ANGELofDEATH

I am about to move in with my brother, who does not game, But does like to use his laptop on his now wireless "network" to surf from the couch.
The big problem is that with his wireless "network", he is sharing his bandwidth with one of the neighbors.. :/
I want to put an end to it.. but have never had more than one line running at a time.
I have Comcast cable internet and will be using it there also.

Sooo. my question is do I have to get a router? and run a line through the house.. or can I get another modem and have them running from the cable in two different rooms without having to pay Comcast for two connections.

Any advice is welcome including any preferred modem or router you use.
Mind you I dont want him using wireless, I want to run an Ethernet line under the couch for him.. I am selfish with my bandwidth

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Conscript

Well from your description it looks like you already have a wireless router setup. If you want to stop others from using the wireless network enable WPA2 or WEP encryption to secure it.

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"Golden" Rule as medic, Attach to good fellows and heal nearby losers when needbe.
Are you planning on fighting the enemy commander? Or are you just going to hide in your base.
It is too late comrade the entire world and all of its history is MINE, to COMMAND AND CONQUER.
"He who controls the past commands the future. He who commands the future, conquers the past."
Enemies of the Union shall burn.
The soldier is a class that wins battles, the demoman is a class that wins wars.
"Come, show me what passes for fury among your misbegotten kind"

Arf

If your brother and your neighbor are using the same connection then a router would be redundant. Do a Google search on the manufacturer and model of your modem to see what security features they offer and instructions on how to set it up. Encrypting and passwording your network shouldn't be difficult and you'll learn about a lot of other good ways to keep your network safe such as decreasing the broadcast power and MAC address filtering. They're nice to know even though a password and encryption will be more then enough.

Don't expect to get a second modem, they'll make you pay much more then you would for a router.

ANGELofDEATH

Yes, the previous tenant set up the wireless that is now running in the house.

I wont use wireless.. desktop.. no point.
My brother only uses his laptop on the couch, so no reason to have wireless.
I know a lot of people use wireless, I dont trust it.. Like most dont trust my trusty wireless G7.. personal preference.

The neighbor(a friend and nice guy) is highjacking the connection, not really sharing it.

and the modem I have now is the one from comcast which I have to return.. the one at the house only has the one Ethernet.. and right now it is still hooked up to the previous tenants wireless router.. Which he is taking this week.

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Ikonic

Like the others said, configure WPA or WEP so the wireless doesn't get snatched freely. Make the Private Key some random crap so people can't guess it (2g79fdg9J2jK9aRx569 for example). Some routers do this automatically, others don't.

Conscript

Enable WPA2 which is the newest form of encryption, WEP is an older standard and is possible to crack but for 99% of people that should be fine also. Just open up a browser and configure your router. I have wireless on my desktop, better than running wires around the house and dont know why you dont want your brother to use wireless for his laptop.

__________________
"Golden" Rule as medic, Attach to good fellows and heal nearby losers when needbe.
Are you planning on fighting the enemy commander? Or are you just going to hide in your base.
It is too late comrade the entire world and all of its history is MINE, to COMMAND AND CONQUER.
"He who controls the past commands the future. He who commands the future, conquers the past."
Enemies of the Union shall burn.
The soldier is a class that wins battles, the demoman is a class that wins wars.
"Come, show me what passes for fury among your misbegotten kind"

P8riot

Yeah.. wireless is fine for casual use like your bro does. But run a Google search on the model number and make of your wireless access point there and I bet you can find the default username and password for it - as well as the IP to access the configuration via a browser.

Use WPA2 and AES encryption if it offers it, change the default password and you should be good to go. I run it for my XBox360 and a few other wireless devices I have.. but the main machine is hard wired with an accelerator the runs my games and VoIP with high priority and downgrades competing devices (packets).

Something that is a lot of fun to have in your pocket from time to time is the ZyXEL WAP finder. I've had one for a couple of years. It's self-contained and doesn't need to be plugged in to find and identify wireless networks and determine thier status..

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It's really hard to baptize a cat.

cg_

Like the rest have said you already have a WAP. Depending on what you have you might have a Modem/Router or a Modem and a Router. You have to have a modem, which only gets you 1 connection. The router will come with wired and wireless. Genearlly speaking a 54g will get you 4 or 5 wired ports and then wireless as well.

Your cable line plugs into the modem and then the modem ethernet plugs into the router. Then your computers plug into the router or wireless.

You can protect your network with wep or wpa if you want it encrpyted or just turn on Mac filtering and put the mac addresses of your computers into the router and then your neighboor cant get on anyways.

There is nothing wrong with wireless especially if you have web or wpa turned on.

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birdie_in_texas

can one of you gurus tell me how i can look and see if anyone is connected to my wireless other than my stuff please..?


there seems to be a helluva lot of lights flickering where there did not used to be, and my ping has started fluctuating and goes to shit for no reason intermittently...

i wanna know if some f'in terrorist owes me some $$ for hijacking my i-net..!

it is a linksys "N" rangemax gigabit thing..has no antennas sticking out and looks kind of like an aliens bush..

Arf

Put 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1 into your browser, one of those is likely your router's IP . That will get you to your router and from their you should have some type of status page. Also My Network places is a good place to start as you'll often see leechers their too.

If that doesn't work try getting Ping Plotter and see if there's anything funky happening with your ISP. Or if you're lazy start > run > type in "cmd" > hit enter > tracert www.google.com and that will do the same kind of thing.