internal wireless card and router

[BuckeyeComputers]

Have a client that is running 4 computers 2 xp pro, 1 xp home and 1 win98se. running a simple client/server. Now here is the deal. previously the system was on dial-up thr one of the pro computers and everyone shared that internet connection, he is now switching to wireless which has installed the controller into the pro machine which i believe can still share the connection with the other systems but the person that installed it told him he should get a router as a firewall,which i know xp has a built in firewall but seem to have some problems with file shareing and map drives with this enabled. so the way he describe it to me was to bring the connection into the pro machine then out of it into a router to the other 3 machines... but this would still leave the first unprotected in my opinion. So does anyone have a better solution with this kind of setup?
hope i gave enough info if not just ask

 

[KimLeece]

Which bit is wireless? If all the computers are wireless now I don't think that he could use a router between them - they have a wireless connection already. If he's going to buy a router anyway I think it would be better to get something like the following:

http://www.multitech.com/DOCUMENTS/datasheets/487.asp

That is a dial-up router, there are also ADSL/Cable routers on the market. Then all the machines would be behind the firewall.

Kim Leece.

 

[BuckeyeComputers]

Only the one xp pro has the internal wireless transmitter the rest are hardwired network thru a hub and they acess the internet thru the one computer. Lets see if i can describle this from outside antenna hardwired to an internal card for the connection on one xp pro machine, from that computer hardwired to a hub the other 3 hardwired to the hub. the question is will the xp firewall and the pro computer be sufficient to protect the network.

 

[KimLeece]

I still don't understand what the wireless is transmitting to - but if the rest are all hardwired then I think he would be better off getting a dial-up/adsl router like the one in the link above. Then he could either keep the XP machine as the Internet link - and connect to the other machines through his hub, or connect all the machines to the new router and let that be the hub as well. That would put the hardware firewall between all the machines and the Internet. The XP firewall can cause a lot of problems with network connections and you often see in these forums that people have to turn it off to make other things work properly. Also it is a very basic firewall and most people would rather have a third-party software firewall, such as Norton or Sygate (I use Sygate - it works great). He has though a dial-up connection so I presume it doesn't stay on-line all the time which makes the use of a firewall less important anyway - they are mainly used for ADSL/Cable connections which stay on-line. The only bit here I can't quite see is the wireless! Is this for connecting to a laptop or something? What does it connect to? In any event this connection into the XP computer needs to be secure, but that can probably be done through the user account set-up.

Kim Leece.