Ask Our Expert

Wireless home

Dear Michael, I’ve finally had a wireless router installed so that I can connect to the internet without running wires all around my home.

Now I’d like to hook up all my wireless devices to my home broadband - can you help?

Jimmy, via email on 22 December 2009

Our Broadband Expert says...

You can now connect everything from your iPod and digital camera to your alarm clock and home phone to your wireless broadband connection, allowing you to download apps, upload pictures, check the day’s weather forecast and make cheap internet telephone calls without a wire in sight.

PC to TV

Getting hooked up to the internet on your home computer means that you can now watch TV over the internet - allowing you to catch up with all your favourite shows from the BBC iPlayer, ITV Player and Channel 4’s 4oD, as well as a host of internet-only TV services.

EBut if you don’t want to huddle round your laptop, you can connect your computer to your TV. You can hook it up using a HDMI cable or a VGA cable, but if you want to go wireless, a media streamer will send all your content direct to your TV.

Click here to read more about media streamers.

Games consoles

Connecting your PS3, Xbox 360 or Nintendo Wii to the internet will take your gaming to the next level, allowing you to compete against friends and family no matter where they are.

Some games consoles even allow you to watch TV - for example, you can watch Sky Broadband (www.Sky.com) TV using the Xbox 360 and you can watch the BBC iPlayer on the Nintendo Wii.

You can connect all of these consoles to your broadband wirelessly.

Other wireless devices

Now that you’ve got your home wireless broadband connection up and running, you'll be able to log on with any other wireless-enabled devices you own. Simply turn the wireless receiver of each device on and it should pick up your signal. Then you just have to enter your wireless password to get online.

Wireless security

One of the most important things you need to think about when you get a wireless connection is security. Because the signal can be picked up within a 100m radius, passersby will be able to connect to your broadband unless you take the proper security measures.

Use the latest wireless encryption - WPA - where possible and use our free Wireless Key Generator to create unique, secure passwords that are hard to crack.

Download allowances

If you’ve got a host of wireless devices connected to your home broadband, you'll have to keep an eye on how much you're downloading. You can use our Broadband Download Monitor to track downloads on your computer, but it won’t be able to monitor how much you’ve downloaded using your games console, iPod Touch or any other wireless device.

However, some providers do allow you to check how much you’ve downloaded by logging into you online account. Check with your ISP to see if it offers this service.

High data limits

BE Broadband (www.Bethere.co.uk) and O2 Broadband (www.O2.co.uk) are both good choices if you're looking for an “unlimited broadband” package, as both have very generous fair usage policies.

And if you're looking for a package with a generous set download allowance that you can track more easily, both TalkTalk Broadband (www.Talktalk.co.uk) and Plusnet Broadband (www.Plus.net) now offer packages for high end users with "unlimited broadband" downloads from TalkTalk or a very generous 80GB download allowance with Plusnet, with up to 24Mb broadband and 20Mb broadband respectively.

NB Best buy tables are always current.

Examples in the text of the article are correct at time of publication.