I have a Belkin wireless access point connected to my broadband modem. My laptop has a Belkin wireless pc card. I have no problem connecting to the internet wirelessly this way. My problem started when I bought a Belkin wireless PCI card for my desktop. I just can't get an internet connection with it. I've been told that 2 computers can connect to the internet through the wireless access point. However, someone else has told me that it needs to be a wireless router. Who's correct and what do I do if the current access point is okay? I am sooooooooo confused. PS Just to confuse you further, I turned the laptop off and managed to get internet access on the desktop. However, after rebooting, I couldn't get it again and haven't been able to since. H...E...L...P Chris Williams

Think about it. The broadband modem has one public IP address. The wireless access point links to a wireless adapter and acts as a "cable" for the system to access and use that one IP address. Two computers on the Internet can not use the same IP address, unless there is a NAT router to handle the "sharing". Your access point is not a NAT router, so you can not connect two different computers to the Internet using the just an access point and two wireless cards. Second problem, most broadband services for (their) network security reasons "associate" the modems MAC address and IP address assigned to it to the MAC address of the system attached to it. And will not talk to a different system MAC address that tries to butt in on the communications link. This is what happens when you try to use the second system and wireless card which has a different MAC address. It gets ignored by the ISP's network. To switch to using the other system, you have to break this "association" and force the ISP's network to associate the new system's MAC address to the IP address and modem MAC address. The only way you have to do this on your own, is to turn off the power to the modem long enough for the ISP's network to time the unit out and start over when it comes back on line. The amount of time this takes varies greatly depending on the settings of the ISP's network controllers. From a few minutes to a day. But normally, over night will do. To have more than one system hooked up to a cable modem, you have to have a NAT (Network Address Translation) router. You could put one between the Modem and the Access point, or just buy a Router with a built in Access Point and run an Ethernet cable from it to the other side of the house and place your now spare access point there so you have a second point for accessing your network/broadband wirelessly.

Thank you VERY much for that info. You've explained it so easily. Belkin didn't seem to be able to help at all. Mind you, it didn't help with the person I was talking to being halfway across the world talking in an accent I couldn't understand!!! Thanks again, Chris. Chris Williams

I went to a computer fair yesterday with the purpose of getting a wireless router. But the guy I spoke to said to check first whether my wireless access point has a DHCP feature, and if so it would be possible to connect 2 PC's to it wirelessly to access the internet. I'm back to being confused again! Chris Chris Williams