Wireless network set up - channel selection?

I want to configure my home network for wireless networking, right now i only hhave a laptop that works wirelessly but will later ad more. Anyway my instruction manual for my Linksys WRT54GS Broadband/Wireless router asks me to do the following : Wireless Channel: "Select the appropriate channel for your network settings. All devices in your network must broadcast on the same channel" So not sure what this means, is it talking about what frequency the router is going to broadcast on or is it asking about what freq my laptop is on? (if it is that how do i find out that?) theres a example box on the manual which shows the screen and in the wireless channel selection box for the router set up it shows 6-2.437Ghz selected ,so presume it is asking about frequencys! Help????

Wireless network set up - channel selection?
You don't have any other radio devices broadcasting on your network, so you don't have to worry about that. It's only referring to routers and other network wireless devices, such as gateways, range extenders, etc. and not laptops hooking up to it. The multiple channel option is there in case you have interference from other devices. If the default channel is working fine for you, just leave it on that channel. If you were to get interference (from a neighbor using his/her wireless router or cordless phone), then you could try changing to another channel, one he/she wasn't using. It's the same thing as being able to change channels on cordless phones.
Reply:I use a netgear and it defaults to 11 - what ever your router is set at just make sure that your wireless software on your pc/laptops are set the same - if you have poor reception change the number on all of them





its like a walkie talkie or cb radio - the channels are frequencies but they are just numbered 1, 2, 3, etc
Reply:It's asking both what frequency it will broadcast at, and by proxy that also means what channel your laptop is set to (only if you have WEP set I think?).





The most common channel is 6 since that's what Linksys defaults are at, dunno about Netgear or the rest.