Wireless Networking.....HHEELPP!!!! (Please)

[jeff_harrison_344]

Ok I need to setup a wireless network, yet I dont know how...

I have a computer connected to the net with Cable ...and a computer in my room with no internet (Yet;) )

SO I need to know what I need to make this possbile...I know i need a unit like the Linksys Etherfast Wireless 4PT Switch as the main hub...but there are other things listed like the SMC 11Mbps Wireless PC Card and the SMC 11Mbps Wireless PCI Card...and Im so confused!!



Can anyone help on how to make this possible?

[rogerdugans]

I haven't set one up myself, yet, but I have done some research since I'm going to for summer (develop web content on a laptop in my yard....drool)

First off: what os for the wireless pc? WinXP is apparently VERY picky on wireless. ZDNET or CNET had an article about it a while back. WinXP MUST BE CLEARLY STATED AS SUPPORTED OR IT MAY NOT WORK was what I got out of it. Win2k and9x seem to be better supported right now.

What you need: wireless hub, wireless nic for each machine. Pci for a desktop, pc card for laptops. That should be it.

Good luck, and post your results.......I'll be looking myself soon!

[engjohn]

get the SMC wireless broadband router, and two wireless NIC's. Follow the instructions and it is REALLY EASY....

[SRB442]

I have the wireless SMC Barricade router and wireless card on 2 other pc's and it was easy to set up and works great in my house. I am going to put a 4th pc on it soon. I got my router for $187 and the cards are $125 each. Steve

[Fink]

Ahhh, wireless.

I use an SMC 7004WBR as router/AP with SMC, D-link, linksys and airport cards. It works fairly well, but range is terrible (~50' indoors) and my house requried two AP's and new antenna's to ensure coverage.

Be sure that you enable WEP and keep your shares locked down. If you live in an area with high population density, use IPSec to transmit sensitive data, otherwise consider everything that you put over your connection as public info (which it is BTW).

Setup is easy, almost trivial.

It is nice to surf next to the pool though...

[jeff_harrison_344]

Ok so wait...thanks guys....lol...but tell me...would this work...:

I have 3 computers in my house...one in my room (no net), and 2 on the main floor...one is the main one...running WindowsME...and a laptop about 10ft away running XP...and they are networked through a 60 dollar hub. Now using the LINKSYS WIRELESS NETWORK ACCESS POINT 802.11B 11MBPS as the main hub, and a DLINK 802.11B WIRELESS LAN PCI CARD 11MBPS in each computer, that should still be possible if I only wanna network the main computer that gets the net connection trhough cable...to the one in my room...wirelessly, even though the main one is also networked to the laptop through a hub (not wirelessly)...So would that work fine?

[rogerdugans]

Once you have the wireless access point installed, adding pcs should be just a matter of installing the network card in the pc and configuring it.

Basically, its another router- only no cables! Same limitations though- there is sure to be a limit on the number of clients, most gateway routers are limited to a max of 255. Wireless might support fewer. For 3 pcs, I don't think you need to worry about that though;)

[Fink]

Jeff -

That will work, np. So long as the line of sight between the AP and the computer in the other room passes through no large appliances or more than about 3-4 walls. Assuming that your abode is made of standard building materials (wallboard over wood framing). With thicker walls, plaster over metal, stucco, metal studs, aluminum sideing, etc, expect diminished ranges.

In terms of equipment, it may be cheaper for you to just buy two wireless cards and run them in ad-hoc mode, that is they just talk to each other. That eliminates the need for an AP and will save you $100. But, without an AP you will be unable to add more computers to the wireless network.

As I see it, wireless is used best to augment a previously installed wired network, giving net access to places where running wires is diffucult (such as next to the pool!!)

[jeff_harrison_344]

wow....new info here LOL

So wait i dont even need a hub if I only want to connect 2 computers...i only need 2 wireless NICs?

[Tracert]

Sure you only need the two nic's however you won't get as much range with it that way though from what I have noticed.

You can also use more then 2 cards in ad hoc mode. In fact I do it with three. When my father comes to visit he brings a laptop and I have a nic he uses so he can access through my cable modem. I just set up my Win2K machine to share the Internet Connection.

Works great with the cisco cards (I use cisco for my network at work). Also I have used the linksys USB and Orinoco cards all of which worked great. The drivers have matured quite nicely for wireless cards and will work well with just about any OS you give em, the only one I am not sure about is XP. I even have 2 machines at work running ME and they have no problems.

[jeff_harrison_344]

WHOA...thanks...Im glad I dound that out because its gonna save ame a good 200 bucks...;)

So all I do is install the WIRELESS NIC physiclly in each of my computers...the main one and the one in my room with no net....and then what??

