Wi-fi?

[Ecomike]

I have a home office network tied to DSL. All hard wired. I am thinking of adding a wi-fi set up to the network for 2 laptops, to get away from the cat 5 cables.

Any suggestions?

One laptop is new which has Wi-Fi built in (new laptop with vista Premium, SP1). The other has 2 PCMCIA slots, and one USB, running Win 2000 Pro, Pentium II 365 Mhz, SP4. I have AT&T DSL service, DSL Modem, netgear Router/gateway (model RP614), and a 10/100 network switch between several PCs and the gateway/router. Gateway/Router is used as a hard firewall to modem.

 

[Johnnie Walker]

Replace your current router with one that has wi-fi?
I use an old compaq POS skt 7 computer running Coyote Firewall for my hardware FW.

 

[xcm]

win2k = no native wifi support, you have to use the one the wifi card mfg supplies... and it sucks!
i hate wifi... i resisted running a hardline into another bedroom for years, and we used wifi instead... EVERY, SINGLE, time, you needed internet NOW, it wouldnt be working... it never worked right all the time, lots of time outs, etc. this is 802.11g, recently! i could piss on the other pc from my bedroom doorway, so performance was a joke. no lead walls either.

btw, my first pc, back in 1998, sported a pII, 333mhz!

 

[xcm]

Replace your current router with one that has wi-fi?
I use an old compaq POS skt 7 computer running Coyote Firewall for my hardware FW.

fullsize pc, running a linux esq firewall? what a waste of power. get packeted much mr nagger?

 

[kastein]

fullsize pc, running a linux esq firewall? what a waste of power. get packeted much mr nagger?

this reply doesn't even begin to make sense. running a linux based firewall won't keep a packet flood/ddos from taking down your home connection, seeing as the connection will still be flooded, your lan just won't be (which is also true with nearly every consumer router on the planet.) The reason for running a linux based router, at least my reason for many years, was better configurability and flexibility - I had something like 30 port forwards, a few VPNs and an ipv6 tunnel to Hurricane Electric's v6 tunnel broker service, an internal nameserver with a fake TLD to allow name resolution for all systems in the apartment, a printserver that worked with both linux and windows, and a VoIP server... on one box. Worked quite nicely.

 

[Mesh]

If you’re on a single floor without too many walls any wireless will work. 802.11g will probably be the cheapest. Get a wireless access point and a pcmcia card for the notebook. 802.11a is good if you have signal problems.

Here is an example.
http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=472
http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=292

 

[heyhar]

I have the cheap Netgear from WallyWorld in the garage, next to the cable modem. The laptop is up in the living room. Full strength signal anywhere in the house. But, I like the desktop better. Just using whatever card came in the Dell laptop.

 

[xcm]

blah blah blah, still a horrendous waste of power. whatever. engineers dont need help w/ wifi, so help the OP or dont, but dont lecture me on firewalls. couldnt care less.

 

[smcdonaldaz]

You don't have to go all wireless. Your wireless router will have ports so you can mix and match. I hard wired the xbox360 so it doesn't affect wireless speed. Yeah, I know it still slows throughput through the modem but not to my network printer and other PCs that are wireless.

 

[Ecomike]

I am thinking of adding a wireless Router in between the current router, and the Modem.

 

[heyhar]

My wireless router has four ports in addition to the little antenna. I run two other wired computers off it also.

 

[kastein]

blah blah blah, still a horrendous waste of power. whatever. engineers dont need help w/ wifi, so help the OP or dont, but dont lecture me on firewalls. couldnt care less.

ok. And you should drive a prius instead of an XJ. Think of all the gas you're wasting!

Yeah, I went there!

Electronics, IT, and computers are one of my hobbies... Jeeps are another.

 

[Mesh]

Stacking routers is not necessary and could complicate things. Use a wireless router to replace the existing one or add a wireless access point.

 

[Johnnie Walker]

fullsize pc, running a linux esq firewall? what a waste of power. get packeted much mr nagger?

Sorry to thread jack partially, its not a full size PC, its in a micro-atx case, my router+modem is almost as big!

I am thinking of adding a wireless Router in between the current router, and the Modem.

Now would be a good time to just upgrade to a new gigabit/wireless router. I've never had any issues with wireless, except for the the stuff actually breaks.

