modem router! what should i get

Hi all. im flumexed as to what to go for. I have 2 comps in my house. at the moment
i have a wired router. so that when im connected my wife can connect to the internet.
What i want is a device that is connected to my provider, so that if my wife wished to connect to the internet, i dont have to put my machine on for her to do that.
ive looked around, but to be honest i have not got a clue what im looking for.
manythanks

What type/make/model of modem do you currently have?

hi, just have a adsl speedtouch 330 modem

Do you mean you have 2 PCs both connected (wired) by Ethernet cables to the same router? If so, you should not need to switch on both PCs to use just one of them.

OR do you mean you have your PC connected wired to a Broadband MODEM (not router) and the other PC is somehow connected directly (Ethernet cable or wirelessly?) to your PC? And you are using Windows' Internet Connection Sharing?
If so, you probably need to buy a wireless Broadband/ADSL router.

You need to be more specific about your current setup?

Yeah, you'll have to dump that. Some of these small USB modems often have a LAN port too, but not yours.

You have two choices. 1) Get rid of your current modem & router and replace them with a decent combined 4 port adsl router. The netgear DG834g is a pretty good choice. or 2) Get a small single port LAN modem and plug it into your current router. With this option you'd have to mess around with dhcp though.

Personally, and for the sake of simplicity, I'd get the netgear.

Edited by deleted (Mon 23-Mar-09 15:36:41)

I think s/he means that the speedtouch is powered of one computer, then that is set up to share it's connection over the router to the other comp.

Edited by deleted (Mon 23-Mar-09 15:33:41)

hi XRaySpeX
its as 12eason said.
my ideal situation would be to have one modem with router that is constantly connected to
my isp with nothing connected to the both my PC's. either one of us switches on our PC"s and we can log onto the net. at the moment mine needs to be on to do this.
many thanks

manythanks 12eason

The term you need to search for is ADSL router or wireless ADSL router if you may want to connect via wireless as well.

e.g. DABS example

The router sits near your phone line and normally has sockets for up to four PCs to be connected via Ethernet (supported by all modern PCs).

They all come with fairly similar features which are probably irrelevant to your initial needs.

How is your wife's PC currently connected to your PC?

If wirelessly then you need a wireless router; the Netgear DG834G would be ideal.

If by Ethernet, then you won't need a wireless router yet, but the DG834G would still be a good idea in case you wanted to go wirelessly in the future.