Will it come with drivers to like connnect them or do they automatticly connect when I install them?

[Tracert]

They will come with drivers and then usually a client configuration software. In that little software it will usually tell you how good of a signal you have (except in Ad Hoc, sometimes it wont tell you) and you can check of a little box that will say Ad Hoc.

Of course the exact way will depend on what you buy. You will still have to set up TCP/IP and all that. The cards just supply the physical connection.

Good luck.

[jeff_harrison_344]

Ok well it looks like Im all set then...Im going to purchase the Dlink Wireless network NICs (PCI)...install em in each computer....and then Im all set....thanks a bundle guys!

*eDiT* You guys also said by doing it with no hub and only the NICs the range isnt good?

Well from the main computer to the one in my room...from a striaght line is about 50 feet...and there are 2 actual walls infront of them...one about 5 feet from the main computer...and one about 5 feet from my computer in my room...and thats if there was an invisible straight line from each computer. Now do you think this should be ok?

[Tracert]

That sounds like it will be close enough. I have two walls between my main pc and my bedroom and my laptop works fine at night.

Only thing is I am only about 25 feet away and using Cisco. Try it, can't really hurt can it?

[Fink]

You should get good signa with that setup, so long as home construction is standard and you have no large metal or dense items to further block the signal.

[jeff_harrison_344]

Ok....it was going good...I was about to get the 2 NIC card.....SMC to be exact.....and now.......I talked to someone I know that knows a good bit about computers...he worked at compucentre...and HE says...that I need a hub...and theres no way only having 2 wireless network cards would work...


whats going on?!?!?!:eek: :eh?:

[rogerdugans]

Well, I haven't heard of it either, but there is more that I haven't heard than I have. If you follow me.

Okay, let me get this down for sure: you have one pc you want to connect wirelessly, right?

So you must have at least one wireless nic. Now to connect the other end, you need something wireless: usually this is done with wireless access points, which are also available as routers; in here we have heard that two wireless nics can work as well, although only a few have heard of this (don't take it personal- I'm a cynic!)

What I would do is try it: get two wireless nics and see if it will work; my experience here at OC.Com is that MOST of what I have been told in here is true. You may be able to return one nic if it doesn't work, and get the access point instead. (May be a restocking fee.) Or you can keep both nics and get the access point, in which case you have lost nothing at all, except some time in the attempt.

Or, best case, two wireless nics is all you need and you save some money. After all: a patch cable can connect two ethernet cards- kinda makes sense that this capability would be included in wireless.

If anyone has links to any reviews of someone doing this, it would help.

[Tracert]

Right now I am typing to you in my bed using my Dell Latitude C8000 with a wireless cisco card in the pcmcia slot. The card is currently in what is called "Ad Hoc" mode. I have another PCI Cisco wireless card in my system that you see in my sig, which is also in ad hoc mode. I do not have any access point here at my house.

I am telling you that it works. If you still have doubts just go to the manufactur's web site, download the manual's in PDF format and read the part about Ad Hoc. It will tell you all you want to know.

Better yet, go to a store open the box with the help of someone on staff, and make sure the card has the ad hoc capibility in the documentation. I know Orinoco and Dlink both come with great documentation. I am not sure about SMC but it prob has some.

Oh, and when I get to work tomorrow I will switch my card from AD hoc to Enterprise mode and then surf there too.

I am the Network Administrator at a company called Schott Optovance and I use wirless networking heavily. In fact if you want some help you can pm me and I will give you my number to call.

I hope this helps to calm you fears. I'm sorry for not posting any web links but I am going to bed now and don't feel like looking it up, but I am sure you could find this out with a little digging at SMC's website, and if not there then someone elses.

Good night all.

[Tracert]

http://www.smc.com/drivers_downloads/library/SMC2632W_MN.pdf

It talks about it on page 17 in the manual. I figured I would find a link for you real quick.

Hope it helps you.

[jeff_harrison_344]

Whoa....you guys are even better from when I left this place about a year ago....at that time i was in grade 8 and I was on the forums 24/7...now I hate to say it I am never here:eh?:


But thanks guys even before this I was going to trust O/C.com anyways;)


LOL

Well.....thanks a lot and see ya later!

