advice on having 2 wireless routers

Hi, I'm a novice when it comes to Pc networking so please bare with me.

I have started working from home and my employer has kindly given me a wireless router to link my 'work pc' wirelessly upstairs. my 'home' pc is wired into the router next to the internet connection (cable modem) downstairs and both work fine.

However i would like to be able to connect 2 laptops to the internet wirelessly and my employer has up to now refused to give me the encryption key to be able to connect to the network. I dont know why as the access to the office is through a VPN and requires its own secuirty access anyway- they say they have provided the router for wirk purposes only.

my question is : is it possible to connect a second wireless router for my own personal use and how would i do this or are there any other options available? a friend said i would need the encryption key anyway to connect the second router????? also i dont think the cable company will install a second internet line.

any advice greatly appreciated

 

If you connect with another computer to the work system you might risk the network.

You might think that it is Not a big deal but it is thoer system and you have respect it.

Getting your own Wireless Router is a $30 expense.

 

thanks

I have no problem in buying my own router- as you point out they're not that expensive. Could you please advise on how i would actually connect the 2 together- do i need the encryption key from the work router in order to connect the second one. and would they conflict with each other?

My employer has chosen the security settings and key on the router (a Linksys WRT54GL) so it connects to the office.When the tech guy installed it we originally put my own settings in and it would not connect to the office through the VPN.

 

No you don't need the Office security data, including key to install a second wireless point to your base cable modem.

How do you intend to connect to the cable modem? Is the cable modem also a router?

You need to be aware that wifi operates over 13 'channels'
Since your whole system will be squashed together in the property you need to set each network to run on different channels as far apart as possible.

Since many latops only reach channel 11 best option would be new network on channel 1 and work network on channel 13

 

thanks for responding Studiot.

at the moment the cable broadband connects to the cable modem (virgin media -ex NTL box)-this is not a router- and this is then wired into the Linksys router. the home PC is wired into one of the free ethernet ports on the router and the work PC (upstairs) is wireless.

the only avaialble ethernet port on the cable modem is the one which is connected to the linksys router.

Do i simply wire the second router into one of the available ethernet ports at the back of the Linksys and then choose a different channel so they dont conflict???? the 2 routers would be virtually side by side.