We only have dialup access where I live and we are looking into satellite, which may not be possible still due to trees blocking the sky to the south. We are trying to get setup and ready though in case it does work out but I'm stuck now. Networking is not my strong area. We have been on dialup since the mid 90s and my knowledge is so outdated in that area. I'm running Windows XP Home Edition (SP3) and am a bit lost. We are going to want to set it up as a wireless internet so we can connect to WiFi with our eReader devices as well as the computer and possibly a laptop later down the road.
We have a network card built into the motherboard already (Realtek RTL8168/8111 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet NIC ... that is copied and pasted from the Network Connections properties). Considering the fact that all the sites say to go to Network Connnections - Wireless.... to connect to a WiFi network and I don't have a Wireless option listed anywhere in Network Connections, I'm guessing it's the network card that needs to have WiFi support built in, correct? Do we need to invest in a new card or am I missing something in the OS for the Wireless settings?
Or, to make things easier, do they make splitters for the LAN cables so we could bounce the cable from the satellite dish to both the computer and the router? I'm not really sure which route we should take here and any info is appreciated. We've had dialup for too many years and to make it worse, the phone lines only support a 24k connection so we are at half the speed of dialup (if anybody can imagine how nasty that is). Everything is meant for high speed access now and we can't hardly even check emails without spending 20+ minutes to just download a couple of them, let alone load most pages without constant time outs.
By the way, I haven't been on the site forever so my computer stats are probably out dated. If any other info is needed other than the network card type and OS please let me know. Thank you in advance!
We have a network card built into the motherboard already (Realtek RTL8168/8111 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet NIC ... that is copied and pasted from the Network Connections properties). Considering the fact that all the sites say to go to Network Connnections - Wireless.... to connect to a WiFi network and I don't have a Wireless option listed anywhere in Network Connections, I'm guessing it's the network card that needs to have WiFi support built in, correct? Do we need to invest in a new card or am I missing something in the OS for the Wireless settings?
Or, to make things easier, do they make splitters for the LAN cables so we could bounce the cable from the satellite dish to both the computer and the router? I'm not really sure which route we should take here and any info is appreciated. We've had dialup for too many years and to make it worse, the phone lines only support a 24k connection so we are at half the speed of dialup (if anybody can imagine how nasty that is). Everything is meant for high speed access now and we can't hardly even check emails without spending 20+ minutes to just download a couple of them, let alone load most pages without constant time outs.
By the way, I haven't been on the site forever so my computer stats are probably out dated. If any other info is needed other than the network card type and OS please let me know. Thank you in advance!