Curious about network access

Well, many of us have "B" wifi cards in our hpcs. Fair enough. Meaning we only need a "B" router and we're limited to WEP/Shared key for our security. But so much new wifi gear is appearing it amazes me. G+, MIMO, Pre-N, triband a/b/g stuff, the market is really crowded.

So given the above, what's your setup? What security are you running? Do you wish you could run wpa or better?

I have a Dlink 624 Turbo G router. I've never used the Turbo G feature, I sold the turbo G cards I bought with it because the pci card wouldn't work in my desktop, and the lappie card of course was pccard and I dumped my older laptops.

This is supposed to be a very flaky router so I used it as an AP for two years. It was rock solid and fed a Prestige 314, which itself was 100% bulletproof.

I recently updated the 624 firmware because the performance was atrocious with a Belkin G pci card I bought when I unwired my desktop and moved it upstairs. Well my 624 roars now and is rock solid as a router, no flakiness at all. Great coverage too.

I experimented a bit with a pre-n Belkin flashed with Linksys firmware as a router. The performance and range was no better than the 624, and there is no reboot function in the Linksys firmware interface. (What engineering idiot thought to leave that out? sheesh.)

So the 624 is my main router/AP, 128 bit shared key wep, MAC filtering, some IP rules and it seems robust and reliable. Nothing is wired here, all is wireless on a 3mbit adsl line.

I do so wish there was a wpa supplicant for ce based network cards. I'd happily take the performance hit for some added security.

So, what's you approach to your home network?

I am not a big aficionado with networks at all... I have Qwest DSL internet with a Qwest wireless router.. I am not sure if it is 802.11G or ""B, however I still want to get a wireless PCMCIA card for my 2010c so I can surf the web in a coffee shop, maybe )
EDIT: Spell Error

Edited by tenjeangosi 2005-12-05 9:44 PM

well it is amazing how much you know about this, wallythacker.
i just bought a wlan router less than a year ago, chose the cheapest, set it up and it is running since then just fine.
of course it is B, i don't need more... PC's are still on lan, and if i had the need for speed , the laptop has that too..
my security consists of the basic three possibilities, wep 128 bit, mac filtering, closed ssid. (don't you use closed ssid?! )
i wish i had a cf wlan card that can do wpa, then at least my 900C could use wpa.
nothing under ce.net 4.2 can do wpa...

yeah i'm sure the 2010c would rock with a nice wlan card...
i cannot test mine with my wlan card though, because the 2000c apparently doesn't like it... seems it cannot supply the right amount of power to the screen when i insert the wlan card. maybe the batteries are old though i tried it on AC.
i think an orinoco would work great if your unit doesn't behave this strangely.

or maybe the driver is crap and that's why it scrambles screen output when it is loaded. i'll try to test further..

Edited by cmonex 2005-12-06 6:19 AM

now i cannot test my router has just died at least the router part of it... i'm still using it as a switch... until i find the warranty papers
so no wlan for me now at home

Edited by cmonex 2005-12-06 11:16 AM

oh no. what model/make router? A crash recovery may restore it depending on the brand.

Even if you get it back it might be wise to update firmware if any newer is available.

My Spectrum card has an option for kerberos authentication but that's not the security I'd like. I wish some kind soul would tackle wpa for prism 2/2.5 chipsets on ce. That would be soooo fine.

Monica, before I became handicapped I taught networking admin at college so it's my favorite IT hobby after hpc tweaking. I find it fascinating what we can do with networking. A very long time ago I used to program for food.

Plus, I have to support my parents in another city so I remote into their machines when there is problem. My dad usually drags his taskbar halfway onto the screen or drags icons off the screen.

Gotta love hem tho'. Nobody told them to have us or care for us through all the crap we put them through over the years. Parents are the best friends you could ever have.

PS. I always have a spare of critical components in case something goes down. I have a spare router & dsl . Router cost $20, modem was free. I always had a spare desktop when the g/f was here, but now it's one desktop, my reliable and rock solid emachine. Don't laugh, I've built many pcs over the years and my emachine is as good as anything I've used.

Of course, I have enough hpcs to "get by" in case any of them go down.

Edited by wallythacker 2005-12-06 1:11 PM

it is xmicro something rafxwl-11brrg. the firmware is almost the newest, but i might try to upgrade it..

what is a crash recovery??

good idea, to keep a spare wlan router.. i may consider doing that.. sigh.

it is no problem if the wpa card isnt prism, wpa wont work under older hpc's anyway..

networking is interesting anyway that's for sure

and i do have way more than enough hpc's to get by hehehe

WOW!

If you get bored someday, send me a private message! My network is driving me nuts!!!! Can't figure out some things about it.

Also, it was mentioned about the SSID earlier in this thread. If I choose to not broadcast my SSID, my Jornada(s) will not connect to the network. I do have 128bit and MAC filter on though.

Moe

Edited by MoMagnum 2005-12-06 7:06 PM

my jornadas connect fine to the closed ssid, i just have to specify the ssid in the settings for the wlan card..

I think I did try that, I will definately try it now. Let you know what happens.

Moe

Closed ssid keeps casual snoopers out, not the dedicated types. However, with so many open APs most people wanting a free ride will move on to an open AP.

Monica, try holding the reset in for a full 15 seconds then release it. Many chipsets/firmware use that to reset to factory defaults. Just check your desktop IP (if set to dhcp) and if you got assigned 192.168.1.x the router is likely at 192.168.1.1 and so on.

You can also try holding the reset in while applying the power. Hold it in a good 15 seconds.
Use your browser to access the router admin pages (192.168.x.x) Most routers are at or about 192.168.2.1 or 1.1 . Be ware the router may not hand out an IP though, so you need to know where it lives to reload the firmware.

Yea, for $20 or so a spare router is wothwhile. I'd go nuts having to be wired again.

mhmm, my router is 192.168.1.254, it was in the quick manual when i bought it. so that's no problem. and yeah 15 secs means a full reset, i did it accidentally once at the beginning.. maybe it's a good idea, i'll try it soon. (i'm already going nuts without wlan )
the only good thing is that IE remembers the settings, when after the accidental hard reset i tried to enter the settings again, IE helped me a lot... making typing them in easier..
and maybe i'll try to upgrade the firmware. this is the only issue i'm not sure about how to go about.. (i'll probably read the manual )

wish me good luck!

When I moved into my place, I hard wired it with CAT6/CET5e, so I have very little need for WiFi - though I would like to reinstall it for the H/PC

we've just watched a record of 12 identical posts... and from C:Amie.

Actually it was a whole lot worse than that, it was 42 instances.

I was typing the above remply, finished my first line and some idiot came up behind me and threw a report on the keyboard, and verily be thy nature it landed on the Enter key in the numeric keypad, which submitted the form; repeatedly

Take 2:

When I moved into my place, I hard wired it with CAT6/CET5e, so I have very little need for WiFi - though I would like to reinstall it for the H/PC, but I need to get a WAP for it as I currently don't have one in the house.

As everything is hard wired I don't have much of a security problem, though if I did have it, I would use a MAC registration database and reject all other clients. I also wouldn't use SSID broadcasting... unlike my neighbours