Anyone wired for WiFi ?
Discussion
Definitely recommended! Freedom to read PH in the lounge, kitchen, bedroom and bog. 
I recommend Linksys kit but they're all pretty much the same. Just make sure you encrypt your channel so that none of your neighbours can access your network or steal your bandwidth! Oh, and place your router upstairs if possible to help the signal range.
I recommend Linksys kit but they're all pretty much the same. Just make sure you encrypt your channel so that none of your neighbours can access your network or steal your bandwidth! Oh, and place your router upstairs if possible to help the signal range.
Unfortunately (in hind sight) I've done this wrong .... I've already got a Linksys router (not wireless) which I've got 2 PC's connected to. Now I want to connect the laptop, which to be honest I've not been using until now. Not really want to have to buy another router just for the laptop .... is there some kind of cheap 'single PC transponder / receiver' type affair ?
You can get just a WiFi access point, but they aren't much cheaper than the router.
I have Macs (as you may remember
) and have been running Airport (apple brand 802.3) for about three years, with hardly any problems.
Just don't get a usb access point!
If you have any specific questions ask away. Sybaseian, has done this recently, so he may have some input.
Sparks
P.S about 75GBP for an access point, 100GBP with router....
I have Macs (as you may remember
) and have been running Airport (apple brand 802.3) for about three years, with hardly any problems. Just don't get a usb access point!
If you have any specific questions ask away. Sybaseian, has done this recently, so he may have some input.
Sparks
P.S about 75GBP for an access point, 100GBP with router....
You can get just a WiFi access point, but they aren't much cheaper than the router.
I have Macs (as you may remember) and have been running Airport (apple brand 802.3) for about three years, with hardly any problems.
Just don't get a usb access point!
If you have any specific questions ask away. Sybaseian, has done this recently, so he may have some input.
Sparks
P.S about 75GBP for an access point, 100GBP with router....
I have Macs (as you may remember
) and have been running Airport (apple brand 802.3) for about three years, with hardly any problems. Just don't get a usb access point!
If you have any specific questions ask away. Sybaseian, has done this recently, so he may have some input.
Sparks
P.S about 75GBP for an access point, 100GBP with router....
I've had wireless LAN at home for over a year - Linksys access point, D-Link card. The cheapest stuff at the time basically
Bear in mind that you won't get even get close to quoted speeds - my 802.11b kit should be 11Mbit but in reality is more like 3. Sometimes 4 if you're right next to the WAP. Still plenty for internet, playing MP3s and the like. Very low latency (3ms-ish) too.
There's no substitute for wired LANs if you move data about regularly (even the automated backup of about 300mb of my important stuff takes a long time over wireless) but fine for general use.
Bear in mind that you won't get even get close to quoted speeds - my 802.11b kit should be 11Mbit but in reality is more like 3. Sometimes 4 if you're right next to the WAP. Still plenty for internet, playing MP3s and the like. Very low latency (3ms-ish) too.
There's no substitute for wired LANs if you move data about regularly (even the automated backup of about 300mb of my important stuff takes a long time over wireless) but fine for general use.
[url]www.broadbandbuyer.co.uk[/url] has very good prices and their service is excellent - both pre and post sales. A colleague had a faulty PC card and he receieved the replacement before he'd sent off the faulty one!
I bought what was then called the DLink Silver Bundle - ADSL router, Wireless Access Point and PCMCIA card. They were far cheaper than anyone else and the guy on the end of the phone was great. No matter what you do, give them a call and pick their brains.
Cheers
Andy
I bought what was then called the DLink Silver Bundle - ADSL router, Wireless Access Point and PCMCIA card. They were far cheaper than anyone else and the guy on the end of the phone was great. No matter what you do, give them a call and pick their brains.
Cheers
Andy
nevpugh308 said:
Crumbs, didn't realise you lost so much speed ...
There's always the newer standards, but I would expect similar loss. Apparently the higher quality kit fares better, but even the Cisco Aironet stuff is well under what you'd expect from "11Mbit".
400k/s is the most I've seen on an FTP transfer to another machine on the (wired) LAN.
It's really not a problem though - I use wireless for general everyday use (it's still several times quicker than my internet connection) then plug in when I've got a lot of data to shift.
