HELP. Does my wireless G Router have to be connected to at least one computer? ?

Question

Top rating to best answer. Explain where I would be needing to connect the cables. I don't have a PC, I only have ONE laptop.

Answer 1

As long as your modem is hooked up to your router via an ethernet properly your laptop should detect the router.

Answer 2

No, your router doesn't have to be connected to anything but the wall/modem (depending on your home setup).  Whereas before you'd plug your laptop into the modem, you plug in the wireless router instead, normally marked Internet or WAN.  To initially configure your wireless, you need to be connected to the router with a ethernet cable (instructions should be included with your router or a CD that automates this for you, but normally it's the default gateway like 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.2.1), but afterward you can leave it alone and just connect wirelessly.

When you initially set up your router, you don't even need to connect it to the internet, so at most you'd need is 1 cable.  2 would be nicer, but 1 will work (Connect router to laptop first, configure, then connect router to modem and use wirelessly).

Answer 3

Connect an ethernet cable from your modem to the "internet in" (or something similar) port in your router.  Follow your instruction manual to set up WEP or WPA, turn your laptop on, and use whatever network manager you like to scan for the network.

To access your router settings, please type the IP address of the gateway into a web browser.  Consult your instruction manual for the default username and password (if they exist), and the default gateway address.

If you do not have an instruction manual, please try the following addresses for your default gateway, as they are very common:

192.168.0.1

192.168.1.1

192.168.1.254

Note that you do not need to set up any encryption for your wireless network to function. It's just that if you don't, anybody would be able to access your network and easily intercept data that is transmitted over it.