[Alex99]

I have 3 PCs in my house, a main PC, a laptop, and a guest PC in the den. What I did was I bought a D-Link Dl-713P wireless router and printer server ($200), a wireless PCI adapter (this is used for the gues PC - $20), and a wireless PCMCIA network card (for the laptop $80). The PCI adapter and the PCMCIA card works together and sits in the guest PC. The gues PC and the laptop can't be on the network at the same time. When I want the laptop to be on the network, I simply pull out the PCMCIA card and plug it right into the laptop. I've attached the pic of the PCI adapter joined with the PCMCIA card that can be used in the guest PC.

[jeff_harrison_344]

I am VERRYYYY happy if this is true....

On this site there is a banner for Directron Computers or something like that..and I went to it...found a Wireless Networking Kit for about 150 dollars....Seems to good to be tru?

Check it out....

http://www.directron.com/cor.html

[Tracert]

Those cards do not conform to the normal standard. They conform to the outdated HRF standard which is not really used much. The acronym, I believe, stands for Home Radio Frequency, or something close to that.

"With the Symphony-HRF Cordless Networking products, you and your family can stop the battle for web access. Providing compliance to the original HomeRF 1.2 standard, these products provide 1.6 Mbps of data for fast web surfing from anywhere in and around your home"

You will be lucky to get the full 1.6Mbps, but that is still more then what you probably get for internet access. So if you are just looking for internet access and don't care about performance, go for it.

I would recommend trying to get two cards that are 802.11b compliant which is really the normal standard that everyone has. These cards will do up to 11Mbs which will be about 6 times faster then those. Also you should get a little better range with the newer cards. And if you go with the current standard, you can host LAN parties with anyone that has an 802.11b compliant card.

Choice is yours.

[rogerdugans]

A question for the wireless networking gurus:) :

I have read some disappointing stuff about wireless support in Windows XP....basically that a lot of the wireless equipment out right now does not work all that well in xp!

Is this right or wrong?

When I set up wireless it will mainly be for a laptop, so that I can wander around the house- and yard- and still do work at home, so this is an important question for me.
The laptop is running on WinXP.

[Tracert]

Unfortunatly I have not had much experience with XP yet.

I can tell you my experience when Win2000 and the wireless first started it was a big mess as far as drivers go. However by about January - March of 2001 the companies made large leaps and had some decent support. Now the driver issue is great for just about any OS that I have used (which is all except XP) and to be honest, I changed our company over to Win2000 too quickly. I will not switch to an OS again unless it has been out with enough time to get good driver support (for me that will be about 1 year).

So to answer your question using an educated guess, I believe that the driver issue for XP is probably real and something to be considered. However the change from 2K to XP should be minimal and good support should not be more then 1 to 3 months away (if it hasn't already started).

Hope this helps you.

[jeff_harrison_344]

Originally posted by Tracert
Those cards do not conform to the normal standard. They conform to the outdated HRF standard which is not really used much. The acronym, I believe, stands for Home Radio Frequency, or something close to that.

"With the Symphony-HRF Cordless Networking products, you and your family can stop the battle for web access. Providing compliance to the original HomeRF 1.2 standard, these products provide 1.6 Mbps of data for fast web surfing from anywhere in and around your home"

You will be lucky to get the full 1.6Mbps, but that is still more then what you probably get for internet access. So if you are just looking for internet access and don't care about performance, go for it.

I would recommend trying to get two cards that are 802.11b compliant which is really the normal standard that everyone has. These cards will do up to 11Mbs which will be about 6 times faster then those. Also you should get a little better range with the newer cards. And if you go with the current standard, you can host LAN parties with anyone that has an 802.11b compliant card.

Choice is yours.


So lets say I did get the cheapo thing that only would feed me about 1.2MPS...would that affect my PING if I were to play lets say Quake3 online...anyone who plays those things knows what a ping is...because right now my ping is about 80-100 on good servers...which isnt bad...but if I networked wireleslly with that cheazzy setup would my ping be really high pon the computer that is networked ?

[Tracert]

Short answer is no. It shouldn't affect your ping. You would be good to go, just be weary of long term support with those cards.

[jeff_harrison_344]

Wow...well thats good news...I think I am going to get that set then because all I am going to do is use the internet access to play Quake3 online...and if my ping on my normal computer is around 90...and even with the cheapo wireless network it will be the same then I dont need anything else!

I sure am suprised to here that the ping wont change...becuase I thought...with only 1.6MPS instead of 10MPS would make my ping high...therefor a fraggers nightmare....:mad:LAG:mad: ..LOL

Well I think I am going to get that kit then...thanks again guys! (and gurls;))

eDiT**** Also...Right now with my main computer networked to my laptop...using a normal hub...I can get about 150K/sec downloading something off of downloads.com

With the 1.6MPS wireless network...whgat do you think i could average on the wirelessly networked computer?