learning about routers / access points

External Since: Dec 18, 2003 Posts: 7

I'm beginning to feel stupid about networking. I've got a cable modem
hardwired to a router (proxim bg2000) which is hardwired to a ethernet
card inside a pc (I'll call this PC one). PC one also has a wireless
nic inside of it. Then I have several other pc's and one laptop
sharing the internet as a wireless network. I'm trying to eliminate
the hardwire from the router to PC one and have it work as wireless.
As it's now setup, if I shut off PC one, all the other pc's lose
access to the internet except the laptop which can still access the
internet. I want all the pc's to behave as the laptop does such that
if any pc is turned off, the other pc's can still access the internet.
Can I do this with this router or do I need another piece of hardware?
I am thinking of calling Proxim for tech support but just want to ask
here first.

External Since: Dec 13, 2003 Posts: 191

<franklin101.DeleteThis@no_email_please.net> wrote in message
news:0154uv85e3q9bqls91k2bemoriulev7uib@4ax.com...
> I'm beginning to feel stupid about networking. I've got a cable modem
> hardwired to a router (proxim bg2000) which is hardwired to a ethernet
> card inside a pc (I'll call this PC one). PC one also has a wireless
> nic inside of it. Then I have several other pc's and one laptop
> sharing the internet as a wireless network. I'm trying to eliminate
> the hardwire from the router to PC one and have it work as wireless.
> As it's now setup, if I shut off PC one, all the other pc's lose
> access to the internet except the laptop which can still access the
> internet. I want all the pc's to behave as the laptop does such that
> if any pc is turned off, the other pc's can still access the internet.
> Can I do this with this router or do I need another piece of hardware?
> I am thinking of calling Proxim for tech support but just want to ask
> here first.

Reading up on the Proxim BG2000 router, it looks like this router only has
two Ethernet ports, which I assume one goes to the cable modem, while the
other one goes to your PC One. What you have to do is buy a cheap little
device called an Ethernet hub, and plug that between the Proxim and your PC
One. Ethernet hubs can be had anywhere from $20 on up, depending on how many
ports that you have on it. Usually the cheapest ones only come with four or
five ports on it, which should be enough for your case.

What you have to do is unplug the PC One and put that Ethernet cable into
one of the empty plugs of the hub. Then you take another Ethernet cable, and
plug one end into PC One and the other end into any one of the remaining
empty plugs of the hub. Then take all of the rest of your wired PC and plug
them into the remaining empty plugs of the hub. It's as simple as that, you
probably won't have to reconfigure any software on your PC either.

BTW, if you had gotten another router, such as one from Linksys or Dlink,
you would have then had the router and the hub combined into one device.
These routers usually have one Ethernet port to connect to the cable or adsl
modem, while they have four other ports to connect to the PCs in your
personal network.

Yousuf Khan