Airport and PCs

[DVDSP]

My wife is tired of dialing into her work network from home (too slow) and would like to use our cable connection. However, all our home computers are networked with Airport using one computer as the base station. She would have to buy any hardware herself, we would have to install it but the problem is that she does not have admin access to her Dell to install any drivers or other software (funny, when she inquired at work about getting a wireless card with the computer they were all concerned about us having an "unprotected" wireless network at home, concerned about our firewall, etc., yet she still dials in directly from the Dell).

My question is, what would be the easiest way to give her wireless access that will work with Airport? Is there anything out there in the PC world that we would not have to install any software for? Or, should we just go with a router and run cable through the house (which I'm not looking forward to)? She's using a Dell Latitude and running Windows 2000 Pro.

I realize this is mostly a PC question but since it involves our Mac-centric network I figured this was probably the right place to ask.

Thanks,

 

[edesignuk]

Well, my first question would be does her workplace actually allow or have a method for connecting to their network via DSL/Cable. Where I work you can connect to the corporate network from home using several different methods, direct dial-up, a special tunneling program for DSL/Cable modems that cannot dial into a specific server, and even a web-portal. The point is that they may not even have the capability for broadband connections to hook into the network.

I can see why they are worried about your wireless network being used, wireless networks are not at-all secure, anyone could sit outside your house, gain access you your LAN and in turn to their network. The network admins would freak!

 

[DVDSP]

Originally posted by edesignuk
Well, my first question would be does her workplace actually allow or have a method for connecting to their network via DSL/Cable.

Yes, one of her supervisors uses her home network and connects through DSL. That was the first question I asked, too.

I can see why they are worried about your wireless network being used, wireless networks are not at-all secure, anyone could sit outside your house, gain access you your LAN and in turn to their network. The network admins would freak!

Yeah, I know they would but at the time she wasn't even dialing into the network, she just wanted to be able to print at home and transfer some files to her iBook instead of using the Dell. Plus, not that they care, but where we live NOBODY tries to 'jack our network. Most people don't even know what one is around here. We've mentioned it in passing a few times and all we get are blank looks. Not to mention the fact that anyone close enough to gain access would be sitting in our front yard, kinda conspicuous.