Wireless Home Networking

[IvanK]

My parents have a single cable modem connection; my father has an I-Mac, my mother has a PIII; they want to share access to this connection through a home router. We were wondering whether a wireless solution might meet our needs. Laying CAT-5 cable would be quite a project so we are quite willing to spend the extra $150 or so that a wireless solution would cost.

Anyone have any general comments about 802.11b in a starter home network? How much more difficulty does wireless add to the project? Is it reliable? Is 11Mbps fast enough for light Internet browsing?

Considering the Linksys BEFW11S4 EtherFast Wireless AP + Cable/DSL Router with 4-port switch. Does anyone have any experience with Linksys' wireless products? Can anyone suggest a better product?

The PCs are located in different rooms, about 20ft apart, separated by two thin sheetrock walls. According to the product specs, this is well within the operating range. Is the wall a problem? My folks live in a densely populated urban area. How likely are they to experience interference be a problem?

Does having a Mac and a PC on a single router present any special problems? Any advice on how to approach this?

Ivan

 

[ericboo]

Wireless is plenty fast for sharing your internet connection. I share it with two of my neighbors. I use a Linksys WAP11, with Orinoco Silver USB and PC adapters. I added aftermarket antennas from hecom.com, and I can get a couple of hundred feet.

I would avoid the Linksys cards at all cost and get the Orinoco. Much better range. With your short distances, you would should be fine with the BEFW11S4 (which I also used).

TCP/IP is universal, as long as you receive IP's from the router, you are set.

 

[JackMDS]

Wireless LAN consists on two main components.

1. Access Point (A/P).

Access Point is the Main Transmitter/Receiver that mediate between your LAN, or main computer, to the rest of the Network.

2. Wireless Client Card.

Wireless network Card is the LAN card that is installed on all the Computers that want to join the Network.

================================================

Most of A/P can control more then 100 computers equipped with Wireless Cards.

The basis of operation and setting on the computers is like regular LAN. The specific setting of the Wireless hardware is included with the Hardware manuals.

Most Client cards are PCMCIA, which work very well with Laptops. For Desktop, it is usually better to use USB Wireless Card. Most PCMCIA Wireless Cards with fixed antenna (stuck behind the PC) yield inferior results versus the Flexible Antenna on a USB module.

Conventional Wisdom* claims that the Orinoco Gold, is one of the best client cards.

ORiNOCO PC Card - Gold.

If you don?t have Cable/DSL Router, you can buy a Wireless Cable/DSL Router, which is a Combo unit that includes Router to share the Internet, Switch for Wired Network and A/P for Wireless clients (plus more goodies).

The SMC Wireless Barricade is considered one of the favorites.

Wireless Routers Compared

If only two computers are networked, and they are relatively close one to the other, there is away to save few $$$. The installation is somewhat awkward, and you have to use Software NAT (you don?t buy Wireless Cable/DSL Router). By getting two client wireless card, and installing them in an Ad-hoc mode (the software that comes with the cards allow you to choose this type of installation), you save the difference between the cost of Cable/DSL Router, and Wireless card (saving of $50 to $80).



When it comes to Wireless your mileage may varied, there are too many environmental variables that are unique to each individual setting.

 

[greenant]

what about the security concerning the wireless network ?
How secure is it ?

 

[JackMDS]

Is 802.11B secure enough for home broadband sharing?

 

[kylef]

Wireless networks are fine as long as you consider them "visible by the public." In other words, don't do anything on them that you wouldn't want someone else to see. There's really no way to prevent people from snooping if they want to...

But it's important to note that lack of privacy on wireless networks doesn't imply lack of privacy of your home computers...

 

[SaigonK]

ugh!
Just read up on what you need to do to be secure....dont get all intimidated by the hype of insecurity.
YES wireless CAN be insecure, but it isnt THAT insecure.

Most of all insecurities are caused by the people who setup the wireless systems...they just don bother to set up WEP or use 128 encryption.
Dont buy the crap stuff...many people swear up and down about Orinco or Linksys or Netgear or SMC...Cisco is my favorite...very nice signal strength and VERY good securtiy features.

 

[cipher00]

I've had luck with the SMC7004AWBR in a mixed system (desktops get Cat5e, laptops get wireless cards). All goes well around the house; I've enabled WEP as well as MAC access control. Can it be snooped? Sure, but I'd sure get suspicious about somebody parked outside of my house with a laptop and a directional antenna. Other than that, there's too many trees, and I have better things to worry about.