Help with in-home wireless setup and 8890.

wireless networking is easy

Depends a little bit on your situation. Do you have a dsl, a router, several other computers that hold, may hold wireless devices?

Assuming that you have a router and a dsl, you could opt to buy an access point connected to your router and a wireless pc-card for your Sager. You can enable wep data encryption to secure your communication. Go for g-stuff, will offer you more range and performance.

All fairly easy, I did it two years ago

Yes, you can get wireless cards for USB2, PCMCIA, SanDisk even has a dinky little SDIO wireless card (goes into special SD card readers, sort of a micro PCMCIA). So that takes care of both your laptop and the third desktop.

That card you refer to is a PCMCIA card. PCMCIA stands for Personal Computer Memory Card Industry Association. Its a type of port that is connected directly to the bus and is very fast and powerful, better than a USB2 or FireWire. However, its a tad more expensive as well, at least some of the gear. It also requires you to release a card when you remove it. Nothing special, just a couple of clicks. PCMCIA cards come in all sorts of flavors, just like USB and to some extent FireWire. You can get flash memory, hard drives, modems, wireless , 6-1 card readers, external hard drive adaptors, audio adaptors, video adaptors, etc, etal, ad nauseum. They just slide in to the slot. Its on the side. On the 8890, there is a single slot with two Type II slots that combine into a Type III slot. I've never used a Type III, but have lots of Type II. I feel its an underused I/O. But that's life, I often differ with the general public.

Anyway, I think that answers your questions. Oh, you can also get a USB2 adaptor for a PCMCIA card reader to plug into your desktops or you can get an expansion slot card with a reader built in.

One big tip, when you try to use wireless with XP, its built in fire wall will stop you cold unless you activate WEP. WEP is the securty mode for wireless. Its not super secure but will discourage the casual snoop. In any case, you have to enable WEP if you want to use XP, at least the home version.

Otherwise it should be plug and play.

Hanko is right about going for "g", its a bit better, mostly faster but seems to have better density of signal as well, meaning you don't loose it quite as much. There's some debate as to range on either but for the most part, figure about 100' max unless there's a clear line of site. If there's concrete or masonry or lots of metal, the usable range will decrease. 'G' is backwards compatible with 'b'. The speed difference is only relevant if you do a lot of large file transfers, as the bottle neck for the internet is the internet. Most systems will allow up to 32 wireless 'Ports'. Personally, I love my LAN.

Have fun and welcome to SAGER.

I'm not a wireless expert, but i have set up a couple wireless home networks.

If you don't have a router yet, you can get a wireless router which will have both a wireless access point for your wireless devices, as well as a wired ports for your 2 close machines.

The wired ports act as a normal router - if you've set up wired networks before this should be a snap.

The wireless access point will require some basic setup. First, you should specify an SSID other than the default. The SSID is like a key that you wish to be unique. You specify what your wireless network's SSID is, then you set up your wireless machines to use that SSID. Most wireless routers have an option to broadcast the SSID - you probably want to switch this off, as that will prevent casual passersby from getting the SSID and getting one step closer to accessing your wireless network.

Other good tips for security is to use MAC Address filtering. In this way, your wireless router will only accept connections from those machines with a given MAC address. This is still not fullproof since there are MAC address spoofers (the wireless routers I've seen even have an option to clone MAC addresses).

Also, if you have a fixed number of machines on your network, and if you leave them on, or mostly on, you can limit the number of DHCP connections. I've found this works really well, but again, only if your machines are always on.

Finally, there is WEP, the (I think) wireless Encryption Protocol. As I said, it encrypts the data stream at the cost of throughput. I haven't found the XP requires WEP. On my network, I turn off XP's built-in firewall as the router acts as the firewall.

Oh, and don't think the wireless router's range will provide some security - I've read of homemade antennas (made out of a Pringle's can!) can pick up signals from long distances - upwards of a mile if I remember correctly.

-Peter

Peter--thanks for the info as well, as I just bought a router last week in anticipation of getting my Sager someday soon. It will have the built-in wireless b. We just recently got DSL and I find now that I am bombarded with pop ups, even when there's no browser or my msn portal open. I haven't checked my router's software yet (got a Linksys B), but you mention it will act as a natural firewall--will it stop that constant online connection or allow me to control that? I hate having pop ups at all, but especially when I'm offline. I thought I would have to buy a firewall program and that could control this problem. Furthermore, I need some nannyware to control my kids' online time and web access as well (I'm gonna miss AOL for those features...)

FWIW, I've been told that, as mentioned, unless you will do a lot of intranet file transfers in-house, g is virtually useless. It will do nothing to speed up internet connections. With a swappable usb hdd, I can transfer files just fine. So to scrape a few pennies I just went with b. Another big concern is the 2.5 ghz frequency, which is the same as my cordless phones. Will I see a lot of interference problems?

Hi Pras,

I'm not an expert, so I can't say I'm totally accurate, but here's my take on your questions:

A firewall protects outside users from accessing your machine while allowing you access to the internet. A good firewall can make it look like your machine doesn't even exist on the internet.

