Westell & windows xp & windows 98

[earthsfate]

I just got DSL. My dsl modem is connected to my main computer with windows xp home right now. I have another computer that is windows 98 and i want to network it wirelessly. I plan on buying the dlink g510.

my question is, would this be pretty easy to setup? Do i use Dlink's drivers to setup or does westell have something?

[deddard]

Welcome aboard!
I did a quick google and found the g510 which (if we're talking about the same thing here) is an 802.11b compatable PCI wireless card.

There's a couple of points to consider here
1: How is the wireless card going to connect to the network? in order for a PC equiped with a wireless card to be able to do anything, you also need a wireless access point which is connected to the wired network.
The easiest way most people do this (and gives the additional safety of a firewall to the network) is to use a router with a built in wireless access point. This will then share your resources between your pcs happily.

2: is there any particular reason for this card? It is an 802.11b card, which means it is fairly slow. for around the same price you will get an 802.11g capable card which is capable of 52Mb/s (in theory) and if you ensure you buy a recent card, it will also support better encryption and security.

Make sure your access point and wireless card support the same specifications - I'd certainly not go for anything less than 11g with WPA if I was buying new.

As far as getting things to talk to each other, as long as both PCs are in the same network (same IP address range, same workgroup) there shouldn't be any major problems. If you want to file share between PCs, each PC must have an identical account (ie if you have an account on PC1 called fred, set up an account called fred on PC2 as well)

hope this has been of some help - don't be afraid to post back asking for more details if you require them.

[earthsfate]

oh, i forgot to mention that DSL gave me a Westell 327w modem/router

I am not sure what 802.XX it is. Would this be compatible with 11g network cards?

[PrntRhd]

It is a wireless 802.11g device

[deddard]

That bit of extra info was crucial! :)

The Dlink card you mention can cope with it In standard g format), but it seems it has had a few revisions- the ability to use WPA encryption (which you should use) requires extra downloads and installations - here's some details:

http://support.dlink.com/faq/view.asp?prod_id=1402


I'd look for something which does 11g straight out of the box without any additional messing around. (others may have experience of this Dlink stuff and correct me if I'm reading things wrong)

If you want to take advantage of the 'G+' (increase over normal 11G speeds) with any equipment, you will always need to use equipment from the same manufacturer - none of this stuff is a standard (e.g. if you had a Linksys access point/router which offered enhancements above 11.g, then you would need to buy a wireless PC card from Linksys as well)

To cut things short - look for an wireless access card adaptor which supports 802.11g including WPA encryption.

Use the drivers that came with the Router/Access point to set up the access point, and use whichever drivers come with your choice of wireless card to set that up. Unfortunately win 98 doesn't handle this in the cool way that XP does.