My first wireless installation

[juliaatpcgp]

My boss has asked me to set up his company laptop (a Toshiba Satellite Pro SPA10) to use wireless broadband.

He has cable broadband at home using NTL.

I have found a Netgear wireless cable router that I feel is suitable (based on Netgear's website) and it is the WPN824. He needs to be able to reliably download large files and work fast so this seems the best one.

I need to be able to do as much of the setup on his laptop/router whilst he is still in the office, so that it is (as far as possible) ready to plug and go when he returns home (the other side of London).

How much will I be able to do at the office ? How easy is this project going to be ? Do I need to purchase a wireless adapter for his laptop, and if so, do I need to check it is compatible with the router and if so, how ?

I really appreciate your help.

Regards,
Jay

 

[juliaatpcgp]

I forgot to mention it is set up under Windows XP Professional SP2.

It has connections to the office network using VPN and also Remote Desktop to look at his PC as he often works from home.

 

[wahnula]

How much will I be able to do at the office ? How easy is this project going to be ? Do I need to purchase a wireless adapter for his laptop, and if so, do I need to check it is compatible with the router and if so, how ?

You should be able to get it all set up at the office provided you have the laptop and router in hand. See if he has integrated wireless (if Centrino, yes) by looking into Device Manager. I highly recommend encrypting the wireless transmissions, that needs to be set up in the router and the NIC. Very easy just write down the encryption key for later.

You should be ale to power up the router and his laptop in the office, connect to the router (follow instructions), configure the router then his NIC, check connectivity.

You do not need the router connected to the Internet to configure.

It is always best to use the same brand router & NIC but you can definitely mix & match, it's just that some brands allow higher connection speed if you are using their gear only. I personally have found D-link to be the best for my needs, but Netgear is fine too.

Best of luck.

Tony

 

[beridor]

The wireless connectivity can definetly be set up and tested - it will be the router side that will cause you an issue (you should be able to get the settings from your ISP), you won't be able to test the router settings until you boss gets home.

I would be tempted to set up a dial in VPN connection into the router, or leave the web interface enabled on the Internet connection (with a strong password) until you have everything tested and then lock the web interface down - it should just mean that you can get on and modify the VPN settings as an example if you need to.

Once you have the ADSL connection up and runnign the rest you should be able to do one way pr another.

Dave

 

[wahnula]

He has cable broadband at home using NTL

This is not ADSL...my cable modem works with any router, just plug it in to the router WAN port, restart both, totally automatic.

You can use a VPN app like GoToMyPC

http://www.gotomypc.com

(free trial) to configure anything on his side remotely if you need to. I would hesitate to open anything to the web, unless it is a VPN router. Best of luck.

Tony