR).

So if it's not uber more expensive I'd have them do it all. Good luck and godspeed. :-|

[skoosiepants.livejournal.com]

Comcast told us it was 180 for them to come out and set it up for us, and then another 45 a month on top of what we already pay them for high speed. So, technically, we can just do all that ourselves and not even tell them??? I'm so confused!

[absolut-jmo.livejournal.com]

I'd say that falls into Uber expensive area. Get the router and do it yourself. We had the choice to have them do it or not. We told them just to set the cable and showed them where it was located.

[souliesoul.livejournal.com]

The way we have it set up here at home is that our modem is connected into our network hub which is also our wireless router. We bought and installed the network hub, but the cable modem was installed by Telewest (our broadband supplier) they didn't hook it into the network either, that is just a matter of putting the cable into the right part on the router you buy. Of course that means that you're responsible for the network and that if something goes wrong you have to find people to call out, but at least you won't be charged an extra $45 a month.

[skoosiepants.livejournal.com]

Okay, so essentially, since we already have the cable modem and the highspeed internet for our desktop, we should be able to buy a router and set it up ourselves and be good to go. right?

[souliesoul.livejournal.com]

Yes.

[vonknibble.livejournal.com]

1st, you need to know if your laptop is wireless capable already, and if it is, does it need enabling? If it is chances are (and i'm assuming you are working with XP/windows, and not a Mac) there will be a bunch of wireless options in your control panel, and it will likely list it in your network connections. If Your not sure, look in your device manager (control panel > system > Hardware) and look to see if you akready have PCMCIA bus controllers installed.

Activating them is just a case of either opening the relevant connection in network connections, or if it's not there, creating a new connection, but chances are when you get your router, you'll have sofware to set up the connection and your computer will do all of this for you.

If your Laptop is not already wireless enabled, you'll need an adapter, either aPCMCIA Card (http://www.broadbandstuff.co.uk/index.php?cPath=26_33_89&osCsid=f3782fd5ef924346da012fb1274165c6) or a USB adapter (http://www.broadbandstuff.co.uk/index.php?cPath=26_33_90&osCsid=f3782fd5ef924346da012fb1274165c6)(bear with the UK sites - the kit is much the same all over.)

Next, you'll need to get a router. Now, most ISP's will provide you with one, sometimes free as part of the deal, but mostly you have to pay for them, so it's worth finding out the make and model of the router you'd get off them and googling it for it's spec's - you may be able to find a better/cheaper/both one else where. (This is just my opinion here, but if I were you, look for one which will give you both wireless and an ethernet connection for your laptop, as when doing long d/l's it's better to have a more reliable wired connection :))

And as a basic setup, that's pretty much it. Once that lot's sorted, you may find you have problems with coverage/signal in some places, in which case you can invest in an access point (http://www.broadbandstuff.co.uk/index.php?cPath=26_33_86&osCsid=f3782fd5ef924346da012fb1274165c6) which acts to extend the network coverage and alows more devices (like printers etc) to be attached, (but again, IMHO stick with wires there too. Wireless is a good excuse to invest in a docking station, which saves time, mess, frustration and broken cables).

BIG FAT HUGGLY APOLOGIES if all that dribble above has been an exersise in teaching you to suck eggs, and i hope it helps. You can always poke me if you want more info, but not being of your native lands, i can;t really help with which ISP etc to go for.

[skoosiepants.livejournal.com]

Laptop is definitely wireless ready. It kept popping up with Wireless is available, click here to find access or something like that, can't remember. Anywho, that's set. And we have cable highspeed, so I just need to get the router, I guess? Thank you for the directions! I'm going to attempt this tonight or tomorrow, hopefully, and may have more questions *g*

[vonknibble.livejournal.com]

Cool! - ask away as you need too :)

[bbuttercup.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine has Verizon DSL. They came and did the setup and also provided a modem with a built-in wireless router. They have two computers utilizing the service, one hard-wired through an ethernet card and the other with a built-in wireless card. She pays about $17.00 a month. Her service isn't the highest speed they offer; they have 3 or 4 different levels of service, but she doesn't do any heavy file downloading or game playing. She says the speed is excellent for webbing and email.

[skoosiepants.livejournal.com]

Man, I figured since I already had comcast high speed this would be easy, but it SUCKS!