You could tackle this in two ways.
If you just want to connect your laptop wirelessly into the rest of your wired network and you know that you will not want to connect any other wireless computers in the future, then you could just buy a PCMCIA wireless card for the laptop and a PCI wireless card for one of the desktops and set them up to work in peer to peer mode. This means that the two wireless cards will only talk to each other, your laptop connects into the wired network through the chosen desktop and you have no further expansion capabilities.
If you suspect that you will want to add more wireless PC's in the future, then you will need a wireless access point or WAP. This should connect into a spare ethernet port on your router (which from your descrption I assume is also a hub or switch). You then need a PCMCIA wireless card for the laptop. With this system you have much more room for expansion since the WAP can service a large number of wireless clients and integrate them into your wired network.
As previously mentioned, make sure your wireless security setup is good so that others cannot get into your network. As a minimum, do the following:
1. You can encrypt all signals between your WAP and laptop by using WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy). This is an encryption algorithm that is part of the 802.11 wireless networking standard and is built into all the wireless networking components that we are talking about in this thread. The snag is, that by default in most components it is turned off and you the system administrator has to turn it on. (And yes to all you who are about to flame me about the holes in WEP; I know, but it is better than nothing.)
2. All WAPs broadcast their name or SSID to the world. This is logical since it makes it easy for other computers to find the network. Once your laptop has been introduced to your WAP, I would suggest you turn off SSID broadcast on the WAP. That way, a passer by will have a hard time knowing that your network exists, because you WAP is no longer shouting its name across the rooftops.
3. Most WAPs support MAC control and again I suggest you use it. Every single network card in the world, whether wireless or wired, has a unique identifier or address embedded in it. This is called a MAC (sorry cant remember what it stands for). By enabling MAC control in your WAP, you can tell it to only speak to network cards that you have authorised - ie you have entered into the WAP the unique identifiers of the network cards it can communicate with. By doing this, even if someone does find your network, the WAP will refuse to talk to them unless you allow it.
One final note, the new 802.11g standard has now been ratified. This gives theoretical speeds of up to 54 Mbps compared with 11Mbps on the older 802.11b standard. Now whilst I know that it is almost impossible to achieve 54Mbps in the real world, the new kit is still 5 times faster than the old and some recent magazine testing has reported constant throughput around the 16Mbps mark. The g standard kit is available now, is backwards compatible with the b standard, and is only marginally more expensive than the b standard kit. My advice therefore is to make sure you get g standard kit not b standard.
Sorry for the lengthy post, but I hope this is useful. Please ask if you want more info.
Dave Clarke
www.arctsys.co.uk
>> Edited by arcturus on Tuesday 1st July 01:16
If you just want to connect your laptop wirelessly into the rest of your wired network and you know that you will not want to connect any other wireless computers in the future, then you could just buy a PCMCIA wireless card for the laptop and a PCI wireless card for one of the desktops and set them up to work in peer to peer mode. This means that the two wireless cards will only talk to each other, your laptop connects into the wired network through the chosen desktop and you have no further expansion capabilities.
If you suspect that you will want to add more wireless PC's in the future, then you will need a wireless access point or WAP. This should connect into a spare ethernet port on your router (which from your descrption I assume is also a hub or switch). You then need a PCMCIA wireless card for the laptop. With this system you have much more room for expansion since the WAP can service a large number of wireless clients and integrate them into your wired network.
As previously mentioned, make sure your wireless security setup is good so that others cannot get into your network. As a minimum, do the following:
1. You can encrypt all signals between your WAP and laptop by using WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy). This is an encryption algorithm that is part of the 802.11 wireless networking standard and is built into all the wireless networking components that we are talking about in this thread. The snag is, that by default in most components it is turned off and you the system administrator has to turn it on. (And yes to all you who are about to flame me about the holes in WEP; I know, but it is better than nothing.)
2. All WAPs broadcast their name or SSID to the world. This is logical since it makes it easy for other computers to find the network. Once your laptop has been introduced to your WAP, I would suggest you turn off SSID broadcast on the WAP. That way, a passer by will have a hard time knowing that your network exists, because you WAP is no longer shouting its name across the rooftops.
