Wireless network for the office

irlhost

Hi Guys

I have a wireless card for my note book “Belkin” 802.11g and now I want to network my two pc’s and printers.

What the best way to do this?


It's shopping time

jayok

You are right you'll need to go shopping.

It all depends on how you are planning to run your wireless network - either in Adhoc mode or Infrastructue mode. In Infrastructue mode you will need an Access Point (AP) and basically all wireless nodes connect to this for service (i.e. if PC A wants to talk to PC B it goes to the AP and then to PC . The advantages of this are centralised communication (security) and is typically required when you are connect to a wired ethernet network.

The other option is an Adhoc network. This is basically where all wireless nodes see each other in a peer-to-peer fashion. Node centralised communication, no AP. But it is considered less secure and more difficult to manage. If this is a small office then no bother.

Once you've decided on the mode. The consider security. Wireless stuff uses WAP to encrypt data but this is considered a weak protocol for encryption, unless you are going to invest in a firewall then you'll need to go with WAP (just warning you). If you do go with WAP then make it 128-bit and try to restrict the access to a limited number of MAC addresses (i.e. get the MAC address of all wireless cards in the office and config the systems so that these MACs are only trusted).

Then onto the hardware. For the PCs you will need to buy a PCI wireless card. You didn't say which OS you are running, Windows is straighforward, but if your running Linux try to get one that will work! (recommend a Netgear). As for the printer, well making that purely wireless can be tricker as you will need a print server unless it is one of those expensive units with a Print Server and wirless built in. If this is the way forward you can get a HP Wireless Print Server (expensive) OR alternatively how about plugging the printer into one of the wireless PCs and run a print server off that? Saves on buying hardware.

Once the hardware is bought then off you go!

Just a thought you probably have a AP already seeing as the laptop is wireless?

JayoK

tomk

jayok wrote:

Wireless stuff uses WAP to encrypt data but this is considered a weak protocol for encryption, unless you are going to invest in a firewall then you'll need to go with WAP (just warning you). If you do go with WAP then make it 128-bit and try to restrict the access to a limited number of MAC addresses (i.e. get the MAC address of all wireless cards in the office and config the systems so that these MACs are only trusted).

A little more detail on security. jayok is referring to WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy), and he is correct in saying that it is weak. If this concerns you, the latest WiFi gear is starting to support WPA (WiFi Protected Access). If you opt for this, do plenty of research first - your chosen OS needs to support WPA, as well as your WiFi gear.

Kazu

The other option is an Adhoc network. This is basically where all wireless nodes see each other in a peer-to-peer fashion. Node centralised communication, no AP. But it is considered less secure and more difficult to manage. If this is a small office then no bother.

I was thinking off setting up a Gaming lan of three PCs all running Windows Xp home Edition so for a wireless network all i need is three Pci wireless cards or usb wireless cards and i dont need a wirless router is this correct

conor-mr2

Yes thats correct. IMHO though Id go the Access Point route i.e. Infrastructure mode.
I find its just easier to troubleshoot and set up than Adhoc mode.