home wireless network questions

[EricNoah]

Hey gang,

I want to go wireless in my house -- get a wireless laptop, etc. My questions:

Charter: anyone know if there's a problem with getting Charter cable internet to work with a wireless router/port?

Bluetooth -- what is is?

Laptops: is an internal wireless network card the best solution?

Hardware: what do I need and do you have recommendations for brands?

Other thoughts?

 

[planespace]

Charter: anyone know if there's a problem with getting Charter cable internet to work with a wireless router/port?

I'm not sure about Charter specifically, but it's unlikely that the ISP will have any effect on what you do in your house. I have comcast. All you do is hookup your cable modem to your wireless router and as far as your ISP is concerned everything is as it should be.

Bluetooth -- what is is?

This is a short-range, high-speed wireless solution. It's used for things like having a wireless mouse communicate with a pc. Not necessary for what you're doing.

Laptops: is an internal wireless network card the best solution?

It didn't used to be because there were problems with quality of communication with the router but most hardware corps have taken care of this problem. I know people who've used their internal wireless modem just fine. I guess it depends how far away your computer will be from the router, though.

Hardware: what do I need and do you have recommendations for brands?

You'll need a wireless router (I use Linksys without any problems at all, but D-Link is a good brand too) and a wireless card (if your laptop doesn't have one built in). Again, I would use Linksys or D-Link. I use Orinoco but it's not as popular so I've had some driver issues on occasion. I also have D-Link wireless external adaptor. It works well also and is a good solution if you want to hook up wireless connectivity to any computer with a USB port.

Other thoughts?

Once you do set it up, change your ESSID to something other than the default. Also, change the username and password to log in to your router. These are both big security holes that are easy to fix. That won't make your network bulletproof or anything but it will help. Remember than anyone with a wireless laptop who gets within some suprisingly large radius of your router can connect to your network and do bad things - if they're so inclined.

 

[Rackhir]

Hey gang,

I want to go wireless in my house -- get a wireless laptop, etc. My questions:

Charter: anyone know if there's a problem with getting Charter cable internet to work with a wireless router/port?

Bluetooth -- what is is?

Laptops: is an internal wireless network card the best solution?

Hardware: what do I need and do you have recommendations for brands?

Other thoughts?

There shouldn't be a problem with the wireless router and the cable modem. Those things are pretty much auto configuring. Though you will likely have to unplug the cable modem, not just turn it off, in order to make it work. Your cable company may even offer tech support for this or suggestions at least. Check their web site.

Bluetooth is a short ranged auto configuring networking technology. It is primarily aimed at a "Personal" network. Ie. making your cell phone talk to a wireless headset and/or a mp3 player. It is essentially irrelevant if you want to network your house. Though it is also used for wireless keyboards and mice.

External WiFi cards will generally have better reception due to the external antenna, but your milage may vary. Unless you have a large house with thick walls or yard that you wish to wander about. You probably won't need to worry about it. There are external antennas for use with most base stations if you need to cover a larger area.

You will need a wireless router/hub and at one wifi card per machine you wish to network. Presumably you already have the cable modem.

There are a number of competing technologies to improve the throughput of the networking speeds past the "G" (roughly 54mb/sec) standard, but they are not all compatable with each other and quite possibly not needed. Unless you will be using the network to transfer large amounts of files back and forth between computers, most people only use it for browsing the internet, where even the old 11mb/sec cards are far faster than your internet connection will ever be.

 

[Setanta]

Once you do set it up, change your ESSID to something other than the default. Also, change the username and password to log in to your router. These are both big security holes that are easy to fix. That won't make your network bulletproof or anything but it will help. Remember than anyone with a wireless laptop who gets within some suprisingly large radius of your router can connect to your network and do bad things - if they're so inclined.

Also, if the access point allows you to suppress advertisement of the SSID, do that. If you leave SSID advertising/broadcasting turned on, then if someone browses their wireless networks available, yours will show up if they're close enough. Without SSID broadcasts, they'll have to know the SSID and specifically type it in.

Of course, all of these security practices won't stop someone who is serious about getting in there, but it keeps out the casual types.

 

[MJEggertson]

Once you do set it up, change your ESSID to something other than the default. Also, change the username and password to log in to your router. These are both big security holes that are easy to fix.

Also, apply Mac address filtering. Deny all addresses except your wifi card(s) or computer(s).

Change your SSID from time to time.

If you do this and all the previously mentioned stuff, your network will be as locked down as they come. It takes some pretty specialized hardware and software to crack a properly configured wifi network.

 

[EricNoah]

Awesome responses, thank you.

I think what I will do is buy the router and then test it out with one of the wireless laptops from work, just to see if it is going to work out in general. Then I'll worry about the laptop after that.

 

[dreaded_beast]

If you can, also try to find out if your neighbors have their own wireless networks setup.

Depending on the location of their access point and the location of your computer, you may find yourself inadvertantly connecting to their network instead. Even if you have everything setup correctly on your end, their may be a possibility of conflicts if your neighbor doesn't have their wireless network setup correctly.

Ironically, every computer (including my laptop) in my house can connect to the wireless network fine, except for my own desktop. Every so often I end up connecting to the neighbor's network. It wouldn't be so bad if I could use my neighbor's network for Internet access, but I end up just connecting with no Internet access.

Also, you may want to invest in a larger antenna depending on the layout of your house, surrounding environs, and how far away you may be from the access point.

 

[Psionicist]

I'd recommenad against anyone to install a WLAN who are not incredibly confortable with what they are doing, given the rising popularity of Wardriving/walking. If you read slashdot you are probably well aware of all the problems (and backdoors) in the most popular wireless equipment. Networks are also quite tricky to configure, let alone configure correctly.

 

[EricNoah]

Interesting; my neighbors are all retirees who spend a lot more time on their lawns than on computers. Thanks for the tip though!

 

[EricNoah]

Where does a firewall fit into all of this? I've been using a software firewall on my PC (Zone Alarm) -- is that sufficient for my wireless laptop?