<sarcasm>Let's see, this should be fun.</sarcasm>

In the interest of full disclosure, as the saying goes, I hate wireless
and have never used it and have no interest in using it. I also know next
to nothing about it, so I've had to do as much research as possible to
get to learn at least the basics because of my situation (which follows below).
Because of my lack of knowledge about wireless, I'm sure I'm going to
ask some idiotically inane questions (if I can even figure out what
questions to ask at all), so no wisecracks (e.g. "Well duuuuuuuhhh"), o.k.?!!

Here's my setup right now as I write this before doing anything at all:

I have Win XP SP2 Pro (on a Dell PC) with a Cable hookup; a Motorola
SBV5120 SURFboard Cable Modem, which is wired into a a SOHO-IS104A
4-Port 10/100Mbps Ethernet Broadband Router on my desk. One of
the ports is wired into my PC (also on my desk) and another port is
wired (under the rug) into my son's room (who has a Dell w/Win XP SP2 Home).

I've had it this way for years and except for the occasional service
interruption from our Cable ISP, I've had no problems. So far, so good.

Now my daughter comes homes from college (so that means everybody
knows I'm broke!).

She's temporarily (hahaha) living upstairs (too hard to run a wired
hookup). She brings home this Linksys WRT54G Wireless Router she's been
using for 2 yrs. with her former roomate. Naturally, the first thing she
wants is to be 'connected.' Now, I'm not changing my router and messing
up what I've had going good for years. Besides, I use my PC for work and
also I've heard that Wireless Routers are about 1/2 the speed of Wired
Routers (plus you have to (re)setup all the Network options on the PC
(which by now, I've completely forgotten how to do -- if I can
even remember where I did them after the initial setup by the tech)).

Soooooo, what I did at first was run the wire which she had, from the
3rd port in my router to her router (to make the system 'think' her router
was another PC). [Before I forget, the Power Indicator on her router kept
flashing (whether or not it was hooked up.) On mine, it's solid green.]
She didn't get any (wireless) connection to the Net. So I plugged in
her laptop to her router and voila, she gets a perfect connection,
which means the (wired) signal is working.

I called up Linksys the next day and to make a long story short (which,
as you can see, is already a lost cause), they said something was wrong
with the firmware and they were going to send a replacement router.
That was a few days ago and in the last few days, I think I've read
(what feels like) a million pages on wireless routers. However, I'm not
a network programmer and don't even play one on TV, so I have a
few dumb questions to ask.

[Some of these are going to be contradictory, because I don't have a
clue as to how this will be setup yet.]

1.) When they send me the replacement (I don't know what
model # because I didn't think to ask), and if I set it up the
same way as I described above and if it works (via the wireless route),
will the wireless signal from her router to her PC in any way interfere
with the wired signal from my router to my PC?

2.) If they don't send an upgrade to the router she has, is it
worth it to buy the Linksys WRT54GS with Speedbooster? (and yes(!),
I've read just about all the reviews for all the Linksys routers on Amazon,
including the SRX ones). [And the same question about signal interference
in question #1 applies here too.]

3.) Whatever replacement they send (upgrade or not) and if
it still doesn't work as described in the setup above and I do decide
to replace the router I have with her replacement (upgraded or not), can I:

a.) Use wireless and wired components together at the same time
from (whatever model) Linksys wireless router?

b.) If I'm wired, will I lose any speed (or do all the references to speed
just apply to the wireless connections)?

c.) How much reconfiguring of my Network options will I have to
do on my PC and where would I go to find out what I need to do?
(I remember the guy who initially setup everything went to a special
company page -- one of those http://(URL # here) type pages. I vaguely
remember taking screen prints, but I don't know if that would apply or
not in this case or if it was just for the setup I have now).

d.) I've read every contradictory direction (e.g. put in the CD first or
unplug everything first or go to the Linksys site first -- and every other
set of directions I can think of). How am I supposed to know which way
to set all this up is correct (no matter which of the above ways
I finally go)?

e.) I've also read every range of opinion (e.g. "Linksys is the best
product ever and has the best Tech Support and Site ever and is a
snap to hookup" to "Linksys is the worst product ever and has the worst
Tech Support and Site ever and is impossible to hookup.")
Any ideas who's (closer to being) right?

{I have a few more questions to ask but right now some are contigent
upon some of the answers above, plus this post is waaaaaaaay too long
already, so I'd better quit before everybody goes blind trying to read this.}

I'm sure the above is a big yawn to someone who's done it a thousand
times (just like what I do for a living is a big 'yawn' (and completely
obvious) to me, because I know it by heart), but since this is my 'first time'
(and you know what they say about 'first times'!!), it's a big mystery to me.

Thanks in advance for any (initial) help (because I know I'll be back
with more questions -- probably both before and after that replacement
router arrives),

Mike_______

MekongDelta69,

#1. No.
#2. For surfing speedbooster won't make any difference, and No as above.
#3. Yes.
a) Yes.
b) No (yes the references are to the wireless speed)

c) If using wired port and you are using DHCP now, at worst,
you would have to reboot and add your new network
to your firewall trusted zone. The new router will come with a quick set up guide.
and a pdf of a detailed user manual on CD, which you can also download from the Linksys website.

d) For PC's connected by cable you do not need to install any software or use any CD.
Other than the user manual the CD has squat for wired clients.
and your daughter should already have the drivers and wireless utility installed on her laptop for her WiFi card.

e) A man your age should know opinions are like butts, everybody's got one.

