Wireless LAN

[Dart]

I want to get this so i can use my laptop anywere in the house, even in the garden on sunny days

Im just concerned about other people accessing the LAN, how can i make it secure?

Oh and anyone got recomendations for Routers for a cable modem
Will need 2 PCI cards and one laptop card

 

[Artanix]

i make mine secure through WEP encryption...

basically its 128bit encryption, and the password has to be exactly 13 keys long, i think its alphanumeric... basically then, if anybody else has a WLAN card, they will see the network, but will not be able to access it without the key
as far as WLAN's go, they're pretty good, i have the WLAN router nextdoor, with a computer next door, and mine in my room here, and i get full signal at 11mb/s thats the only problem, is the send/recieve speed isn't exactly fast if you transfer things across the network alot (like big files, or lots of smaller ish ones)

as for router, i use a DSL 604+ (router/ADSL built in) not sure though, because its all built in it prolly wont work with your modem, afaik d-link are quite good, and i think it was belkin to avoid, the guy i bought it off said, that we'd be bringing it back the day after if we got one

 

[Dart]

Well just ordered one D-link DI614+, 2 DWL-520+ PCI adapters and 1 DWL-650+ Cardbus from OcUK

 

[Agravaine]

I don't bother with the WEP, just limit access by MAC address instead.

 

[Zed]

For home use its easiest to limit by mac address.

However the real easy solution is ensure your AP allows you to turn off broadcasting the SSID. Change the SSID from the default to something else and then turn off broadcast.

What this means is if im a wireless surfer ill cruise by your place and not see your AP. Now I can run netstumbler or some such goody tool as that to see whats out there but why bother if say a neighbour 3 doors down is advertising an open AP ;-)

I had WEP enabled and it causes more problems than its worth. As Aggy suggests for 1 or 2 or 3 machine networks limit by mac address or just ban the invader.

 

[Agravaine]

Well there's only 3 other houses where I live so it's highly unlikely anyone would happen by and hack into my WLAN so I don't protect it at all.

At work, we limit by MAC address and turning off the broadcast is good as Zed says.

 

[Dart]

Thanks guys been a real help

 

[Artanix]

hehe you confused me now i'll have a look at my Router though lol

 

[Dart]

Didnt get the D-link afterall, went for Netgears 108Mb version i have always used them in the past.

 

[Zed]

wtf? 108mb? Jeebus they aint even got 54g down yet...

 

[Dart]

Its a bridge between the g version and the e version, Its called Super g and its supposed to have much better range about 250 yards.

Im currently transfer speeds of 50mbps havent tried it outside yet

 

[GBH]

I have my wireless set to limit by MAC address, seems to work just fine never had any secureity issues.

 

[Agro]

had so much trouble setting up the WEP encoding thingie that I had to switch to MAC addresses. Glad I did now as I can be certain that no-one uses the network unless I have personally allowed them to do so. Also means if anyone wants to get on using their laptop all I have to do is lend them a spare PCMCIA network card.