Set up Wireless (so sorry about this)

ice27

Very sorry about posting this question again as you all are probably sick to the teeth of hearing this, so ill keep it short and any replies would be much appreciated.

I have IOLBB, Zxyel broadband modem. I want to set up wireless for my Computer and laptop. The laptop has a wireless card. The room where the computer will be will not be able to have a connecting telephone/BB router line so I will need a wireless connecting device.

To cut to the chase. What is the best modem and wireless pc card that i can get at the moment at a fairly reasonable price with a view to adding existing connections for more printers/media centre. Should I get D-Link, Linksys or netgear or are they all much the same. Will the speed reduce because of the wireless pc card?

Any help would be appreciated as I hope to buy them today from Komplett or expansys.

Cheers

JoyPad

Check this thread. The kit contains an access point and a USB network adapter (for your other computer). These two will connect between them at 54Mbps, while your laptop will connect at least at 11Mpbs, depending on what standard it supports (11b or 11g).


Cheers,
JP

ice27

Thanks JP,

I did see that but I am a littele concerned about the speed through the USB device as I have little faith in anything that runs from a usb port, maybe this is different - i dont know!!

Would a PC card be more reliable and ensure faster speeds?

Cheers

JoyPad

I bought a similar kit from PCWorld, manufactured by Belkin. Had no problems with them so far.

The speed will be affected most by the geometry of your house: how many obstacles between the NIC and the access point, their nature, their RF interference (i.e. a fridge will be a tougher obstacle than a wall). If you think you'll have this sort of problems between the PC and the access point, you're better off buying an access point and a PCI card with detachable antennas, so you can extend the range later. But for most homes, the included antennas will suffice.

HTH,
JP

dl

Ice, as you see from the thread link via JoyPad I am very happy with my setup. My laptop with the wireless USB Nic downloads just as quick as my desktop does via ethernet connected direct to the router.

I use the USB Nic in my laptop and although it is a 11g (54mbps) unit I only seem to get a 11b (11mbps) connection - maybe cause it's only USB 1 in my laptop......... however if you are only using the wireless connection to provide the internet to each system and are no looking to transfer large files between computers, then you will have no problems.

JoyPad

dl wrote:

I use the USB Nic in my laptop and although it is a 11g (54mbps) unit I only seem to get a 11b (11mbps) connection - maybe cause it's only USB 1 in my laptop.........

I use the USB NIC on a "non hi-speed USB" (as XP calls it everytime I plug the dongle) but it still connects at 54mbps. It's true, the transfer speed is limited by the USB, but the 11g connection should be OK. If you can't get it, it might be because of obstacles. Have you tried it close to the AP?

Cheers,
JP

ice27

Hi Dl,

Im just after ordering it now!! Cant wait to get it up and running. Cheers for the advice.

Last thing! how is your xbox going on the wireless connection and what device did u get for that! I too have xbox live and up until now have been just taking the modem off the computer bringing it to the xbox and then plugging in the x box directly into modem. It's an awful hassle!! However I posted sometime earlier about this and got some feedback that connection to live can be poor with a wireless set up. Whats your experience?

Cheers

ice27

Im just after getting the 'post ordering blues' and was now thinking that it would be handy for the PC and the laptop to be capable of dowloading large files i.e music files , filesharing etc . It would be better to splash the extra few quid now rather then having a home network that would be limited in some way. In that case, what would be the prefered option to the USB nic, in other words, and environmental conditions permitting, what would be the ideal wireless device for a PC that would ensure I would be able to download large files on all my worksations. I am assuming the 3com router is still the best option for the gateway but maybe upgrade to something better for the PC wireless link, or how better can it get compared to the USB device. Any suggestions

I promise thats the last youll hear from me today, and thanks all for all their advice, much appreciated.

Cheers!

dl

Firstly, JoyPad thanks for the comments - I still only get 11mbps when the laptop with USB Nic are beside the router but with only 512kb broadband connection it's more than enough for the near future. I just want to be able to use my laptop to surf while sipping a cold beer in the garden on those sunny days......... whenever they'll be...!!

