NAT & Fresh Install Question

[Flying Fox]

I wanted to see what would happen so I connected the router btw my laptop and the cable modem and it immediately took me to the setup page. I didn't insert the CD - ignored the Red-Label warning taped over the LAN ports - but I still ended up at the setup. I was hoping to bypass setup and just have the internet "feed through" the router, giving me the benefit of the NAT functionality.

What does the setup page ask from you? If it is not too complicated I would still set that up. Chances are that they are going to ask you things like "what do you want to name your network?" or "do you want to enable wireless?". You can easily finish that and let the router go to work right away.

I think I may blow off the whole router/NAT deal and just install AV after I install Windows - before I ever connect to the internet. I'm sure the Win installer will complain about not being connected but hopefully I can work around that...

Kind of catch-22: you will need to connect to the internet to grab the latest definition to initiate the AV scan. I would still try to get the router to work with wired and get your system set up before doing anything else. Right now do you have to enter some username and password before you get on the internet?

[canoli]

thanks FF - yeah you're right - it's a Catch-22 - gotta have the latest definitions or the AV isn't really doing its best...

No, there's no password setup to access the internet - you mean on my machine now, without the router? I do have a PW to log onto my machine from a cold boot. But other than that, no passwords.

I can't remember what the router wizard wanted - it was pretty basic. I didn't look at the advanced page but I will now. You're right, it's worth it.

The only stupid thing I'm wondering is - (stupid meaning me!) - should I set it up now on this laptop? What I'm thinking is - when I'm ready to use the router for my new machine it'll already be setup for this laptop - and that doesn't sound like a good scenario. (sorry, this is confusing to me, it really is)

Would it help plugging in the router to both machines right now - even though my new one doesn't even have Windows on it yet? (it will shortly) Just so the router "knows" there's 2 machines it has to feed? I'm guessing that won't work w/out an OS on the new machine.

Sh- - what the hell do i do?

how about this? just wait until Windows is running on the new machine - and before anything else, before drivers, whatever - connect the router? Is that the smartest way to do it? I don't really need it - or I can configure it later - on my laptop.

[notfred]

You just setup the router once and then you can plug as many machines in as you like. It's worth setting up now and then everything in future should just work.

[canoli]

Oh - I never figured it could be that easy - so I can set it up on my laptop now and just add my new machine later.

okay - beautiful!

Thanks!

[Flying Fox]

Once you have the router set up the wired portion is just plug and play. For wireless, once you set up the SSID, security, the wireless passphrase/passkey, you just need to connect with your WiFi device (laptop, smartphone, consoles, etc.), find/specify the SSID and passphrase, and you are all set.

[canoli]

Cool! yes, I just finished the wired setup - haven't tried the new machine yet as I still need to install Windows. But "plug n play" sounds great.

And then when my roomie wants wireless access I'll configure security and whatever else I need to.

Thanks so much for your help FF - and everyone!

[canoli]

Hey FF - so everything went well with the Win7 install on my new machine - I connected like you said, plug n play - easy!

So when I get my roommate wireless access - if I understood your post correctly, I do all the setup from my machine - and when she tries to connect she'll need the info - SSID, name of the network...whatever else there is.

is that the way to do it? Or do we setup the wireless connection from her computer?

Thanks!

[Captain Ned]

Or do we setup the wireless connection from her computer?

You'll use your box to go into the router management pages to set the SSID and whatever level of security passphrases you'll be using. Once those are in the router your roomie can hook on to the signal and input whatever necessary passphrases you set up.

[canoli]

Ah, got it - Thanks Cap - I appreciate it.

[canoli]

Shoot - forgot to ask what I consider the most important question (!) - Will sharing my internet feed slow down my up/downloads?

I've got 2 machines wired through the router now - I'll add a wireless connection for my roommate (and for my laptop if I'm sure it's secure) - but I'm concerned that when she's streaming a movie or doing something that requires a good chunk of bandwidth - won't my connection be slower?

It seems like a no-brainer - of course it'll be slower. But with technology I've learned many times - what "seems" true may not be at all!

Thanks you guys, for all your help!

[Mentawl]

Well yes, it's shared . If a movie is streaming, then the bandwidth available to other users on the connection will be reduced. It's also possible that the streaming media will start to stutter if another user is using the connection heavily.

[canoli]

yeah, thanks. figured it was pretty much a "DUH!" question.... she's a mighty web surfer too. Okay I may need to rethink this "sharing my connection" thing. I saw the Verizon guy on our roof yesterday and he said he was installing the 4G network - she uses Verizon so maybe her connection will improve and she'll forget about using mine... (unless 4G is just for phones...)

Thanks for your reply Ment!

[Mentawl]

Well, for what it's worth, I've got a family of 4 here sharing a single 5Mbps/448Kbps ADSL connection. My father is a fan of streaming TV from BBC iPlayer and assorted other sites, my brother plays games online on his XBox, and I play games and watch stuff on my PC too. We never really have a problem with getting in each others way as long as there's not a big download going at the same time. 90% of contention issues can be solved with a bit of clever use of QoS on your router if needed, but most of the time it won't be .

[canoli]

Hmm! Thanks for posting that - then I guess we'll give it a try in the next week or so, see how it goes. worst case I can always pull the plug on her!

Thanks again!