[therienne.livejournal.com]

Comcast are big fat liars. We have Comcast, and we've got... a LOT of different routers and hubs and wireless devices connected to it through the house (large house!) and no, they do not need to know about any of it, and they certainly shouldn't be charging you extra.

Generally you would just buy a wireless-capable router, hook it up to your cable/dsl/modem connection, and configure the router. Most routers will come these days with about 4 spots for ethernet hookups, and also wireless capabilty.

[skoosiepants.livejournal.com]

Is configuring the router hard? Because by all rights mine should be working now, but it's not. I can't get anything to work, and finally unplugged it and put in my regular to-desktop connection to get online and figure out what to do. I'm ready to tear my hair out!!

[therienne.livejournal.com]

Mine was a little tricky, but that was partially because we have a twisty set-up -- my router is a secondary router, connected via ethernet from the second floor router, so I had to set it up with a new IP range from the default. Also, I've got like a freaking decade of tech support behind me, so one would hope I could figure it out in the end, and I did. I wanted to get home before replying to double-check which router I have -- it's the Linksys G-wireless compact, so I may be able to help if you still need it. Are you still stuck, or has someone given you the answer yet in one of these threads?

Let me know if you want help by email/irc.

[cetpar.livejournal.com]

See, we have comcast high speed, and I THOUGHT all I had to do was buy a router and set it up, but comcast was saying we had to pay them 180 to come out, and then another 45 a month on top of what we were already paying to get it to work.

Wait a minute. I'm confused. You're already subscribing to Comcast High Speed (via cable modem and ethernet connection I take it), yet you are thinking about getting Verizon wireless cable? For a home network?

If you are just using it for a home network, ie you don't want to be able to roam city-wide on the Verizon wireless network), there is *NO NEED* to get the Verizon. Yes, you *can* set up a home network on Comcast without telling them and paying through the nose for their equipment and "help". I have Comcast myself and set up a wireless network very easily.

If I interpreted your comments correctly, I'd be happy to help you with the process. I'm not a computer guru, or anything, but like I said, I've done the same thing on the Comcast network.

[nunshavingfun.livejournal.com]

With verizon I got sent a disc and a pluggy in center and I think we bought our own router, but I set everything up myself. It was pretty easy.

[skoosiepants.livejournal.com]

It SUCKS doing this by myself. I can't figure it out.

[cetpar.livejournal.com]

Oops, I just read the rest of your comments, and it does sound like what you want to do is just set up a wireless home network with Comcast.

Yeah, all you need is a wireless router if your laptop is wireless ready. Unless you are planning to buy a wireless card/adaptor for your desktop, just make sure the router you buy also has connections for wired ethernet connections too. I think most of them do. (At least my Linksys does.)

So all you should have to do is install the router software/drivers onto your computer (if that is even required), connect the cable modem to the router and your desktop to the router. Just get your laptop to search for available networks, and you should be good to go.

The one problem I had initially is that with the first connection attempt I got the "network not found" error. I fixed that by unplugging the power supply from my router and my cable modem for a few minutes to clear the cable modem memory, hooking up the power to modem first so it starts to cycle, then a few seconds later reconnecting the power to the router, too. Once I knew the connection worked, I went back and reconfigured the security options.

I'm a big fan of encrypting the wireless network so people can't steal your connection or peek at what you're doing. When you buy a router, make sure it has WPA, not just WEP. I think all the newer routers do.

The only downside to doing it this way is that if something goes wrong with your wireless, Comcast will not help you. But that's what the flist is for. *g*

[skoosiepants.livejournal.com]

ARGH!!! I got a linksys system, put the wizard cd in my laptop, and followed all directions. It froze on the last step. Every time. But finally when I restarted it, it said that the wireless connection was found, so I *thought* I was good to go. Except my desktop wouldn't work. And while my different program set ups on the laptop seemed to be conversing with the internet, when I opened up a browser, it was always BLANK. WHAT DO I DO??? I finally just unhooked the router and put it back in just the desktop, just to get online and figure out what the hell to do. NOTHING IS WORKING!

[joolz01.livejournal.com]

Thanks for asking this! I was wondering, too.

[skoosiepants.livejournal.com]

I am having SO MUCH TROUBLE with this *shakes head*