Ice, the xbox is my son's and is in the next room (upstairs) and is connected via cable to the router. Like most modern houses (20 yrs or so) the upstairs walls are only partition and easy to run a cable along a skirting board and through to the next room. I also intend to run a cable from the router out the main wall of the house and down into a Cat5 mod in the family room so he can move his xbox downstairs and plug-in whenever he needs the bigger room such as when his mates call round.....spoilt I know but also gives me the option of plugging laptop or PC if not using wireless.

Downloading won't be a problem; I sometimes use both laptop and desktop to download large files at the same time. I leave large files till late and let them download away while I'm in bed or when I'm gone to work. As for moving large files from one PC to another, I'm quite happy to use my flash drive and just look at how cheap their getting - 1Gb for €89 in Marx Computers. http://www.marxcomputers.ie/ Cables are quite reasonable here too.

The other week I picked up a Belkin Pci wireless network card in Dixon’s, Manchester Airport for about €30 (€35 here) and it gives me a full 54mbps connection and receives a full signal all the time - simple to fit and configure, comes with full instructions and it's own setup software.

Hope this is of help.....

DL

Block (8

What about an access point? I bought one last week and it's much simpler to set up than a modem. I tried plugging it straight into the modem briefly and it works. I already have a router that's why I chose an AP, so if it's only wireless that you need maybe an AP is the way you should go just to save yourself some hassle.

ice27

Thanks all,

Went for the 3com in the end with usb nic. Hopefully it works out okay.

JoyPad

ice27 wrote:

Thanks all,

Went for the 3com in the end with usb nic. Hopefully it works out okay.

Don't beat yourself over this. At the current prices, you actually pay for the router/AP, and get the USB NIC for free. If it doesn't work out okay, just buy yourself a PCI NIC and keep the USB as backup.

However, I got a feeling it will work out just fine. I've been using 3Com products since forever, and I haven't had any trouble with them.

dl wrote:

I still only get 11mbps when the laptop with USB Nic are beside the router[...]

Have to say this is really odd. Are you using DHCP? encryption? the 4x mode?
For the one I have, I found out (the hard way) that encryption and DHCP don't mix well, and in order to turn encryption on, I had to disable DHCP and manually assign IP addresses.

[rant]
Even now, I still have a very annoying problem: every so often the NICs would lose the connection briefly and re-connect. Minor problem, but XP does not react very well when this thing happens every 2 minutes. I tried everything so far, including disabling and enabling all sort of things in the AP, to no avail. Tried XP's wireless zero config and without it, still no dice.
I hear from other Belkin customers that it could be a deeper problem that only a firmware upgrade will solve. However, the latest firmware introduces a string of other issues, and I'd rather keep the one I have for now.
[/rant]

Cheers,
JP

dl

JoyPad wrote:

Have to say this is really odd. Are you using DHCP? encryption? the 4x mode?
For the one I have, I found out (the hard way) that encryption and DHCP don't mix well, and in order to turn encryption on, I had to disable DHCP and manually assign IP addresses.

[rant]
Even now, I still have a very annoying problem: every so often the NICs would lose the connection briefly and re-connect.
[/rant]

JP, I'm using DHCP but not encryption, not at the moment anyway as I live at the top of a cul-de-sac with farmland behind me and only immediate neighbours, so didn't feel the need to set it up yet!

I do find that the Nic disconnects every now and again but reconnects very quickly so i don't find it too much of an issue......... yet!

DL

ice27

Hi Dl,

If u read this u might answer 1 thing for a complete novice like myself. I recieved the 3com wireless acesspoint/router 2 day. Its says on the instructions u ned to connect it to your computer using twisted cables? Whats this?

I thought u just connected that to your BB modemn which was already connected to the computer. Im a bit confused. I dont need to plus the 3com into the computer do I?

Cheers

dl

Ice

You connect the modem to the router and then from one of the four ports on the router to your computer. Simply disconnect the cable from your modem and plug it into the input side of the router and using the new cable supplied with the router connect it to the modem.

The cables supplied with both modem and router are the ones mentioned in the manual - CAT5 'twisted cable'.

dl

JoyPad

dl wrote:

CAT5 'twisted cable'

The correct name for this cable is UTP, Unshielded Twisted Pairs. It comes from the fact that it contains 8 wires, twisted in pairs.
There is also STP cable (also cat5, btw), which is Shielded Twisted Pairs, having a metallic shield, similar to the one found in TV coaxial cable, around the twisted pairs, just below the PVC jacket.

