How to get existing WiFi signal into wireless router

[Carol W.]

We have the following potential configuration: Working in a building (doing income tax preparation) that has password protected Wi-Fi throughout the building. We will be able to obtain the password.

We will also have four laptops, at least one or two of which will have built in Wi-Fi cards. The other two (or three) laptops are old and may not (probably will not) have built in Wi-Fi cards. However, we will also have a wireless router.

So, my question is: How do I get online access to the laptops that don’t have any Wi-Fi cards? We were thinking that we could get the building’s Wi-Fi into the wireless router and then wire the two (or three) old laptops into the router. However, since we’re not network experts, we’re not quite sure how to accomplish all this.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[John Gray]

I'd look at whether you can use the push-in wireless cards that used to be available, "PC Card" they ended up being called.

If you can't find one of these, there is a whole raft of USB Wireless Adapters, but make sure you choose something which supports the WiFi which you are receiving.

[BobH]

2 words: wifi dongles Amazon

[Carol W.]

Gentlemen,

Thanks for the quick replies.

John: Do you mean the old PCMCIA cards that were pushed into a slot on the laptop? We used to have one of those ourselves.

The situation may be further complicated by the fact that we're not allowed to purchase any equipment! However, we may be able to get around that. Bureaucrats!

Thanks again.

[John Gray]

That's what I meant!
You aren't allowed to buy anything? Not even an adapter costing less than £10?

[Carol W.]

John,

I'm checking into the "not allowed to buy" rule. It's possible it may be allowed to be broken.

Next question: Given that all the laptops somehow have online access, what would be the best way to have all of them print to the same printer? A wired LAN? Wireless printer?

If a wireless printer is the best solution, does it need a static ip address on the router?

Thanks.

[John Gray]

You could use a wireless printer (I've had good success with various models of Canon Pixma all-in-one printers).

I can't remember whether the installation requires a fixed IP address - I think the answer is No, but I could well be corrected by someone who knows! The installation process certainly needs the network name / SSID.

[Carol W.]

Today we checked out the WiFi network at the location in which we will be preparing tax returns next Spring. To put it mildly, it was deplorable. It reminded me of staying in a hotel that advertises "free" WiFi in every room. When you get there, you find that the connection is so poor that you end up paying for a wired connection. This has happened to us.

We absolutely cannot take a chance on using this wireless connection. We will use the "desktop" version of the software which does not require Internet access except to e-file the returns which we will do from home.

Thanks, again, for all the help.

[John Gray]

Depending on how far your laptops are going to be from the router, and presuming it has enough ports, you could lay a long ethernet patch cable between the router and each laptop. I think the maximum length for each is 100 metres, which I would hope it enough for your purposes?

[Carol W.]

John,

Thanks for your suggestions.

We don't know if the room in which we'll be located has a live Ethernet port. We saw some data ports on the walls yesterday but we don't know if they're hot or not. The director was not there (This is Thanksgiving week here in the US so a lot of people take vacation time) and there was nobody to ask. The person who may know the answer won't be in until Tuesday 11/27 and we had a deadline of Monday 11/26 to tell our district coordinator which version of the software we want to use.

BTW, here is a link that talks about the Internet access that the City of Las Vegas (which runs the senior center we'll be in) obtains through the Urban League:

http://www.lvul.org/nvpcc.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Now I see why the connection was so slow!

Thanks again.