Goin wireless?

[CaptainCaveMann]

Ok, heres the deal.I am running cox cable in my house and my dad is running dsl in the same house.He uses a modem with built in wireless capabilities and has a wireless card built into his windows based laptop. I want to get a 30 dollar d-link 802.11b,g wireless router for my room so that i can be online all over the house. How will the ibook know which system to connect to? Will it be confused between the dsl signal and the cable signal? Do i even need to buy a wireless router if my dad has dsl wireless built into his modem then can i just bring home the ibook and it will connect to dsl???

[PlaceofDis]

if you already have a wireless network then you dont need another one,

but if you do have two in such close proximity it doesnt really matter, the book will connect to your 'prefered' network, or the one that you were connected to last, and its easy to switch from network to network throught the airport menubar icon

[CaptainCaveMann]

Oh so in the menu it will give me the option of connecting to dsl or cable? Or will it option it out by modem serial numbers? Or how do you mean?

[JarinS1]

In my experience, each router has a different name. The computer allows you to connect by choosing the router by name. Other people may have different experiences.

[PlaceofDis]

in the menu bar there is an icon that shows the signal strength, and each router does have a name, be it the default or one you have chosen, so you can switch to whichever network you want to

in the picture, my network is "Apple" thus it is checked, but 'linksys' is also availible as well

[CaptainCaveMann]

Oh i see! Do you have to add the network or does the ibook automatically pick it up and put it in the menu bar? Then once it is in there you can set it as your default? pretty slick ;)

[PlaceofDis]

it automatically scans for networks that are available

oh and you can set one to be your default, and set others as 'trusted networks'

[CaptainCaveMann]

Nice! Thanks :D

[michaelrjohnson]

What he means, is that Airport will automatically detect any available wireless networks. By the sounds of it, when you enable Airport on iBook, it should detect a network. All you have to do is select it (and maybe enter a password) if indeed the setup is as you have described. Based on what you've said so far, you dont' need another router.

[CaptainCaveMann]

password???

[PlaceofDis]

any wireless network can be password protected so that others do not leech off of your connection (mine is set to have a password, but it remembers it in my keychain so i dot have to enter it everytime i wake my book from sleep)

[12ibookg4]

password???
you don't need a password (or WEP key) but it is a good idea to have one so that people without permission can't get on your network. once you enter the password the first time, it will be remembered so you shouldn't have to enter it again

[x86isslow]

also, even if it is pass-protected, you can use keychain so that it doesn't prompt you for a password each time

[JeffTL]

I hate to ask, but why do you have two broadband ISPs? In my experience, Cox hooked up to a wireless access point is about as good as it gets, so why the DSL as well?

[tdhurst]

Lots of businesses give them to ppl so they can work at home and access the company server remotely.