AOL and wireless networking?

I am buying two computers for my father. A laptop ready for wireless networking and a desktop that has a 56 K modem and LAN but no wireless networking card. Both will have XP.

He currently has an old computer with a dial up to AOL. I've tried and tried to get him to cable, but he doesn't want to try anything "new." (I guess I should be happy that at 84 years old he surfs the net and uses e-mail.)

I want to set these two computers up on a wireless network. At first I'm just going to use the dial up. However, once I get everything set up, I'm going to get DSL. (That way he won't know it is any different. )

I've never networked anyone with a dial up before, so I want to make sure that I do it the easiest way and also in a way that it will be real easy to add the dsl modem.

The phone line will go into the desktop. Is it possible just to add a wireless network card to the desktop to network to the laptop? Or do I need to purchase a wireless router?

When I have networked clients on their home computers via DSL they have also had the DSL modem from the IP provider. Can you buy DSL modems like you can cable modems and then just get a DSL provider? That would be the ideal method since I live out of town. When the DSL is "turned on" it will be ready to use.

Anyway, thanks in advance!

 

Ok, what you want to do is put a wireless card in the desktop that is going to have the dial-up connection. No need to buy a router. Once you have the wireless card in the desktop, you just need to set up an "ad-hoc" network using the wireless cards. This is a peer to peer wireless network. You set up a Ssid in the cards, and they should connect and talk to eachother.Then you can bridge the dial-up connection to your peer to peer network. If you need help setting this up just hollar.
I am pretty sure you're going to have to buy a dsl modem from your ISP, but I would check with them. Once you get the dsl, you can set up your network the same way, using the dsl instead of the dialup connection. Just note that the computer with the internet connection will always have to be on for the other computers to be able to connect to the internet.
Good luck,
-Cwolly

 

No, you will need to purchase a wireless router AFAIK.

Yes, you can get the modem seperately.

Be sure to have filters on the phone line beforehand.

 

He does not need a wireless router The two wireless cards can connect to eachother without the assistance of a router. I have 3 computers networked via wireless cards and 2 via crossover cable, no router needed.
-Cwolly

 

Wow, I had heard the exact opposite before. My bad.