3. Most WAPs support MAC control and again I suggest you use it. Every single network card in the world, whether wireless or wired, has a unique identifier or address embedded in it. This is called a MAC (sorry cant remember what it stands for). By enabling MAC control in your WAP, you can tell it to only speak to network cards that you have authorised - ie you have entered into the WAP the unique identifiers of the network cards it can communicate with. By doing this, even if someone does find your network, the WAP will refuse to talk to them unless you allow it.
One final note, the new 802.11g standard has now been ratified. This gives theoretical speeds of up to 54 Mbps compared with 11Mbps on the older 802.11b standard. Now whilst I know that it is almost impossible to achieve 54Mbps in the real world, the new kit is still 5 times faster than the old and some recent magazine testing has reported constant throughput around the 16Mbps mark. The g standard kit is available now, is backwards compatible with the b standard, and is only marginally more expensive than the b standard kit. My advice therefore is to make sure you get g standard kit not b standard.
Sorry for the lengthy post, but I hope this is useful. Please ask if you want more info.
Dave Clarke
www.arctsys.co.uk
>> Edited by arcturus on Tuesday 1st July 01:16
Wow, thanks for all the info guys, this is really useful !
Simon : see your point about speed .... like you say, 3 or 4meg (or whatever) is still faster than my broadband link (600k)
Andy : thanks for the link, I'll look into them
Dave : thanks for all the security stuff, interesting reading. Oh, and p.s. .... go to bed !!
Simon : see your point about speed .... like you say, 3 or 4meg (or whatever) is still faster than my broadband link (600k)
Andy : thanks for the link, I'll look into them
Dave : thanks for all the security stuff, interesting reading. Oh, and p.s. .... go to bed !!
nevpugh308 said:
Wow, thanks for all the info guys, this is really useful !
Simon : see your point about speed .... like you say, 3 or 4meg (or whatever) is still faster than my broadband link (600k)
Andy : thanks for the link, I'll look into them
Dave : thanks for all the security stuff, interesting reading. Oh, and p.s. .... go to bed !!
another point to note with moving large amounts of data across wifi is their tendancy to loose the connection after about 400Mb when backing up etc. They are fine if you are downloading from the net, but there seems to be a minor problem if you do it between computers - ie: copying DVD, CD's, Software.
Currently have set up, one Server (ethernet) running Linux for my Sybase Databases, websites, etc, one laptop (wifi) running XP for general work, surfing, emails, etc, one Ipaq PDA (wifi) for sitting in the garden and surfing, emails, and one PC (Ethernet) for the girlfriend.
For ease of set up I have an all in one Modem/Firewall/Ethernet and Wifi Router from Netgear (DG824M) which cost £139.99 plus VAT and postage. Check my other topics for details.........
Sorry to bring back a week old topic
but...
I am too thinking about a either a wirless or wired network for home. I've got two computers that I want on Broadband (when it comes) and have never done this sort of thing before.
I think i'll be OK setting the hardware up as I've read a bit round the subject but have no ideas about how to set the computers up to network from the sofware side.
My question is; do I have to network them? I dont want to share files or anything, i just want to have BB acess on both PC's? Routers come with a firewall yes? Do I need any other extra security?
Cheers people
but...
I am too thinking about a either a wirless or wired network for home. I've got two computers that I want on Broadband (when it comes) and have never done this sort of thing before.
I think i'll be OK setting the hardware up as I've read a bit round the subject but have no ideas about how to set the computers up to network from the sofware side.
My question is; do I have to network them? I dont want to share files or anything, i just want to have BB acess on both PC's? Routers come with a firewall yes? Do I need any other extra security?
Cheers people
The LinkSys kit is the best value for money option available. The security options should make it top of anyones list.
However I suggest that anyone using Internet access use AV software such as Symantec that scans e-mails.
Don't rely upon a shareware firewall such as ZoneAlarm even if your a TCP/IP expert. If someone really wants to hack you they can use port redirection. Part of my job involves hacking.
If anyone wants to make their Wireless kit more secure please contact me.
>> Edited by marlboro on Wednesday 16th July 22:25
However I suggest that anyone using Internet access use AV software such as Symantec that scans e-mails.
