Interoperablity of 802.11b cards and AP's and other Wireless Q's

[The Stigenator]

My neighbour Alethia runs a Mac Ibook with an Airport card. She recently got the Airport card so she can access the WiFi network at school (USC Health Center). We have a full blown network with a good fast cable modem connection. Since she is like less than 50 feet from us I was hoping to run a WiFi network so she can access our network. The Wifi Network will also be used for the laptop's we own (so we can sit by the pool and surf).

Anyway I was thinking of getting the Dlink DWL-1000AP for the access point and a Netgear MA401NA PCMCIA card (or maybe another dlink card just in case). How is the interoperablity.. considering I get a Netgear and she runs an Airport card.

The next thing is that I want to use the Netstumbler or the linux version of it (we have a linux laptop) for on the road use. I know Orinco cards are supported by Netstumbler. But Orinco uses teh lucent chipset and so do others. So will my Netgear WiFi card or the Dlink DWL650 work with Netstumbler or the Linux version of the program (what ever its called I keep forgetting the name).

Also are they linux drivers for either of those two cards? Otherwise I have to go with a US Robotics 22mbps wifi card.

How about distance requirements.. I was hoping to put the AP near the window so she can reach it and we can reach it with no probs. but I am now having doubts having read other people's posts with Wifi problems.. really how effecient does it go.. I dont want it to go like 10 feet.

Also I plan to use the AP on the 192.168.1.1 network (our base network is 192.168.0.1) the plan is to have the AP act as a bridge between the two networks.. meaning that people using the WiFi network (secured or unsecured depending on situation) do not see our Internal network at 192.168.0.1 on the network neighbourhood but rather see the internet and their IP block and that's it..

Question is will that AP do what I want to do or do I have to get and AP with a router on board. If not oh well i got to tighten our internal passwords.

dlink has no info on the AP on their site (or i couldnt find it).

TGG

 

[Soybomb]

My experience with d-link wireless gear has been poor. I still think linksys makes the best crappy consumer gear available. Maybe look into getting a linksys AP and then a good card like an orinoco gold. Your neighbor should be just fine to connect, its all 802.11b no matter what the platform is.

Check out http://www.wardriving.com/code.php page for links to alot of linux war driving type software.

 

[The Stigenator]

Originally posted by: Soybomb
My experience with d-link wireless gear has been poor. I still think linksys makes the best crappy consumer gear available. Maybe look into getting a linksys AP and then a good card like an orinoco gold. Your neighbor should be just fine to connect, its all 802.11b no matter what the platform is.

Check out http://www.wardriving.com/code.php page for links to alot of linux war driving type software.

By DLink's poor experience do you mean they have a shitty product or you just dont have enough experience with them.

 

[Soybomb]

Shitty product although also limited experience. I'll try to keep it short but in my apartment I had a 4 port linksys router. I wanted wireless access for my laptop. I went to best buy and found the linksys 713p wireless router for $100 after rebate. I unplugged the linksys thinking I could use it somewhere else or sell it and setup the dlink. I had a problem with the router sending data. Any real data to be sent and it would timeout. This is short emails, web contact forms, etc. I updated the firmware, reset everything and gave it a couple days.

Same thing still happening. I email linksys, and they say to call. I call and wait on hold for an hour or so, I hear ringing and then am hung up on. I used to be tech support, accidents happen so I just wait until the next day and call. About 40 minutes later I get someone. We go over everything. No ISP issues ( i work there...) computers work just fine if no router or linksys router is in place. He checks with his supervisor.

Comes back a few minutes later and says I must just be overwhelming the router with too much data. I go on and tell him that the box I'm looking at says broadband router and if i can't send a 1 page email at a 128K upload cap that it isn't much of a broadband router. We change the mtu settings and check all the settings again. Same thing. He told me he had no other ideas and suggested that I check the dlink website for more information. I asked for the supervisor he talked to and was told he was not available now.

I went on and plugged the dlink's switch port into the uplink on my linksys and just used it as a wireless access point. It worked fine for that, but I paid for a router, it didn't route They refused to help with the problem or offer and exchange or anything. Dlink sucks

 

[The Stigenator]

bump...

 

[JackMDS]

I don?t know if D-Link has a 1000AP, could be that on regular 802.11b they only got as far as 900.

This is the glory of their regular 802.11b products:

http://www.dlink.com/products/DigitalHome/Wireless/11b/11bWireless.htm

My experience shows that most of the Wireless Hardware WAPs and Wireless Client Cards that are sold for under $100 perform similarly, with the exception of the Lucent Chipset (Orinoco) that seems to work a little better.

It is impossible to judge whether they will be enough to perform well in your environment since the nature of obstructions and interferences make every installation unique.