Some questions about connecting a wireless router.

Question

I ordered a Dell Inspiron 1405 for my wife.  We currently have one desktop computer(Dim 8400) connected to the internet via Verizon DSL.  We bought a Linksys WRT54G router for notebook wireless connection.  I want to make sure of a couple things before starting this wired/wireless set when the 1405 gets here.  First, I plan to leave our desktop wired...DSL modem to router to desktop.  I am under the impression that I still have to load the software from the WRT54G into the desktop for everything to work...correct?  Second, I know I have to load the software from the WRT54G into the 1405, but, do I also have to load the software from Verizon DSL, like I had to in the desktop when we got DSL, into the 1405 to be able to connect?   Any advice, tips, clearifications or setup help is greatly appreciated!!!  Thanks in advance!!!!!

esquire · Answer

You don't have to load anything into any computer.  The software you load helps you to configure the router, but you can achieve the same result by logging on to the router at the appropriate IP address:         When your notebook arrives, simply open up your wireless client software (should be installed already), look for your wireless network by its SSID and connect to it.  If you have a secured wireless network, enter the network key when prompted on connect.

hercules1 · Answer

esquire, thanks!  Do I still need to load the original cd for Verizon DSL into the notebook like I did to my desktop when I first got DSL?  Also, I was wondering if I should hook up the wrt54g to the desktop first, since it will be hard wired, then when the notebook comes in, set up the wireless connection for it?  Thanks for the help!

esquire · Answer

Yes, it's always good practice to connect the router to the computer by a LAN connection and configure thr router through it.  Depending on the router, saving certain settings on a router can cause it to reboot in order to accept the new parameters, during which it can lock out a wireless connection, especially if you happen to have just configured wireless security to protect your wireless network from being accessible by your neighbors.   I don't use Verizon, but my guess is that the DSL software you mentioned is probably PPPoE dialler or something that sets up a connection on Windows XP - all ISP assume the customer has a single computer and provides software to configure the computer to connect directly to the modem as such.  There is no need to load the Verizon CD at all if you can configure the router can get online - the software shouldn't work on the router.   Here is a single example of using a WRT54G to setup manually a PPPoE connection to a DSL connection and to configure a secured wireless connection on the router and to a computer:  http://www.mesquire.com/faq/computer/wireless/networkg.htm

hercules1 · Answer

Thanks for the link and thanks again for the help!  It looks like anytime between between Wed and Fri the notebook should be in.  This should be a learning experience for me, so, I'll let you know how it went.  I might not be able to do it till the weekend, though.  Thanks again.

Networking, Internet, & Bluetooth

Some questions about connecting a wireless router.

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