I have just bought a laptop. I would like to know what to do to get my aol broadband working on it wireless?

Question

I have asked aol this and they were not very helpful. I have an aol account and wish to use this on my laptop. Do I need any equipment and if so what do I do with this so i can switch from pc with adsl to wireless laptop? Hope someone can help. Thanks

Answer 1

Unfortunately, AOL has never been helpfull and has been a pain in the a** to set up via broadband.

This isn't a very easy question to answer particularly because we don't know what your setup is like now... I can only assume that you have AOL on your PC now, and no router. So, I will say, you can go to network connections on your PC and find the AOL connections, right click on them and begin internet sharing. That may help.

Answer 2

I presume you currently connect via an ADSL modem.

In the first instance, run the AOL installation disk in your laptop, just as you did when you installed it in your desktop PC. Plug in the modem when prompted to do so. You will now be able to connect to your AOL account from either your laptop or desktop.

Having done that, you can take the next step to go wireless. To do this you will need two pieces of equipment, a wireless modem router and either a PCMCIA OR USB (but not both) wireless adaptor, unless your new laptop is already wireless ready (that means the adaptor is built in). Most new laptops do not have PCMCIA slots, so more likely you will go for the USB type. I have found the NETGEAR DG834G the easiest to set up, but AOL support others, e.g Belkin and Linksys. Despite what they say, you can use a Netgear adaptor with a Belkin modem router etc, as they all run on the same frequency band.

You can buy these items brand new as a wireless networking kit, or there are plenty of used ones on eBay. Always go for 'G' models that run at 54mbps.

Once you have your modem router set up, it stays permanently connected to the internet, and "distributes" connections via it to PCs that connect to your network, so you can be using the laptop at the same time as someone is using theirs (or your desktop) and sharing the connection to the internet. Be careful to use encryption for security and to prevent cheeky network "surfers" or your neighbours sharing your connection (and possibly accessing your files) for FREE when you pay for it!

Good luck. I run two PCs and a laptop on the network here and my kids now never fight over it or get in my way.

Answer 3

Have you signed up for Broadband?
If not the Orange, talk talk, and Sky provide free broadband but with conditions.
If so, you should have a wireless router provided by the broadband provider.
You should get your broadband provider to help you setup your wireless router.
Once that is setup you can configure you laptop to connect wirelessly with the internet.

Once you have internet access, go to www.aol.com and you can sign in with your screen name and password.

Make sure you are adequately protected with anti virus and spyware.
Hope this helps