Guy at best buy told me I need another router?

Question

I recently asked a question about my internet. So i'm getting a windows 98 in my room and I want internet on it. We have a good computer in our living room and it has a wireless router conncted to it so our laptop can have internet (we have wireless internet.) So anyways a bunch of people told me that I can just buy a USB adaptor and i'll be all set. But tonight, my mom went to a local best buy and told the guy about my situation and he said that I need to buy another router!?! And my mom asked him about the wireless USB adaptor and the guy still said I need another router?!? Ok, so is the best buy guy just trying to milk my money because a whole bunch of people are telling me that all I need is a USB adaptor, or do I really need to buy a whole new router :(. Thanks!

Answer 1

Weird.  Just buy the USB adapter (one that is compatible with 98), set it to client mode, search for your wireless and enter your WEP or WPA if your wireless is secured and you will be ok

Answer 2

hi chris.. all you need is a wireless USB adapter for your windows PC. but be very careful in buying you have to make sure its compatible with your windows 98 PC. their are diff kinds of apaters and some does not work for other PC's so make sure its something compatible witha 98. dont buy a new router. that has nothing to do with it :) hope this helps

Answer 3

Windows 98 may not have driver support for a USB Wifi device. IF your Win98 compute rhas an ethernet port you will be better off with an ethernet wifi client device, since they need no drivers.  

BTW most salespeople at Best Buy know almost as much about computers as a ricer-wannabee knows about performance tuning- just enough to impress.

Answer 4

Goes to show you that sales people don't always know what they are talking about. The others are right... a USB wireless adapter or a PCI card adapter will get you in. You Should update that PC to windows XP for better performance, though. There is a version specifically for older systems.

Answer 5

Chris, no need to get a new router. All you need to have is a USB wireless adapter. Install the driver using the cd installer that came with it. And try to check on the Network Connection if you have Wireless Network Connection already. If you do, then it means you have successful installed your wireless adapter. But make sure that the wireless adapter is compatible with your windows 98.  

Answer 6

One... you need to get a computer in the modern era... Win98 is out the door!  

He might be worried that ALL of his new Wireless Adapters might not have the drivers for Windows 98, and he didnt know how to explain this to your mom.

The easy solution would be to get a router that you can wire yourself into.  However, you should be able to find an old 802.11 Adapter that will have Win 98 drivers.