Wireless with wires as well?

I have one laptop that I would like to set up a wireless connect with NTL broadband. I do not have any other computers that need to share this connection at the moment but might in the future use my work laptop at home. I have been told that to have a wireless connection, you must have at least one PC/laptop connected with wires/ethernet. I have tried to search for this on the internet and could not see anything telling me I needed a wired computer. Is this true or can I run the laptop alone with a wireless router and adaptor card?

What is NTL broadband? For most DSL installations or cable installations, a technician would want to install their modem directly to a wired computer of yours. After they leave, disconnecting the computer and putting a wireless router on the modem would be left up to you, and is typically "not supported", meaning only that the installers don't know how to deal with it, or aren't supposed to.

You normally use the wired connection to configure the router. Once it's up and running you can disconnect the wired connection and use it wirelessly.

Hope that helps (a bit) Ian

Cable mostly, tho they now offer DSL for some cable-free areas.

not in the UK - here they deliver the cable feed if needed, a modem, USB cable and CAT5 if you ask for it, hand you the CD and leave.

That sounds like a kind of half-baked self-install. In my area, the installers ran cable to my modem, connected cat5 to my PC (disconnecting my hub, so I couldn't get at my printer any more), and adjusted my NIC settings to DHCP from static. He stopped short of setting up Outlook Express to point to their servers when he realized there was already a configuration in place, or I think he would have done that too.

The self-install kit arrives in the mail.

For my cable installation, I had to "clone" the MAC address of the PC that was configured onto the cable system by the installer. Later, on a trouble call, the first clueless guy (you don't get the installer-level guys for trouble calls), wanted to blame my router, although he didn't suggest removing it. The other guys didn't seem to care about the router, nor did they have a clue about what I might have correct or bungled in my PC configuration.

are you sure you're not with ntl? :-)

The names change, but the techniques remain the same. MCHSI.COM in my area. The support number rings to Florida, 3000 miles away.

Taking a moment's reflection, bryan mused: | | wrong.

Don't be so hasty. Some wireless routers ship with the wireless turned off. So, the only way to connect initially is via wired connection.

"mhicaoidh" wrote in news:kBdje.9769$796.1002@attbi_s21:

have at least one PC/laptop connected with wires/ethernet.

is via wired connection.

Both responses are on the right track. Just to clarify:

1) You do *not* need a wired connected PC for normal operation of a wireless router. [at least all of the ones I've seen, which is many]

2) You may need a wired connection to configure the router if wireless networking is not enabled by default. And to set up wireless security it makes life a lot more convenient to have a wired connection.

3) Diagnosis of connectivity problems can be a lot easier if a wired connection can be eastablished. Hence I always take a laptop PC and Ethernet cable with me to wireless LAN sites for that purpose.

On 05/17/05 05:35 pm Mark McIntyre tossed the following ingredients into the ever-growing pot of cybersoup:

And not necessarily in the US either. I just helped a freind set up his DSL connection with SBC. He had signed up with them and received either by mail or by other carrier service a package containing the modem, filters, and installation CD.

It may be possible to have the phone co. do the installation, but that is going to add to the cost.

Perce