How to Go From Cat5 to Wireless
- 1). Connect an Ethernet-to-wireless adapter to the network port on the PC. This device allows continued usage of your Cat5 port for Internet purposes. The cable runs from your port to the adapter. The antenna on the adapter picks up the wireless Internet signal from a wireless router and then transmits your Internet data. This is an external device that rests on the side or back of the desktop tower.
- 2). Connect a PCI-to-wireless adapter using the peripheral component interconnect (PCI) slots inside a desktop PC. The motherboard inside the tower has about two to four PCI slots, and one end of the slot extends through an opening to the outside of the PC. The circuit board that makes up the bulk of the adapter fits into one of these slots on the inside. The attached wireless antenna rests on the outside of the tower in the back of the PC and picks up wireless Internet from a router.
- 3). Insert a USB-to-wireless adapter in an available USB slot on the side or back of a desktop or laptop computer. This device resembles a USB flash drive stick and it either uses an internal or external antenna that picks up the Internet from a router.
- 4). Tether your existing cellular phone to your computer. The phone connects to your PC via a specially designed cable that supports USB on one end and the other end uses the data or power port on the cell phone. This type of connection is termed "mobile broadband." However, it actually uses the principles of dial-up Internet, because your computer dials a local access number through your cellular service provider to connect to the Web.
- 5). Insert a cellular aircard in the USB port on the PC. Also called datacards, these devices use the same cellular networks as mobile phones, to offer a connection to the Internet. Your service provider will assign a phone number to this device, but you cannot use it for voice. Your computer dials up to the Internet through the aircard, which may have an internal or external antenna.
- 6). Set up Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) with another computer that has wireless capabilities. You run your Cat5 networking cable from the Ethernet port on your PC to the Ethernet port on the other PC. The other PC is called the "host" and it can use a wireless adapter, cell phone or aircard device. The host uses functions in the operating system to link the wireless Internet connection to Ethernet port on the same PC, and then your computer can piggyback off this service.
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