Changing from wired to wireless

[lymmguineas]

This may seem fairly basic judging by some of the more complex queries on here so I hope you can help me.
I've been using o2 broadband for a couple of years now with my pc connected via ethernet to the o2 wireless box ii.
I now need to move the phone socket in the room where I use my pc and won't easily be able to connect to the box via a cable so I want to access it wirelessly.
Here's where the questions start.
My pc doesn't have a wireless card but I have a bluetooth usb dongle. Should this be ok to connect or do I need a wireless card?
If I need a wireless card can anyone recommend a good (cheap) one to fit in a Dell slimline desktop?
If the dongle is ok how do I go about changing from wired to wireless?
I can see the wireless network setup wizard in control panel but it seems to be more about adding extra devices to the main pc rather than setting the main pc up as a wireless one.
Do I just need to run the o2 setup cd again?
Any help gratefully received.

[Saturday]

No, bluetooth isn't the way forward and wireless is a poor second to ethernet.

Were I in your position I would buy a pair of powerline adaptors (e.g. these though you may want to research other makes). That way you can have your router plugged in next to your main BT telephone socket plugged into a powerline adaptor and your PC anywhere else in the house that you have the other powerline adaptor.

In most homes performance with a powerline adaptor will be near identical to standard ethernet i.e. faster and much more stable and secure than wireless. They are plug and play so no hardware or software to add to your computer.

HTH

[lymmguineas]

Originally Posted by Saturday

No, bluetooth isn't the way forward and wireless is a poor second to ethernet.

Were I in your position I would buy a pair of powerline adaptors (e.g. these though you may want to research other makes). That way you can have your router plugged in next to your main BT telephone socket plugged into a powerline adaptor and your PC anywhere else in the house that you have the other powerline adaptor.

In most homes performance with a powerline adaptor will be near identical to standard ethernet i.e. faster and much more stable and secure than wireless. They are plug and play so no hardware or software to add to your computer.

HTH

Thanks Saturday,
That's a great help. I'll have a look at these over the weekend.
I'll post back to let you know what I decide.

[Tony1044]

Oh I can definately second powerline adapters.

I run my business IT infrastructure with them - literally, I have my server equipment in a garage, that would be difficult to run normal CAT5 cabling to and of course is nowhere near to where my BT line enters the property. On top of that, wireless either wouldn't reach or as Saturday says, would be a poor second to wired.

The answer was simple - one adapter next to the ISP (O2) router and one next to the servers router and it just works. Reliably too.

Mine are old now and only do 85MBit but they're reliable and fast enough for what I need them to do.

[lymmguineas]

I said I would post an update so here goes. BT had told us that we had a fault on internal wiring which was why we were having to move the socket in the first place (internal wiring snakes round underneath about 40 foot of laminate flooring and through a coupleof walls). So had to move the socket to where it could be connected to the poi nt of entry to the building.
When the second BT engineer came to move the socket he checked the line again for me and decided the fault was outside our property. After three hours in the cold he though he had fixed it but there was still no difference in the line quality. Two hours later he had been up the top of the telephone pole outside our house and fixed a second fault.
Some engineers are obviously better than others. I saved the cost of moving the socket and my broad band speed has gone from 2 mb with loads of dropouts to over 10mb.
Didn't need the powerline adaptors in the end, but one of my friends now has some and they work great!
Thanks again for everyone's advice.

[Saturday]

Thanks for the update - good result

[Tony1044]

Thanks for letting us know - great result.