Basic Wireless set up help needed - please

[Londoner]

Hi,
I've never used wireless and always connect my Windows XP laptop via ethernet or usb. Recently, I've been spending alot of time at my girlfriend's home - she has an Apple Mac G4 and uses the Mac Airport wireless connection to connect to her broadband. I often take my laptop with me when I visit, but cannot figure out how to connect to her broadband using my usual cables and connectors so I was thinking maybe I should go wireless.

So I'm writing this thread to ask for help and advice on how I could do that.

My gfriend uses Virgin broadband and has a Motorola Surfboard Cable Modem SB5100i - I tried plugging my ethernet into this but couldn't find any drivers to install to make it accessible on my laptop.

Can someone tell me what I would need to install, or buy, to access this modem, please? I don't have an internal wireless connector on my laptop so I'd have to buy one - can someone tell me what it is I'd have to buy? Of if anyone knows how I would connect with a wire then that would also be useful to know.

Many thanks.

[glc]

Exactly what is the modem connected to? A Mac cannot directly connect to it with wireless, there has to be something else in the chain.

Connecting to the modem with Ethernet does not require drivers, but with USB you need drivers.

[Londoner]

Originally Posted by glc Exactly what is the modem connected to? A Mac cannot directly connect to it with wireless, there has to be something else in the chain. Connecting to the modem with Ethernet does not require drivers, but with USB you need drivers.

Hi glc,
thanks for posting.

I think I might have been mistaken about being able to connect with ethernet - since I have had another look, following your psot, but there is no additional ethernet connection possible. I think what I plugged in previosly was a cable from my printer - which is actually USB.

So far as the set up is concerned, there is an Airport Express Base Station Model no. A1088 100-240v plugged into a wall power socket. There is an ethernet connection between this Airport Base Station and the Motorola Surfboard Cable Modem; then there is a cable from the Motorola modem to the telephone wall socket. The only 'spare' socket in the modem itself is one to receive a USB cable.

So, with this new information, how can I set up my PC Laptop to access the internet with this hardware set up? Can I use USB? I tried downloading the drivers from www.opendrivers.com but when I open the compressed file it produces a .cat file, a .inf file and another file I cannot remember - but I don't know how to install these so I cannot try.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[glc]

I'm not familiar with that particular Airport Express, but I believe you *should* be able to access it with any 802.11b/g wireless adapter. You have 2 options with your laptop - PCMCIA or USB. You probably cannot use the USB and Ethernet simultaneously on the modem because the ISP probably only allows one IP address. The big question I have is this - is the Airport a simple access point or does it also have routing functions? If it's just a simple access point, you are out of luck without buying a router or turning her Mac off - or disconnecting the Airport and using the Ethernet from the modem direct to your laptop. If it has routing functions, you should be able to hook right up wireless.