Don't rely upon a shareware firewall such as ZoneAlarm even if your a TCP/IP expert. If someone really wants to hack you they can use port redirection. Part of my job involves hacking.
If anyone wants to make their Wireless kit more secure please contact me.
>> Edited by marlboro on Wednesday 16th July 22:25
Depending on what type of broadband you have (Cable or DSL) you can get either a plain old wireless router with a built in firewall for cable or in the case of ADSL one with a built in ADSL modem. Linksys do one for under £150 from dabs.com et al. The advantage of this is that you only then need WiFi cards in your machines and no other kit. I run a wireless network at home and managed to listen to Radio Le Mans streamed live over the web, then via my wireless network to my Dell Axim Pocket PC while I was out and about. Looking for a better antenna now to boost the gain a little.
More reasons why you will never see a real throughput of 11mbps or 54mbps: radio is a half-duplex medium, that is to say, you can only transmit in one direction at once.
Add to that the fact that 802.11a/b/g are all acknowledgement/timeout based (as might be some of the protocols running on top), where the access point must provide positive acknowledgement to a client that it received a packet, it should be fairly obvious that effective use of that theoretical throughput isn't going to be made.
Additionally, the further you are from the access point, the lower the max throughput is, since the coding/modulation techniques change as the signal quality degrades, placing getting the data there at all costs above throughput (11mbps -> 5.5 -> 2 -> 1). Lots of stuff in your house will degrade signal, even though you might be very close to the AP in a straight line. Don't forget that as well as wall, doors, pipes, etc, active things such as microwaves ovens, DECT phones, Bluetooth and other stuff can interfere with 802.11b and g. (Possibly a too, but less likely.)
On the other hand, your wireless network may go further than you think - and you might end up overlapping with a neighbour's network. While there are 13 channels to choose from, only three don't overlap in some way in the UK - 1 7 and 13, or 1 6 and 11 if you've got US kit (IIRC). It's semi-important to be aware of what's kicking around in your environment already, even at home. (These overlaps are because the channels themselves are 22MHz wide, but only 5MHz apart).
If you're interested in this stuff, I highly recommend "Wireless LANs" by Jim Geier, as well as the Certified Wireless Network Administrator study guide by Planet3, available from www.cwnp.com.
And that's before we even go near security...
>> Edited by Marshy on Wednesday 16th July 23:44
Add to that the fact that 802.11a/b/g are all acknowledgement/timeout based (as might be some of the protocols running on top), where the access point must provide positive acknowledgement to a client that it received a packet, it should be fairly obvious that effective use of that theoretical throughput isn't going to be made.
Additionally, the further you are from the access point, the lower the max throughput is, since the coding/modulation techniques change as the signal quality degrades, placing getting the data there at all costs above throughput (11mbps -> 5.5 -> 2 -> 1). Lots of stuff in your house will degrade signal, even though you might be very close to the AP in a straight line. Don't forget that as well as wall, doors, pipes, etc, active things such as microwaves ovens, DECT phones, Bluetooth and other stuff can interfere with 802.11b and g. (Possibly a too, but less likely.)
On the other hand, your wireless network may go further than you think - and you might end up overlapping with a neighbour's network. While there are 13 channels to choose from, only three don't overlap in some way in the UK - 1 7 and 13, or 1 6 and 11 if you've got US kit (IIRC). It's semi-important to be aware of what's kicking around in your environment already, even at home. (These overlaps are because the channels themselves are 22MHz wide, but only 5MHz apart).
If you're interested in this stuff, I highly recommend "Wireless LANs" by Jim Geier, as well as the Certified Wireless Network Administrator study guide by Planet3, available from www.cwnp.com.
And that's before we even go near security...
>> Edited by Marshy on Wednesday 16th July 23:44
Mondo Dynamo said:
LOL, just think, you could do all of this automatically on Apple kit using Airport. No setting up, no hassle, just plug it in and off you go.
Not plug and pray like in dorky PC land.
XP is plug and play with no real problems. Also the Airport kit works just the same as the routers talked about here BUT you do need to investigate the security issues surrounding them. I walked onto a Mac only site the other week and my laptop connected straight away with NO encryption - the default setting - not too safe I'd say!
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