lsteinberg23,

Changing the channel will help if the problem is interference from other devices. Which Dell wireless card do you have in the 5150? If it's the same type as the one in your other laptop, you could try interchanging them. If the 5150 has one of the mini-PCI cards installed, you should check to be sure that the antenna leads are securely connected to the card. That's illustrated here in the 5150 service manual.

Regarding the printer - you can either connect it directly to one of the computers, or to your wireless access point or router using a network printer adapter. What the best choice is depends on the locations of the printer and the access point or router.

In short, you need to describe your network setup in more detail before anyone can make specific suggestions regarding the printer.

Jim

jimw,

Thanks for responding.  Here's the set - up:  the Dell TrueMobile 2300 Wireless Broadband Router is upstairs and connected to both the DSL modem and the ethernet card in the Gateway PC running Windows ME.  The notebook is actually a 5160 with a Dell Wireless 1350 Internal Wireless (802.11b/g, 54Mbps) Mini-PCI card.  There is not any other interference, I think that is located near the PC.  No cell phone bases, microwaves, etc.  With regard to ensuring the antenna leads are securely connected, would that be prudent considering how new the computer is and should I really open it up and tinker with it.  Is there a chance I could make things worse? 

The printer is a Dell 922 and will be coming soon.  It will be connected to the PC but I want to use it as a shared printer, I guess.  It will be very close to the Wireless Broadband Router.  Is a network print adapter expensive/necessary? 

lsteinberg23,

If the laptop experiencing the signal problem is downstairs and the router is upstairs, they may be too far apart for the radio signals to reach between them. If you move the laptop closer to the router, does the connection improve? If it does, it's unlikely that the antenna leads aren't firmly connected to the mini-PCI card.

If the signal doesn't improve, it's worth checking the antenna leads. While the leads are somewhat fragile, ordinary care including making sure there's no static discharge when you open the laptop with the power completely off, should be sufficient.

If you visually inspect the leads and find one that's disconnected or loose, you might want to contact Dell Support for assistance.

If the signal problem is distance, the solution can take three forms - a wireless repeater at a location that extends the coverage area of the router, an access point connected to the rest of the LAN with an Ethernet cable, or relocating the 2300. How practical any of those solutions is depends on the layout of the house.

The 922 printer has a USB interface, and doesn't ship with a USB cable, I noticed. If the printer is shared from one of the PCs, the machine that's sharing the printer will have to be turned on. It's possible to purchase USB print servers (here's one from Linksys), but you might want to get everything set up initially with the printer connected to one of the PCs and see how much of a problem having to leave the machine sharing the printer turned on really is.

Jim

Also note that there are no standards defined for signal strength.  Two cards may be getting the exact same signal/noise ratio, yet the software from one card may deem it to be 'Good' whereas the other one deems the level to be 'Excellent' or 'Poor'. 

Jim, thanks for getting back so quickly.  To the 1st question, yes the signal does improve as you get closer to the router.  It would be difficult to relocate the router because it is connected to the DSL modem which is connected to the PC.  Of the two ethernet cables, I think one is 12ft and the other is 25 ft in length, but the router still needs to be connected to its power source, the outlet.  I am not sure what you mean by an access point connected to the rest of the LAN with an Ethernet cable.  Is a repeater expensive?  How is it installed? 

Regarding the printer, I have USB cables leftover from other devices, etc. The PC being on is not a problem.  I assume I just need to set the printer as a "shared printe" after installing it on the PC, then installing the printer onto the laptop and configure it to access the shared printer.

Larry

Jim, I just checked and found out that the Dell 922 is not compatible with Windows ME.  So I guess the wireless printing option is out for the laptop?  Can I make it compatible, or is there no way the Windows ME will recognize or be able to recognize the Dell 922?

Larry

Jim, is it possible to install the printer onto the Dell laptop that has XP and then use the printer wireless, without using a USB cable?  Can it be routed through the router?

Larry

Larry,

If there's no Windows ME driver available for the 922, you're going to need to connect it to a system that does have drivers, unfortunately. I noticed that there's driver support for XP and Win2K only, and should have noted that, along with the USB cable issue, in my earlier post. Even if you bought a USB print server and connected the 922 to the print server, you'd still have the problem of no driver support for ME. That wouldn't prevent a network print server from working with the XP system, though.

Jim

Larry,

Yes, with a device like the USB print server connected via Ethernet, or even a wireless USB print server. That doesn't solve the "no drivers for Windows ME" problem, though. Note also that a wireless USB print server will have the same distance/signal strength issues that the wireless laptop does.

You might want to take a look at Linksys's educational section, so you'll have a better idea of the range of possibilities. Incidentally, the reason I keep citing Linksys is simply that I've had good experience with their products, and their Web site contains a wealth of useful information. They're not the only vendor, though!

Jim