Went wireless at home - woohoo!

[ezbtr]

Got my laptop and desktop in garage(my sanctuary AWAY) going wireless last night. Wow! Using linksys antenna and wireless router hooked up to wifes allways busy pc. Getting 11mb link in between, just as fast as being direct to cable modem! $140($20 rebate) for all incuding enet card for orig. pc(was using USB no enet card) to cable modem. And work is gonna pay for it! I love it! Can take my laptop upstairs, in the can if I want , backyard, you name it! I just swap USB ntwk adapter modem to remote PC I'm using! No more waiting for PC! Heinz

 

[pjc]

Re: Went wireless at home - woohoo!

Most excellent Heinz. <br /><br />I called my ISP yesterday just cause I like to chat with them (hehehe). They now are offering wireless, have it up and running close by. Now I just need my town and ISP to get their equipment on a nearby cell tower. Cell tower about a mile from me. <br /><br />At this point I need to contact whoever at the town hall and light a fire under their butts to get this done if work is not in process already. The town did ask regional cable co. to condiders wiring the town. Cable guys declined citing cost prohibitive.<br /><br />This wireless news is real good for me as my only option is dial up (stinks--slooooooww). Is fristrating having a 5Meg speed connection at work and come home to a 40-44kbps link. Dernit.

 

[LadyFish]

Re: Went wireless at home - woohoo!

I always wondered ................if your neighbor goes wireless, can you pick up his signal and use it?

 

[Homerr]

Re: Went wireless at home - woohoo!

Technically? no you couldn't, however... If you were a clever hacker, YES, you could hack right into your neighbor's wireless. It happens all the time.<br /><br />I watched a program on TV where a hacker was showing how his mobile system was able to hack into all kinds of wireless feeds on Capital Hill in Washington DC!<br />He could hack into a system in seconds.<br /><br />H.

 

[eurolarva]

Re: Went wireless at home - woohoo!

Heinz congratulations on the wireless. Make sure you change all the passwords from the default and use the wep encyption. Also download and install the newest firmware for the router. I had problems with my router locking up almost every week. After downloading and installing the firmware that problem disappered. Are you running the B router (2.4Gig) or the G (5.4Gig) I am using the 802.11B and it is plenty fast for me.

 

[pjc]

Re: Went wireless at home - woohoo!

Ahoy euro.. this wireless is new science to me. If you could please provide some heads up info that may be useful to me as well as other folks considering going the wireless isp deal. <br /><br />My ISP said I install a box and presto, I am in business. I do believe that more is involved. <br /><br />BTW, can this go on my 16' yacht????<br /><br />Thanks in advance euro...<br />Pat

 

[bh357]

Re: Went wireless at home - woohoo!

Actually in many instances it is very easy to mooch off of somebody elses wireless network. It is up to you to take measures to secure things. The default settings on most wireless network equipment leave things wide open. Eurolarva is correct about changing the default password and enabling WEP. You also may want to enable MAC address filtering. This sets it so your router will only recognize certain wireless cards. Also, if you plan on enabling file sharing, be selective about which files you share. You probably don't want to share the root (C drive.<br />With the 11Mb link, it sounds like you went with the 802.11G setup. We are running 802.11B equipment, and it's fast enough for us.<br />The best part is being able to be on the laptop anywhere in the house. Looking forward until the summer when I can be out on the patio surfing the web

 

[Homerr]

Re: Went wireless at home - woohoo!

OOPS! I guess I was thinking that it's not real easy to hack into the wireless signal from the dish itself (before the radio).<br />If you are running a wireless network AFTER your radio, then yes, I suppose leeching off that could be easy if you are close enough.<br /><br />I put a D-Link DI-707P router on my LAN. This one has 7 ports and a print server so I don't have to dedicate a PC for a LAN printer.<br /><br />I set it to emulate my MAC address of the original NIC card and I was in business.<br />Took less than 10 minutes.<br /><br />I haven't set it to accept only the MAC's on my LAN. I guess I should. I live way out in the country, so I'm not entirely worried about a hacker getting in.<br /><br />They would have to get past my firewall-router and Zone Alarm before they can get to me.<br /><br />EDIT:<br /><br />I just turned on MAC filtering for my LAN. This router has to be the easiest I've ever monkeyed with.<br /><br />Thanks for the heads up 357!<br /><br />H.

