Older 1mbps wireless (IE: Acer Warplink)

[tigereye]

Ok, I'm breaking down and buying my wife a laptop. She has gotten spoiled by surfing on the couch when I bring my work laptop home. Anyway, I am looking for a CHEAP solution that will allow her to share the DSL connection with the new laptop. Currently when I bring my laptop home, I just plug it into the hub and go. However, the cat5 running across the living room floor isn't a nice feature, especially for an everyday solution.

So, I was thinking about one of these older (non-standard) wireless kits. The warplink seems to be the cheapest/most readily available. Given that ALL I need to do with it is share 768k DSL (no file sharing, no printer sharing, etc) in about a 30-40 foot sphere around the main system, it seems like it would work fine. Does anyone have any experience with this particular unit? Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Basically, I'm thinking that my network would look like this:

DSL-->HUB-->Main System (10bt+warplink)-->Laptop (warplink)
|
Secondary
System (10bt)

Also, I'm hoping that doing this won't negatively affect my physical connection on my main system. If it does, I can always set up the secondary system with the warplink, but it's physical location isn't as nice. I could also even set up a third system as a dedicated ICS/Router system if that would be best...

Thanks,

Michael

 

[JackMDS]

What you planning sounds good.

At times it just a matter of Psychology, a lot of people start like this, then the appetite grows, and before you know they "Dump? the cheap staff, and spend much more. Of course by doing so they become that proud owners of ?Old junk? hehe.

If you know that in the near future your need will not grow then go for it.

Actually, in some way your way is ?better?.
DSL, unlike Cable, is sharing the Internet bandwidth. Since the Laptop will be rather slow, it will take less of the bandwidth from the main computer.

 

[tigereye]

Fortunately (or unfortunately) Even if the appetite grows, the wallet won't match it, so I think I will pretty much stay with this situation... I'm thinking, though, that this really will be just fine for what I am wanting. If I ever decided that I wanted to copy files or share the printer or something, I already have the physical infrastructure in place to do that, this is more of a convenience for her than anything.


EDIT::

I also noticed my drawing above didn't come out quite right. The secondary system is supposed to be coming off the hub, but that is a given, I guess...

 

[JackMDS]

In addition to the wireless, if the Laptop has USB port, you can buy an Ethernet to USB adapter ($35).

http://www.us.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=10241662&loc=101

You install the Adapter Drivers, and bind it to the network on the Laptop.

By doing this your wife can use the USB for heavy work, and the only thing that she has to do is to plug in the USB cable, she does not even need you.

The USB adapter is a good general way to put any other computer on the Network, for temp. use, with no need to open the computer, or the get involved with complicated setup.

 

[tigereye]

Ooh, cool. I knew that USB/Ethernet adapters existed, but I didn't even think about it for the occasional laptop usage. But, that sounds pretty nice. Especially the part about not needing me! It would be something that she could hook up on her own whenever she wanted to print. Great idea. Thanks!