 

[5-90]

I'm going to assume that your DSL service is "routable;" meaning that you've already got a working router in place to serve both computers TCP/IP services, or can do so? Many DSL services won't tolerate routing - and will drop on you if you try.

If your DSL service is routable, and you already have a router in place, most of the work is done. Simply purchase a WAP (Wireless Access Point - 802.11a/b/g) and add it per instructions. I find that Linksys does a good job with their gear, followed by Netgear (what of my network core isn't 3com is Linksys - Linksys is made by Cisco.) Then, just configure your computers for wireless access.

If you're going to add service to a laptop/portable, I tend to prefer using PCMCIA cards to do so. I don't like big-ass USB things hanging off of something I carry around. For your laptop that doesn't have 802.11a/b/g already installed, you may want to see if it was an option (which can then be added, and you keep it fully internal.) You can use USB, but I tend to only use a USB dongle for wireless when I know I'm going to sit around (or when I need to play "bridge" between two networks - in which case, you need a separate NIC for each network you intend to access.)

Adding a dedicated WAP is probably the easiest option. You can replace your current router (sounds like you have one) with a router/WAP/hub combo - I just don't care for putting everything in the same box (if one thing goes out, you're hooped - you've got to replace the whole box!)

NB: When you mount your WAP/Wireless router (which you should do,) mount it as high up on the wall as practical! Microwave radio is highly dependent on line-of-sight, and a higher emitter means a farther horizon and more coverage (within spec range, natch.) My WAP, for instance, is mounted about six feet off of the floor. I pick it up from down the street...

NB: Whether you encrypt your 802.11a/b/g is up to you, but I tend to. I have a hard time with people leeching off of my bandwidth, and I like to foil "wardrivers" where possible. If you want free Wi-Fi, go to McD's or Barnes & Noble - they hand it out there and deduct it as a promotional expense. Just because I can deduct my Internet hookup as a business expense doesn't mean I'm a charity... Yes, I give the key to family - we exchange Wi-Fi keys along with house keys. But, that's family.

 

[Johnnie Walker]

A WAP definitely works, I always have spares if stuff does down. BUt I run a server and quite a bit of file sharing, so gigabit is great for me. Not everyone needs it tho.

 

[kastein]

5-90 has a great point with the router support, some companies will shut you off if you for some reason want more than one of your computers to be on their internets at a time. I'm surprised they can still get away with that in this day and age...

This works because routers, managed switches, etc have the MAC addresses for their public/upstream interface assigned from a different pool than standard computer network cards, as far as I know, they will have MAC addresses starting with 01/02/04 instead of 00. It's been years since I looked into this though so I may be wrong.

However, most routers support a MAC address clone feature by which you can spoof the public MAC address to be the same as the one on the computer you're presently using, so this feature can be used to fool crappy ISPs into thinking you only have one computer connected. Probably breaks their user agreement, but they're being stupid and seem to think it's still 1995, so nyahhhh to them! :moon:

EDIT: also, agreeing on choice of network gear. Linksys and Netgear have never done me wrong, I'm still using the same FS605 5-port Fast Ethernet (100mbit) netgear switch I bought six or seven years ago. Today I'd probably buy a GS608 (8-port GigE) but definitely still from netgear. While you're shopping, check out geeks.com, newegg.com, and zipzoomfly.com instead of going to Staples, prices are MUCH better. For instance I paid 25 dollars *before* mail in rebate for my FS605, when I needed another one "day before yesterday if not sooner" to replace a crappy no-name my parents had break on them, it cost me $40 at Staples.

 

[RichP]

Step one, call your dsl supplier and have them replace the wired DSL modem with a wireless one. That wireless one will have wireless and 4 lan ports on the back. If they won't do it proceed to step two.
Step two, find a linksys WRT54GS off of ebay for $10 or so. Once you get it proceed to http://www.dd-wrt.com/site/support/router-database and plug in the routers model number, you will see two file, a mini and a full, download both. Follow the instructions and install the mini kernel first, this will remove the linksys block for the larger full version. Once the mini is installed install the full version. You now have a fully functional DD-WRT. Years ahead of anything that linksys has.

 

[tbones88XJ]

I use Linksys also and have no issues with it to date. :us:

 

[Ecomike]

You now have a fully functional DD-WRT. Years ahead of anything that linksys has.

And the advantage is?