Wireless/Wired networks

[Roody]

Im thinking of going wireless at my house with my laptop, and leaving my desktops wired. Im a bit of a noob with wireless though and am curious if the wireless and the wired connections will be able to talk to each other to share files, printers etc..?

Any help and explanations would be greatly appreciated.

Thx

[YeOldeStonecat]

Absolutely. The wireless routers usually have a built in 4 port switch...just like wired routers...but also have a built in access point..so yes, wired, and wireless, will all be on something like a 192.168.1.XXX network.

IMO, shoot for a Centrino chipset lappy, XPsp2, and Centrino certified router, WPA, makes for quick 'n easy setup and rock solid functionality. I've been banging out those setups like cupcakes...it's a match made in heaven.

[Roody]

I was going to buy a wireless card for my current laptop and give it a go. Let me ask you something YOSC. How would I do this exactly? Do I have to hook my existing router into the wireless one? Or do I just give it the same workgroup name and it will see the other computers from there?

[YeOldeStonecat]

If you have an existing router, then really all you need to add is an access point...not another router.

Or get a wireless router to REPLACE your current wired router.

Yes there are ways of bandaiding adding another wireless router to an existing wired router...but why not do it correctly in the first place.

Either way...you treat it exactly as a peer to peer network, same networking principles...don't go thinking that because your laptop is wireless you have to treat it differently as far as networking goes. TCP/IP is still TCP/IP is still TCP/IP.

[Roody]

Okee dokee...Ill look into getting an access point. Thanks for your help YOSC. :)