Need router setup advice please

[Koolpc]

My mate has Tiscali BB (Don't laugh). The phone point is in the hall and his PC is upstairs. He has bought a Netgear ADSL Modem Router and a Netgear Wireless PCI card. Does he have to physically setup the router connected directly (ethernet) to the PC or does he install the wireless card and then do it wirelessly? If so, how?

Please advise if you can. Any guidence would be great. Thanks

[burble]

By default the router won't have any security on the wireless interface so you could connect straight away with the wireless card and then configure the router but the problem with that is that when you start changing the wireless settings in the router the PC will drop and then have to reconnect the wireless connection each time you save some changes.

If you end up making a typo with a WPA key for example and the router has 1 key saved but you enter a different key into the PC then you won't get a conneciton.

Save yourself a lot of hassle by setting up the router whilst connected to it with an ethernet cable.

[Koolpc]

PC and router are a long way apart!!

[Splash]

Got access to a laptop? Alternatively move the router closer to the PC, enter the setup details then move it back and hook it up to your phone line.

[Koolpc]

Got access to a laptop? Alternatively move the router closer to the PC, enter the setup details then move it back and hook it up to your phone line.

Can i do that without it being connected to the phone line? Just ethernet?

[burble]

Can i do that without it being connected to the phone line? Just ethernet?

Yep.

[Steve B]

yep, take the router upstairs and get your home network set up first, so you can wirelessly connect to the router configuration page. Then, move the router back downstairs so you can plug the phone line in, and configure up the ADSL connection through the wireless That should work!

[Splash]

provided you know all the details for authentication I see no reason that you couldn't do it like this. You could after all just use it to wirelessly network a bunch of devices without making use of the modem, so I see no reason that this approach wouldn't work.

[Koolpc]

How do i go about configuring the Router first? Quite a noob at this, sorry. Is it just a matter of going throught the wizard and then taking it back downstairs, putting the Wireless card in and bingo! Internet access?

[Splash]

hook the PC up to the router. Power the router up, then the PC. Open your browser and point it to the address in the manual (usually 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1 - if you're not sure do an ipconfig /all and point the browser at your default gateway) and set up the details using the web interface. Once you've done that be sure to allow the wireless card MAC address to connect using the wireless access point then move your router back to your phone point and power it up again.

[Koolpc]

hook the PC up to the router. Power the router up, then the PC. Open your browser and point it to the address in the manual (usually 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1 - if you're not sure do an ipconfig /all and point the browser at your default gateway) and set up the details using the web interface. Once you've done that be sure to allow the wireless card MAC address to connect using the wireless access point then move your router back to your phone point and power it up again.

Then it is easy enough to do from there? Install wireless card and follow wizard?

[Splash]

Install wireless card, use the Windows WZC service to search for available wireless networks and then connect to it. You'll be prompted for the security key you setup in the setup of the router (wait, you _did_ setup a security, right?) and from there your router will assign the wireless NIC with an ip address and it should be plain sailing from there.

[Koolpc]

Thanks very much for your help.

[Splash]

No probs. Probably worth testing that you can wirelessly connect to the router before moving it to the phone point though - just a pointer