 

[mattttt25]

Re: Went wireless at home - woohoo!

are there different "types" of wireless? pat says his isp will be offering wireless.... i don't think it matters what they do, correct? i have cable internet. didn't have to do anything with my isp to go wireless. just bought the router and i'm cruising the net from the bathroom.

 

[ezbtr]

Re: Went wireless at home - woohoo!

I got a 2.4 Gig linksys router and USB adapter("modem") for pc Im remotely using, great reception, small and easy to swap between my laptop and desktops in garage. Speed is great! Heinz

 

[Homerr]

Re: Went wireless at home - woohoo!

Matt,<br /><br />What we mentioned above was wireless internet.<br />That is a system that uses a small yagi antenna and reflector dish to bring the internet signal to your home. Aka (802.11)<br /><br />What you had done was a router that was previously 'hard wired' is now wireless.<br />Every computer in your network that has a wireless NIC card can now access your modem (or router in this case)<br /><br />Think of it like those devices that can beam your cable TV into any room, or a cordless telephone. Same idea.<br /><br />Personally, I like the old fashioned hard-wired CAT5 cable for my network.<br />It may be archaic by today's standards, but being wireless past your router is opening yourself up to possible intrusion and interference from other devices.<br /><br />H.

 

[eurolarva]

Re: Went wireless at home - woohoo!

First of all there is a pdf manual (On the cd rom) that came with your router. The instructions are there on how to change your passwords. Here is what you do. Open internet explorer and in the address line type 192.168.1.1 This will take you to a web site that is used for changing your passwords. It has been awhile so you will have to look at your manual. Leave the user name blank and type admin into the password place. Now you will change this name and password to anything you want it too be. next you need to change your ssid. The default is linksys. You should change this to something else that you remember. Scroll down until you see weps disabled. You need to enable this with a password you will remember. Then you must go to the wireless adaptor go to profiles and edit the wep to match what you did with the router (this will be a word or set of numbers you will remember. It is cap sensitive). All this is covered in the manual. It sounds complicated but it is pretty simple. The hardest part for me was updating the firmware. They give really good instructions on how to do this at linkseys site.<br /><br />For now just leave your settings as they are. Play with it for a few days until you know everything is working correctly. Then make the changes to your password and your ssid. Do not change wep yet. Go a day or so to make sure everything is working well then play with the wep encription. Make sure you write down all the settings before you change them and then also write them down after you change them. If you run into a problem just set them back to the way they were before. I am no guru on computers but got these things done without a hitch.<br /><br />By the way WEP is a securtiy key that is either 64000 or 128000 bits controlled by your password. It means that someone trying to hack into your system would have to try a ton of combinations before they could hit on your code to use your cable signal from your wireless setup<br />Good Luck.

 

[mattttt25]

Re: Went wireless at home - woohoo!

homer- thanks. understand how wireless works, but i was not aware that isp's were beeming wireless signals. i'll assume this is for those who can't get cable? is it any faster than dial-up? i'd think they would need to use a ton of power to send a strong enough signal.<br /><br />understand i'm very vunerable right now. i'm taking the attitude "it won't happen to me".<br /><br />eurolarva- man, best directions i've seen. the directions that came with my router made no sense whatsoever. when i get the chance, i'll try setting up my router again and ensure i'm protected. thanks.

 

[Homerr]

Re: Went wireless at home - woohoo!

Wireless internet is WAY faster than dial-up.<br />I'm getting an average d/l of 60 - 70k/sec.<br />I can spike in the 150 - 180k range.<br /><br />The wireless systems are limited to 1 watt output, so NO, it doesn't take a large amount of power to run them.<br /><br />These 802.11 systems are unregulated (for the most part) by the FCC. <br />Basically anyone can run them, which also causes problems with competition of the same service. In short... they can do whatever they want. If there is a conflict, the FCC won't do anything about it. (This is happening to my current ISP and a competitor wireless service)<br /><br />You are starting to see the wireless service in out-lying areas where other high speed options are not available.<br />In my case, I live 20 miles from town in the country. Cable and DSL will never come out to where I live. <br /><br />With the wireless, it's nice to have NO neighbors, and high speed access to the internet!<br /><br />H.

 

[Xcusme]

Re: Went wireless at home - woohoo!