Need Wireless Access Point & 5 clients with WEP for small office.

[Valvoline6]

I've been pouring over the reviews and user comments here and at practicallynetworked.com and can not come to a clear decision on what brand / models to get. Without WEP I would get the WAP11 and Orinoco Gold cards. But this is a small medical office and WEP is needed. There seems to be genuine compatability problems with the Orinoco gold cards doing WEP with other brands of access points. Basically it looks like if you want WEP you should stay within the same family / brand. I thought maybe SMC Barricade with SMC cards, but the range is supposed to be bad with the cards. We need about 30 feet and through 1 thin wall at the furthest point for now. What would be a good all around solution for this situation?

 

[manly]

I'm using an Orinoco Gold client w/ a Compaq iPAQ access point and 128-bit WEP.

While there are occasional configuration snafus, remember 802.11b (aka WiFi) is an IEEE standard, so you should be able to mix and match different vendors successfully.

I would say get the SMC wireless Barricade router w/ Orinoco Gold clients. Since it sounds like data security is extremely important for this installation, I would strongly consider a VPN as well.

 

[JackMDS]

I would not get a Cable/DSL Wireless Combo (like the SMC Barricade).

If you need Internet sharing as part of this deal get regular Router (like the regular Barricade), and connect to one of the ports Wireless Access Point (WAP).

If only one person at time is going to use the wireless connection, it possible that you can get away with a good entry level WAP (like the Orinoco).

However, if you really want a countable arrangement you have to get a second level WAP.

In case such an arrangement is not enough you get a High Gain Mini Antenna, and you will be able to secure a good multi Wireless use.

As an example for Hardware you can look here:

EZ Connect? 11Mbps Wireless Access Point/Bridge.

EZ Connect? Wireless High Gain Antenna Kit.

 

[SaigonK]

So the most secure Wireless out there now (shy of putting a Radius Server, etc. etc.) is Cisco.
It has the 128bit WEP, and also uses LEAP (extensible authentication protocol) for extra security.
One way to be the most secure is by using a VPN connection over the wireless netowrk, this coupled with 128bit encryption is as secure as you can get.

First off, don't settle on trying to save $$ when it comes to wireless, SMC, Linksys, Belkin, Orinco, they are ALL home solutions..some of them don't even support 182bit WEP. Buy Nortel, Cisco, or Enterasys. I am not knocking any suggestions here, but most people here only use Wireless in the home, not ina real business office where security actually matters.

Enterasys also is introducing a new X-client setup (in a day or two...I met with them on Thursday about it) that changes the 128bit encryption keys
at intervals of you choice. Making it pretty much impossible to crack. At 128bit encryption with a strong system (and im not talking about your home hacker with a P4 or Athlon-XP) the fastest breaking into WEP has been done in around 15 minutes.
If your key changes every say...10 minutes or 5 minutes...the hacker doesnt get enough data to allow him to break the key since it changes byt he time he/she figures out what the old one was.


Hope this helps!
SK