I have 2 laptops at work. One with wireless, one without. Without is plugged into the wall (is this a LAN or ethernet connection??). Wireless one is connected wirelessly. Unfortunately ive just moved to new office and im out of range almost.

Options -
Boost wireless signal - dont know if its posible, office is rented and everyone else is ok so doubt the owner willdo this,
Connect both laptops via cable - but i only have one plug. Is it possible to buy an adaptor like a phone line plug that allows you to connect 2 phones to one line????


Clears as mud? Hope you can advise.

LAN = Local Area Network which can be wireless or wired.

Yes you could wire both to the same connection if you had a hub or a switch in between that wall socket and your two PC's. A hub broadcasts all network traffic to each port on it and a switch learns where to send the traffic to based on addresses. Both are essentially the same though and come in various sizes/costs. You only really need a cheap 4-port one to solve your problem.

Edited to say... also you can get wireless extenders which would allow the wireless connection but a hub/switch would be cheaper and less hassle to set up.

[Edited on 1/5/2008 by andyd]

Yup, you need a "switch" to direct the traffic.

I have a few hundred metres of CAT6 cable, face plates and terminals left over from a job we did recently. If you get the switch I'll cable up your new office for you.

Mike

Have you heard of homeplug?
85mbps connection sent over mains cable using an adapter at each end. Rj45 cat5 connection.

Darren

you can get splitters which will take a single (fully wired) RJ45 port and give you 2 ports out of it.

You need one at each end but its a cheap, non mains plug requiring, solution.

£10, job done.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=290226619178

I should have said ive got a socket in the office. Only problem its a single socket so i can only plug one laptop into it at the mo.

I think i may have one of the boxes somewhere (hubs or whatever you call them). Good call - ill dig it out and see if i can make it work. Thanks for that.



Ive just been reading the Ebay link - lost me off totally. I thought you could just plug one in at my socket to convert it from a single to double socket. Lost me off when it sid you need one at each end- i assume by other end they mean in that cupboard full of horrible wires and lashy lights where the server and outer live - im not going in there

[Edited on 1/5/08 by DarrenW]