Edimax br-6504n

My broadband provider has provided me with a broadband system which comes from an antenna on the roof, into a small plastic "base unit" with an RJ45 cable, out of that with another RJ45 cable and into my Tower P.C or laptop and the internet work fine.
As soon as I tried to connect the RJ45 from my laptop into the WAN port of the Br-6504n router and connect the laptop to the router through thr router lan port all the trouble started. The internet connection was lost. At the start I was able to connect to the router, now i cannot do that anymore. The I.P adresses all seem to be the same after I connect the router, and the laptop is not able to diagnose the issue.
The most recent error was that it attempted to ping the DNS, which had the same number as the IP address but did not get a response.
My reason for buying the router was to connect my Tower P.C wired into the router, and the router to be connected wirelessly to the laptop. Some friends have mentioned a wireless access point was the solution. Is there some way of using what I have to fix the problem?

Thanks,
Hup