HTH,
JP

ice27

Hi Dl,

My modem is connected to the computer by USB at the momemt. ALso what about the USB Nic, I want the computer in another room so I thought you just needed to connect the router to the modem and no need to connect the router to a computer aswell.

Also I cant connect the laptop even though its detects that a 3com wireless device is nearby. Funny thing is that I can actually connect to somones Netgear wireless device that must be nearby with no problem at all.

On that point how can I let someone know that there wireless device is unsecured without having to knock ao all surrounding neighbours doors. Final question? does the other person know that somone is logging on to their.

Can I just have-
Modem which is connected by USB to computer connected to router.
USB nic which is connected to PC and is picking up signal no problem.
Laptop connecting wirelessy (which can at the moment detect wireless 3conm network but can connect)

Cheers

JoyPad

ice27 wrote:

My modem is connected to the computer by USB at the momemt.

If you leave it like this, you will have to have this computer on for BB to be accessible. Furthermore, this PC will have to be configured as a gateway or a bridge (both possible with XP tools). That's where the accesspoint/switch comes into play, this type of device is specifically designed to work 24/7, and it's already configured as a bridge.
You should connect the modem to the 3com accesspoint/switch via UTP cable, and all other computers should connect to the 3com accesspoint/switch, either wired (UTP cable) or wireless.
This all the wiring you need. As for setup, I would do the following:
1. modem: DHCP server ON
2. accesspoint: DHCP server OFF (use the one on the modem instead), IP assigned via DHCP client (if available) or static. Encryption and MAC address filtering ON. For encryption, choose the best available on both WLAN cards (WPA, WEP128, WEP64, in this order). For MAC address filtering, collect all MAC addresses from all devices before activating this. On Windows, use either winipcfg (on 9x) or ipconfig /all (on 2000, XP) to retrieve MAC (or Physical) address. The encryption + MAC filtering should be enough to keep neighbours and wardrivers out. If you're security conscious (read "paranoid"), change your WEP key often.
3. each PC (wired or wireless) should be configured with dynamic IP allocation. This ensures that you get proper IP config from your modem's DHCP server. For wireless cards, I would recommend to avoid using the Windows Wireless Zero Configuration, and stick with the manufacturer's software. Create a profile (or whatever it's called in your software) for your accesspoint, specifying the encryption key, and, if possible, specify you don't want to connect to other infrastructures (i.e. your neighbour's unprotected AP).

ice27 wrote:

Final question? does the other person know that somone is logging on to their

If that person is noob enough to leave the accespoint wide open, he/she is probably noob enough not to find out someone else is lurking on it. The only thing you can find out about a lurker is the MAC address of its NIC. Nothing else. And this is not very useful in finding out whose it is.
One method used to identify the position of an AP is wardriving.

Good luck,
JP

ice27

hi jp,

thanks for the info. believ e it or not i am now up and running, i seem to have 2 good connections on the pc and laptop.

the laptop has a wireless card and is connecting at a speer of 54.0mps. is that good! the speed seems good enough anyway!, and the pc which is running from the usb nic seems to have a good speed, when i did a broadband speed on this from one of the free test sites it said it was running at 417bps and termed the phrase 'not bad'. The only thing now left to do is make them both secure, the only thing is im so glad at getting it up and running im afraid ill destroy the whole thing by altering things again. Is it complicated to make them secure?

Also I want to thank you and everyone on the boards who contributed invaluable advice to me over the last week or so, it was much apreciated, thanks a million.

JoyPad

ice27 wrote:

the laptop has a wireless card and is connecting at a speer of 54.0mps. is that good!

It's good enough. Compare your 54Mbps with BB's speed of 512Kbps (or soon to be 1M or more, see news on eircom/IOL upgrading existing lines), and you'll see that your speed is sufficient for BB traffic.
If you compare it with LAN speed (wired), usually at 100Mbps these days, it's still close. When I started networking, about 15 years ago, we had 10Mbps, and thought it was heaven on Earth, compared to previous speeds of a few Kbps achieved by our serial port connections.

ice27 wrote:

The only thing now left to do is make them both secure, the only thing is im so glad at getting it up and running im afraid ill destroy the whole thing by altering things again.