Your pop-up problem is probably some piece of software on your machine that is making requests. There is a lot of adware/spyware out there that will do this sort of thing. There's software out there that can clean the adware/spyware from your machine. Maybe someone else on this board knows what works (I haven't used this myself).

The best way to prevent getting spyware/adware on your machine is to be *Very* careful what you install, especially if the source is some website on the internet. Gator is a company that creates adware, and is very difficult to remove from your system once it's been installed. Some shareware programs out there have gator software built in, so if you install some software, you end up installing Gator as well.

Bottom line, a firewall will not protect you from this sort of software. A firewall will only protect you from outside users gaining access to your computer.

The different wireless protocols are a bit confusing, but which you choose will limit your bandwidth. 802.11b's theoretical maximum is 11Mb/s (though with some manufacturers, if you buy their router and their wireless card, you can get up to 22Mb/s). 802.11g's theoretical maximum is 54Mb/s. If the bandwidth you are getting on DSL is, say 8Mb/s, then going with b or g won't make a difference. If you are getting 40Mb/s over DSL, then you will get faster bandwidth with g than with b.

For internet browsing, email, etc. I don't think most people will notice. For large file transfers, there might be a more noticeable difference, but again it depends on the speed of your DSL connection.

The frequency can be a problem with cordless phones and microwaves, but I've heard varying accounts. Some can talk on their cordless phone while at their laptop with a wireless connection - no problem. Phones and the wireless protocols can access different channels to send data, so there isn't always a conflict. I've found microwaves to be a bigger problem, but I've only noticed when my laptop was in the kitchen - and for us, the microwave is only on at most 5 minutes at a time, so no big deal.

And the freedom with wireless is great. If only there was a safe, cheap, and efficient way to do wireless electricity...

-Peter

THX Peter!
Yeah, I actually have adaware to cleanse my system of spyware but I haven't had a chance to run it lately. (My 13 year old son has become the "system administrator" lately, and he usually stays on top of that, running adaware and the virus scan on a pretty regular basis--he doesn't know why the pop-ups are so rampant, but no doubt it's from some Kazaa garbage or something he downloaded!) That's why I need the nannyware as well, to rein him in. I didn't know about the microwave issue, so I'll be sure to ease off on the popcorn while I'm surfing
THX AGAIN!!

Eh? The microwave issue is BS. I've used my laptop next to the dang thing and it gets 100% link (and to the router, not the microwave).

Now the cell phone issue is a different story, yes, you will get interference and potential problems. Sure they both have adjustable channels, but DSS doesn't work that way.

Also, if I were you, I'd get a USB adapter for the desktop because this way you can position the unit were you want it for better reception, whereas with a desktop the antenna is a) behind the comptuer, b) fixed! Definetly stay away from any type of wireless adapter that is just a PCMCIA card and a PCI adapter, because with that you will likely loose range over even just a standard PCI adapter.

Also, as I've said, broadcasting an SSID or not does NOTHING to security. Nor does mac filtering. If someone is going to get into a wireless network...THEY WILL! Still, Mac filtering and WEP are good steps to discourage entrance into the network. Better yet, if you can, disable DHCP on the router. If you have a laptop which youwill use on other networks than home, don't do this, because it is a hassle to do so otherwise.

40 Mb/s DSL?

Where are you getting 40 Mb/s DSL connections? The best I've seen is about 500 Kb/s and for the most part, its more like 200 Kb/s.

A T1 connection is only 1.5 Mb/s. A T3 maxes at 44 Mb/s.

Am I missing something?

No, you're not missing anything. I baked the numbers just to show a situation where b might throttle your bandwidth and g won't. Totally not realistic with DSL, you're right.

-Peter

Re: wireless networking is easy

Are you sure about that??

Two G equipped computers will share files faster than if they have B connections but I don't think it gives any other advantages.

B connections are already WAY faster than any internet connection.

OK, as I was surfing for Norton Internet Security 2003; I got the bright idea of opening up the Linksys router and low and behold, the install disc included a 60 day subscription. It includes a firewall, virus scan, parental and privacy controls etc.

After I fired it up, I blocked pop ups and it wiped them out (almost) entirely. I'm still struggling with setting up seperate user accounts and since I don't have a "network" yet, wasn't able to delve into that, but it should do everything I want. It even has a hot key for disabling web traffic altogether which I like, as before I was having to disconnect my dsl modem, which I didn't think would be very good.

What I don't get is every so often, I'll get a notice that RUNDLL32 or iexplore is attempting to go online, do I permit or block it? So, as I don't want my system to have a mind of it's own, I blocked these attempts. I can't figure out what garbage is initiating these actions...I also blocked Kazaa! I love this power, but I'm afraid I may shoot myself in the foot. Any thoughts?

Check to see if you have Eula or Messenger enabled or activated. Whatever it is, there is some program running in your machine that wants to get web access. Check your msconfig to see what programs start up on your systems. Some will show in your tray or in Task Manager, others will not.

If you are going to have a running connection to the internet, you really need to have a firewall and some very good virus protection. There are perhaps a zillion threads in the forums on what's good and what's not. Do a search and you will find your answers.