A question to those who really know about wireless networking...?

1. I am looking to buy this wireless router. I need to know if its ok for me. I have Virgin broadband. I am going to use it with my laptop and my nephew for his psp. We live in a small flat so no big distances.
>WIRELESS+ROUTER.htmhttp://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/pa...


2. I will want the wireless network to have a security code to it or something because I need to control the amount of time my nephew goes on the internet, so I will put in the password into his psp each time he is allowed to use it. I need to know if after one time I put it in, will his psp save this password or not?

Please answer me without using too many special computer words as I will not understand ;)
Thanx.

Hello,

(ANS) No.1 YES! This Belkin wireless router would be fine for your requirements (needs), Belkin is a well known and respected product maker of networking devices including routers. The upto 54 megabits per second transfer rate is between your desktop or laptop and the router, after this the router defaults down to your line rate i.e. if the broadband is an 8meg connection then thats the maximum you can get but more likely you will see somewhat less anywhere between 4 - 6megs in reality depending upon phone line conditions, your distance from the BT exchange etc.

No.2 YES! You will definitely need to secure your wireless network with an encryption key, you do this inside the router settings using WEP or WAP or WAP-PSK. This creates a unique key for this network you can think of it just like a pin number for a bank account. i.e. no pin number no access to your money. Same here no encryption key no access to your router and also no web access. But only someone with the precise key can have access, so this way you keep out hackers or joe public from stealing your valuable bandwidth.

No.3 YES! you can set up windows to always ask for a user password & user-name each time the machine is used. And you can of course limit internet access via parental controls from within most web browsers these days. see preferences or settings within the browser.

Hope that helps?

Kind Regards Ivan

computer veteran.

You will need to configure it in the routers webpage, that you through your Internet Explorer or Firefox. Once you do this, you can have the router generate the computers network key for security. Once the laptop cannects, you should be ready to go.

When you set up your network you will be able to set the security for it, which normally amounts to a code (in most cases an alphanumeric WEP code).

The psp system when first connected will search for all available wireless networks and once you have found yours (you will know what it is called because you will have set it up) it will prompt you for the code. The psp will save this code in the network settings.

You could delete these network settings after every web session, but you will find it is a very tedious affair re-entering them every time he wants to play. The best way to limit his playing time is either to turn of the wireless system or to physically remove the PSP (because even network-less he can still play, just not on the Internet)>

what's a psp?
I have Virgin and a wireless router (D-Link) I use a PC and my husband has a laptop. I don't have access to his laptop because he has a password to enter.
Can't you put a password on the psp, whatever it is, without telling your son what the password is?

1) Yes it should work, why would it not?! Just use the same encryption scheme. In your case it will be WEP since thats all the psp will uses.

2)With this router you can enable the psp mac address at will or setup a time when he can use the network from the web interface of the router. You'll just need to know the psp's mac address. RTFM (read the fine manual)

The router will be fine for you. It will Have security that you can set up yourself when you first put the disc in. I'm not too sure about the psp as i've never used one. Hope this is of some help.

If you buy a Linksys Wireless G, i'm not sure about other routers but once in the setup options of the router there is a tab call Access Restrictions. You can add either MAC address or the IP and can limit that machine to certain days and times.

It will serve your purpose, but you can probably get the Linksys WRT54G for the same price and, although it's just my opinion (based on experience), Linksys makes a better router than Belkin.