It is simple, read the quick setup guide. Get the wired clients going, get a signal on the wireless client with the
default router settings. Then consult the manual to start setting up some wireless security.

Later, Bad out.

Thanks Bad -- appreciate it, but as I mentioned above, "I know I'll
be back with more questions" (based on the initial answers), so here they are:

MekongDelta69,

1) It,s not in IE. XP PC's normally are DHCP clients by default. Unless you have changed it.
To check there are several ways, Open your Network Connections from Task Bar(if you have the icon there) or from Start menu or from Control Panel.
Right click the connection you are using, select Properties, On the General tab select Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), Then the Properties button.
In the Properties window the radio buttons should be set to Obtain an IP address automatically and Obtain DNS server address automatically.
Click the Advanced button and under IP addresses it will say DHCP enabled.
If this is so, then you can click OK, OK, Close etc. and close everything.

In a nutshell, the above means that everytime you start your PC it will send out a DHCP request for an IP address, DNS server address, and it will recieve one and be the bitch of the first DHCP enabled router or DHCP server that gives it one.
Your router creates the private network that your machine is a part of.

It is supposed to be all very automatic and simple, and it normally is.
But alas it can get very complicated if things are awry.

2) Your "new network" would simply be that when you change routers your firewall may recognize that
the new router is using a different private IP address range and may give you a pop up, or ask you to add the "new" IP address range to your firewalls trusted zone.

Next bit, Sorry I used the word "cable". I meant Ethernet cable or wire as opposed to wireless client.
So Yes my 'd.)' answer does apply to exactly your situation.

Next bit, "butts" wasn't my first choice of word either. Your age? well I'm psychic naaah.
Deductive reasoning based on your uname, sig, and posts in other threads.

Later, Bad out.

Thanks again Bad - I've learned a lot from you so far.

Last two and I won't bother you anymore (unless, after this replacement
router arrives and something totally screws up, which I hope not).

As a matter of fact, if I set it up the initial way I described (above,
in my initial post)...:

"...what I did at first was run the wire which she had, from the 3rd port
in my router to her router (to make the system 'think' her router was
another PC). She didn't get any (wireless) connection to the Net. So I
plugged in her laptop to her router and voila, she gets a perfect connection,
which means the (wired) signal is working."

...and if it works this time, I won't have anything further to do at all
(which will be fine with me).


If that method doesn't work and I replace the SOHO router I have now
with the new replacement Syslink router, then...

MekongDelta69,

"Exactly where would I find the "'new' IP address range" to add to my
firewall's trusted zone?"

It is highly likely that you won't have to, IF you do your firewall should have it already when it asks you.
When you set up the router and have a read through the user manual .pdf
from the CD or their website, the address range will be very clear.
Probably from the same private range you are on now.

"Does that mean anything (e.g. it's not working correctly) or is the flashing
light on her router just due to the way some routers behave by default?"

Definitely means something is wrong, the firmware didn't load properly, or is corrupted.
Which would explain them replacing it for you.
I assume they got you to try to reset the router first before they offered a replacement.

You're welcome and good luck.

Later, Bad out.

Bad --

Linksys finally sent the replacement router a couple of days ago and
to make a Long Story Short (LSS - and w/o repeating my hookup above),
I downloaded the necessary couple of pages from the .pdf file from their
site (the ones that had to do with hooking up one router to another
router as I described above) and I also tried using the setup CD.

Because the pages in the manual refer to 'The Router' and 'The Other Router,'
they didn't exactly make it very clear which was which, so I started
to do the whole setup from my PC (the 'primary' one) and the instructions
either didn't apply or didn't work.

I did remember (partially) correctly about having to go to the URL page,
except it's not a 'company' page, it's your Default Gateway page to
log in (which I couldn't do), so as to not make it appear to the network that
both PCs had the same URL.

LSS - After about an hour of no luck (with all kinds of warnings and errors
and other frustrations), that's when I realized I wasn't supposed to do all
that setup on my PC, I was supposed to do it on her PC!

Linksys was assuming that their router was going to be the 'primary'
and the one I had was going to be the 'other' router. Once I realized that
what I had (and wanted to keep) was the other way around (i.e. mine
was the 'primary' and theirs was the 'other'), I proceeded to do the setup
on her PC.

I went to the URL with the Default Gateway on her PC (and the rest of
the steps), set it up and it works perfectly. I didn't even need the
CD at all because that only applies if 'their' router is going to be the 'primary.'

Anyway, everything works great. No loss of speed on my end; she gets an
immediate wireless connection upstairs and everybody else's is not affected.

Now I know more about wireless than I used to (at least enough to
make my way around to do what I need to do), so I just wanted to
thank you again for your help.

Mike____

Working perfectly for 7 months now...