On Thu, 11 May 2006 21:00:06 -0500, phelper <phelper DeleteThis @airmail.net> wrote:
>I have a wired home network, with a wired router. GF has a notebook
>with a wireless feature on it.
>
>I was thinking I'd have to buy a wireless router and plug it into my
>router in order to allow her to have network at my place. Is that the
>case, or do they make some sort of wireless attachment that might plug
>into one of the network ports on my wired router?
>
>Thanks!
You may be thinking of a Wireless Access Point (aka "WAP") and you'd be
correct. But you can also use a wireless router as a WAP by uplinking it via
one its LAN ports (and not using its WAN port at all). And you may find
wireless routers are significantly cheaper than true WAPs.
I suggest you replace your existing router with a wireless/4-port router as
the cheapest and easiest solution. If you need more lines than the replacement
router provides you can use your old router as a switch by uplinking it via
one of its LAN ports (and not using its WAN port at all - sound familiar?
You'd also want to disable the DHCP server on the old router - if you need
DHCP the new router can provide that service for the entire LAN.