See if you can save the configuration on your PC. My modem/router/accesspoint has a feature that lets you save the entire configuration to a file, or load it from a file. This should be done ASAP, and the file safely kept somewhere on your PC. Then, no matter how bad things get, you can always reset the modem, then load the configuration file to bring the modem to its current status.
Same thing cannot be done, unfortunately, for PC configuration. Just write down your current setup, if it's not simple enough to remember it.

ice27 wrote:

Is it complicated to make them secure?

Not as easy as one might expect it. You have to check what encryption capabilities your WLAN devices have. That is all WLAN cards and the WLAN access point. If all support WPA, go for it. You just choose a phrase as a password. The longer the better, but check the limit carefully. Also include some uncommon words/characters. Here's an example:
The123quick brown#fox jumps!over the876lazy543dog.
When you activate WPA on your devices, input your chosen passphrase, and all should be fine. Start with the accesspoint: when enabled, your NICs will get disconnected. Then proceed with each NIC, activate WPA and input the passphrase, and it should connect and stay connected.
If WPA is not available on all cards, you will have to make do with WEP. The activation of WEP is done in the same way as WPA, only the passphrase is replaced with a long hex number.

If you notice that your cards cannot connect, or cannot stay connected to the accesspoint after you've enabled WEP, you might want to try and disable the DHCP, assign IP addresses manually to all your NICs, as I described in my previous post. That's what I had to do. It's not easy, as you'll have to configure all IP addresses, gateway, DNS servers, manually.

As an extra, you could turn on MAC address filtering. Just gather all your NIC's MAC addresses and put them in the list on your AP's configuration.
Don't forget: all MACs, including the modem's!

ice27 wrote:

Also I want to thank you and everyone on the boards who contributed invaluable advice to me over the last week or so, it was much apreciated, thanks a million.

You're welcome. That's what these boards are all about.


Cheers,
JP

dl

Ice
Glad to see your up and running........ enjoy, especially next month when IOLBB speed increases.

JP
As I had only setup my first network (wireless) a month ago, I was not in a position to provide much detail to Ice other than share details from my own short experience and try and steer him in the right direction. So a big THANK YOU for all the information you provided, you are a wealth of knowledge and like Ice I just wanted to let you know how much your contribution is appreciated.

dl

ice27

again many thanks to JP again. I have now been able to secure my network and feel a lot more at ease with this in place I used the WPA method and assigned a passphrase and after a few minor glitches i goit it 2 work., it did loose connection of the pc thats using the wireless nic which in turn made the laptop loose connection simoltaneously, but i look at it tommorow and hhopefully get it right. im nearly there.

cheers

ice27

Its been working perfect for a good few days now without any problems at all.

At the start I did notice that when I tried to access the Modems settings sometimes I got 2 different menus
1) sometimes the Broaband modem
2) sometimes the 3Com Router
This happened even dough the connections had not been changed. Between the jigs and the reels and all the help i got from the forums I got it working but to define the moment I actually got it to work is tricky. I was connecting/disconnecting modem and router and changing settings etc.
However all i do know is that it is up and running with Encryption on (WPA-password protect) and it running perfect.

However I can now only access the zxyel modem network settings and not the 3com router, not a problem for now I guess but a strange one for me to work out.

Cheers again

JoyPad

That sounds like a regular DHCP confusion.
Are you running DHCP on both devices? What IPs are fixed and what IPs are dynamically allocated? How do you access the config that sometimes gives you modem's and sometimes router's settings?

For me, just to know exactly how things stand, I like assigning local IPs and turn off DHCP. Then I edit a hosts file on Windows and use that for DNS mapping

Send me a PM if you want to chat (IM or phone) about your setup.


Cheers,
JP

ice27

Thanks JP,

Ive been out of the country for a few days and didnt get a chance to hook up to the boards, thanks for the response. Thanks for the offer aswell and I might take you up on that sometime but for now its on a secured network and seems to be working just fine, even if i have limited acess to the router I do not need to change it for anything short term so im gonna leave it the way it is (good connection speeds on both the laptop and the Pc)rather then run the risk of losing the connection, as a amateur like myself one flick of the mouse and the whole thing could go belly up.

Cheers!