WIFI question

[Tony F Dordogne]

Hi folks

I'm not a techy person at all so may be asking a basic question here.  We have two phone lines with two separate computers, J has her own (PC) and I have my own (laptop).  We are both surrently using modems but want to change to WIFI.  Several people in the village have it so I'm assuming that as France Telecom tried to sell us WIFI when we moved in, we're in a hot spot.

So, does it mean that if we go over to WIFI we dump the modem and wires, supposeldy after we download software?  And will one WIFI ariel thingy work for two computers or would be need one each?

 

[Danny]

Wi-Fi is just the technology to enable wireless local area networks (or connecting without wires). For home internet use, this normally means having an ADSL modem router that isWIFI capable and having wifi compatible computers to connect to the modem. You can usually connect a computer to the modem with cable at the same time. This is a more secure method for things which don't have to move around and are close enough to the modem to be cabled.

Each computer will need a wifi network card or USB adapter something like this http://www.blueunplugged.com/p.aspx?p=113565

If you have a WiFi modem, you create the 'hotspot' there and if it is not secure, can be accessed by others who are close by.

From your description, I assume that you are not on broadband (adsl) If so, you will need an adsl modem and an ISP subscription - see www.dslvalley.com and enter your telephone number to see what is available in your locality.  You do not have to use an ADSL modem from the service provider unless you want to make use of the (usually) unlimited VOIP phone calls through the modem. Once you have the modem set up, you can connect the PC and/or the laptop with wires or wirelessly and both have internet access at the same time on one phone line.

If you can't get broadband yet... its best to stick to your dial up and cables for now. Sorry if this too techie or just generally confusing but things are getting increasingly complicated and full of jargon ADSL, VOIP, ISP, WIFI, etc

Danny

[Tony F Dordogne]

Hi Danny

Thanks for the message - we do have broadband here on both lines.  Does that make a difference.

So are you saying that we need both an ADSL modem and the WIFI thing?  What we want to do - if possible - is keep the computers where they are (though I take my lap top away with me for work but usually don't access the internet cos I can't ever remember my password) and just clear out some of the wires that we have around the office.

 

[mmaddock]

Tony,

Sorry if this seems a bit simplistic, but I'll start from the very basics

ADSL is the technology that lets your telephone line access the internet at high speed (normally referred to as "Broadband" or "Haut Debit" in France)  To be able to access the Internet at high speed your local telephone exchange needs to be upgraded to allow that AND you need to be within 6.5km of the exchange.  If you put your telephone number into the website suggested previously it will tell you if you can get broadband on your particular telephone line.

WiFi (Wireless networking in English!) is the technology that allows you to communicate (within a relatively small area - 50/100metres) between computers without wires.  For this to work you need an "Access Point" and wireless networking adapters installed on any computer you want to connect to the wireless network (and hence the broadband Internet connection)

You can buy a "box" that will both connect to your telephone line for the ADSL connection, and provide the WiFi "Access Point" connection.  If you want to buy a simple device yoursef I would suggest something like the Netgear DG834G (or GT).  It is farily simple to setup yourself - but if there are any problems it can become quite complicated very quickly with settings for VCI/VPI/Multiplexing/PPP and all sorts of other settings you might need to adjust to get you going.  It's not difficult to do, but I would imagine if your IT skills are limited then it could be quite confusing.  If you want to avoid all that, the simple way is to get the box from your broadband supplier that should come ready to go aside from you supplying the necessary username and password (given to you by your broadband supplier).

If you have an existing broadband supplier (if so, who are they?) the easiest thing to do would be to talk to them to see what they can provide for you.

I have to confess to be a bit confused by your reply tho - you say you have broadband on "both" lines.  Do you have two incoming telephone lines (i.e. with different telephone numbers) and if so, why would you have broadband on each telephone line?

Matt

[Danny]

Hi Tony

it seems that Matt has answered and said exactly what I was going to say... it might help if you let us know what you have already for broadband subcription and what modem you are using at the moment

Danny

[Tony F Dordogne]

OK, we have two telephone lines, and we have two telephone numbers.  J has her computer on the house line (ADSL) and I have my computer on the business line (ADSL).  We both have broadband, use ADSL modems which work perfectly well using Wanadoo, all obtained from France Telecom.

From the messages above, WIFI is not going to cut down the wires in the office or do what we wanted to do so I think this is where I say thanks and just carry on the way that we are.

[Danny]

Tony
sorry to continue if you don't want to but ...it just seems a bit strange. If you have two telephone lines with two adsl subscriptions both with wanadoo you must be paying loads when you could manage very well with one phone line, one internet subcription and work wirelessly with an appropiate modem. Maybe I am misunderstanding something..even if you keep the second tel line for another reason (different number for business), you could still save money and cables with one internet account with wifi access. FT/orange would seem to be raking it in here at your expense.

regards

Danny

[Pierre ZFP]

I agree completely.  The 'Home' broadband could just piggyback off the 'Business' one and there would be no conflict or contention.  Also, jst get a Skype In number for home use and have free or nearly free calls too.  You are paying loads over the top I'm afraid

[BJSLIV]

WIFI is not going to cut down the wires in the office

Oh but it would cut down the wires!

You would have one less wire in your wife's office (the one from the modem to the PC)

You would have no wires from the phone to your laptop. You could possibly even sit in the garden running off battery power.

You would save one entire phone bill, which could possibly pay to increase the speed of your wife's ADSL service.

How much do you currently pay for each ADSL sub, and what speed are you getting?

The only possible downside is that if you have very thick stone walls in your house the distance of the wifi might be restricted but even that can sometimes be overcome.

 

 

[Tony F Dordogne]

Ok, we live in a modern house so that seems fine.

We have two lines purely for our convenience, that's the way OH wanted it but if we can loose one of the subscriptions though not the phone line, we still want a seperate number for our business calls, dump the modems, clear all that wiring, that would be fine.  We're in Sarlat on Friday so I'll go to France telecom and speak to them about it.

We pay about 15 euros each a month and I have no idea about the speeds - all I know is that I never have problems with downloads, on line things etc at all.

[nimportequoi]

[quote user="BJSLIV"]

The only possible downside is that if you have very thick stone walls in your house the distance of the wifi might be restricted but even that can sometimes be overcome.

 [/quote]

BJSLIV - I have this problem - 1m thick granite walls to be precise - would repeaters work for this and how do they function (power etc.?)

[Pierre ZFP]

Even walls like that would not be a huge problem, the signal propogates by reflection and diffraction so straight line transmission is not usually and issue.  If it were then amplifiers of around 10 Watts are readily available and you could pick up the signal a kilometre away (not sure if legal or not but the chances of being detected are zero)  The downside is that a hacker could pick up the signal a kilometre away.  One of my boys was experimenting with one of these in the UK and was accessing the net via a PC in his bedroom from his wifi PDA while strolling around the village - even watching a movie as a streaming download - He's a clever little s*d!

[nimportequoi]

I live in a longere, so the direction for the signal is straight. I want my wifi to be hacked, the idea is to give wifi access to the people staying in my 3 gites, which together with my house make up the longere. I've done a test with a Netgear router and no relais, but the vitesse inside the houses was only 27kb, very slow, although outside was better.

Nothing has been installed yet, and I just wondered if relais would make much of a difference.