Desktops & Wi-Fi

A couple of weeks a friend was telling me about a problem connecting her new home computer to the internet.  My friend said that she had internet access through her cable company and has been connecting to the internet with a laptop for the last couple of years without incident.  Recently she got a new desktop computer and started running into problems.

My friend cannot get the new desktop to connect to the internet.  She reached out to her cable company and  was told a tech would have to come out at a rate of $150+ per hour to get to the root of the problem.  She decided to hold off on that and instead chose to ask me.

My first question to her was, "How are you trying to connect? Wireless? or are you plugging a cable into the desktop computer?" She said, "Wireless."  This led me to the next logical question, "Did you install a Wi-Fi card in the desktop?"  To which she responded "Why?  The desktop is brand new and new computers have Wi-Fi like my laptop did." 

Ahhh, no.  Precious few Desktops come with Wi-Fi. 

Search "wireless" on Dell's website and you will find plenty of accessories but not too many consumer-model desktops with Wi-Fi by default. I will say that I have seen it as an upgrade option on a few models. (Note: There is an Inspiron 580 desktop that ships with wireless, but it is only the Premium config.) A quick search of "motherboard with wifi" brings up few viable results.  There is an ASUS Core 2 Duo motherboard from early 2008 and a couple of offerings from Zotac. So not many optins there either.

The assumption is that if you have a desktop, you will have a modem & router combo sitting next to it so you can easily connect it to the internet.  And, if you have two desktops in different rooms, you better have a tech savy friend that can either run CAT 6 cables through your house or install a Wi-Fi card in your new Desktop computer.

Taking a Look at the Cable Bill

Our Comcast cable bill came today. For a change I sat down and read it, instead of just paying it. It turns out that along with their 6Mbps internet access and "Digital Starter" cable tv service, we are paying $10.95/mo for their "Digital Classic" package.

I noticed that in with the bill there was a nice little chart showing the channels that fall into each package. On this I saw that the Digital Classic package consists of about fifty channels in the 200's. As I looked down the list, I realized that we never really watch any of these channels. From time to time I look at them when there is nothing on, but no where near enough to justify $10.95/month, so I decided to call Comcast.

During the call the Comcast rep came close to talking me into changing to their "Triple Play" package (Internet/Cable TV/Phone), but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. It would have involved locking in to their service for either 12 or 24 months and paying a $99 installation fee.

This "installation" would involve having a rep come out to our house upgrade us to a combo internet & phone modem. I am familiar with how this is setup. A couple of weeks ago I help a friend move his Comcast combo modem down to his basement (so he did not have to look at it anymore), but Comcast was not willing to allow me to "install" it myself.

End result here was that I decided to stick with what we have, just without the Digital Classic package. And I did have the added joy of being charged $1.99 for the right to remove the package from our service.

I have to say I am still holding out hope for FiOS, but it looks like it will take a while to arrive. I recently ran into an article that tels me that the town of Hanson, MA is not on the FiOS expansion list for 2008.

Maybe Verizon will change their mind.

Connecting a Second Router

I currently have one Linksys WRT54G wireless router located on the first floor of my house. My primary desktop is currently connected to it via Cat5.

I am trying to extend the coverage of the wireless signal in my home. I have read a couple of articles that indicate wireless signal works best when the router is on the upper floors, so I am looking at adding another router. As it stands, the existing signal strength rates at about 50% to 55% and does not really climb any higher in the rooms where I am likely to be using the wireless. Additionally, there are a couple of rooms where I am lucky to get a signal at all.

I was looking around for hints on how to actually connect the second router. It turns out that Googling 'how do I connect a second router' gets you many different opinions on the way to go, but I did find a some useful information. One such link was a good response to a Tom's Hardware post entitled, "How, exactly, do I connect my 2nd router".

The Tom's Hardware response looks like the way to go in my case and I will be giving it a try in the next few days. I just have to run some Cat5 up to the second floor, which should be entertaining.