Q. I have a D-Link rangebooster G gold series router which is apparently supposed to have network speeds up to 108mbps or something like that right? I'm trying to transfer some files across but its going at an embarrassing 1.5mbps. I would almost make sense I had just put them on my external hdd first..
is there a way to speed this up?
is there a way to speed this up?
A. I think there are two problems here that are leading to confusion. I suspect (but I could be wrong) that you're confusing megabits with megabytes. The 108mbps you should be able to get is megabits per second. It's possible that the 1.5mbps you're getting is megaBYTES per second. If you do a file transfer, chances are it will give you a speed in megabytes, rather than megabits. A megabyte is 8 megabits, so you might actually be getting 12megabits per second of your promised 108, rather than the 1.5 you thought you were getting.
Also, that 108Mbit promise has a couple unspoken conditions (probably listed out in fine print as a footnote of a footnote in the Chinese language section of your manual). For instance, since 802.11g only supports speeds up to 54Mbits, you need to have special D-Link wireless cards in order to support that full 108Mbits. Without it, you're only going to get up to 54Mbits.
Also, that 54Mbits is total throughput, not the speed of each connection. So if you're transferring from one wireless computer to another, then you're only going to get (at best) half of that speed (about 27Mbits), since it needs half the bandwidth for the transmission to the router, and the other half for the transmission to the other computer.
Finally, if you take into account this is consumer hardware and you probably don't have ideal conditions at your house, there's no reason why that won't cut the speed in half again, leaving you with about 13Mbits expected speed and 12Mbits actual speed.
All that being said, let me address your question of how to speed this up:
The first thing you should do is eliminate the second wireless leg (if it exists). Put one of your computers close to the router (or the router close to one of the computers) and connect the router to the computer via a wired Ethernet connection. That should provide a hefty boost of speed (it should nearly double).
Next, make sure you have an 802.11G card in your wireless computer. If it's 802.11B, then it will max out at 11Mbits. So getting an 802.11G network card for it will increase your speed dramatically.
Also, upgrade your firmware on your router. If there's a new firmware available, you should be able to get it from DLink's website. This might give a minor speed increase.
If you have any baby monitors, home phones, etc that are "2.4Ghz," turn them off, they can interfere with your wireless signal and slow your transfer speeds.
If you can get your speed up to 40Mbits (5 megabytes per second), then you are doing about as well as can be expected from consumer networking hardware. I doubt you'll get over about 25-30Mbits (3-4 megabytes per second), though.
On a side note, back in college we used to be able to get about 5-10 megabytes per second transfer speed by loading files on an iPod (via 400Mbit Firewire), walking down the hall, and loading them on another computer. You could probably achieve similar results with your external hard drive, as you suggested. So I'd go that route for large transfers such as this.
Good luck!
Also, that 108Mbit promise has a couple unspoken conditions (probably listed out in fine print as a footnote of a footnote in the Chinese language section of your manual). For instance, since 802.11g only supports speeds up to 54Mbits, you need to have special D-Link wireless cards in order to support that full 108Mbits. Without it, you're only going to get up to 54Mbits.
Also, that 54Mbits is total throughput, not the speed of each connection. So if you're transferring from one wireless computer to another, then you're only going to get (at best) half of that speed (about 27Mbits), since it needs half the bandwidth for the transmission to the router, and the other half for the transmission to the other computer.
Finally, if you take into account this is consumer hardware and you probably don't have ideal conditions at your house, there's no reason why that won't cut the speed in half again, leaving you with about 13Mbits expected speed and 12Mbits actual speed.
All that being said, let me address your question of how to speed this up:
The first thing you should do is eliminate the second wireless leg (if it exists). Put one of your computers close to the router (or the router close to one of the computers) and connect the router to the computer via a wired Ethernet connection. That should provide a hefty boost of speed (it should nearly double).
Next, make sure you have an 802.11G card in your wireless computer. If it's 802.11B, then it will max out at 11Mbits. So getting an 802.11G network card for it will increase your speed dramatically.
Also, upgrade your firmware on your router. If there's a new firmware available, you should be able to get it from DLink's website. This might give a minor speed increase.
If you have any baby monitors, home phones, etc that are "2.4Ghz," turn them off, they can interfere with your wireless signal and slow your transfer speeds.
If you can get your speed up to 40Mbits (5 megabytes per second), then you are doing about as well as can be expected from consumer networking hardware. I doubt you'll get over about 25-30Mbits (3-4 megabytes per second), though.
On a side note, back in college we used to be able to get about 5-10 megabytes per second transfer speed by loading files on an iPod (via 400Mbit Firewire), walking down the hall, and loading them on another computer. You could probably achieve similar results with your external hard drive, as you suggested. So I'd go that route for large transfers such as this.
Good luck!
What are the cons of running Wi-Fi in a home setting?
Q. I want to set my new lap top up to my wireless router. If I used Wi-Fi the signal would run through the kitchen. I've previously tried sending a signal to a desktop computer in the back of my home but it failed to receive it. What kind of distractions could I experience? Does the phone effect a signal? A friend told me my giant speakers also effect the signal? Is this true? What do I need to watch out for to have wireless signal in my house?
A. Wi-Fi is simply data being transmitted over the air in the same way that analogue TV or Radio is.
There are LOTS of things that will interfere with the signal - here are some of the more common ones at home:
Walls (Brick, plaster, most anything!)
Floors (as walls)
DECT telephones
Analogue wireless telephones
Baby monitors (not necessarily yours)
Overhead power cables
Water pipes
Microwave ovens
Televisions
Radios
CB radios
Walkie Talkies (kids often the culprit on these!)
Other wireless networks
HiFi speakers
and so on
There are lots of ways to measure the signal - but my preferred route at home is to use the Homeplug system - it always works and I have the version that is almost the same speed as my broadband - in fact it is my 100mb LAN card that is the bottle neck.
Homeplug sends the data over your existing AC (electrical) cabling and the units can be bought freely on line or eBay.
++++++++++
To answer Hunter's criticism below.
1. Research is key Hunter - here's a couple of links so you can go and buy the right gear
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SOLWISE-PL-85PE-85MBPS-HOMEPLUG-ETHERNET-ADAPTER-NEW_W0QQitemZ150148599955QQihZ005QQcategoryZ40995QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
(85Mbps)
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/2-x-HomePlug-200Mbps-Very-Fast-Ethernet-Over-The-Mains_W0QQitemZ300138577955QQihZ020QQcategoryZ40995QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
(200Mbps which is the version I have)
2. Not knowing is not a problem - not checking makes us look silly.....
There are LOTS of things that will interfere with the signal - here are some of the more common ones at home:
Walls (Brick, plaster, most anything!)
Floors (as walls)
DECT telephones
Analogue wireless telephones
Baby monitors (not necessarily yours)
Overhead power cables
Water pipes
Microwave ovens
Televisions
Radios
CB radios
Walkie Talkies (kids often the culprit on these!)
Other wireless networks
HiFi speakers
and so on
There are lots of ways to measure the signal - but my preferred route at home is to use the Homeplug system - it always works and I have the version that is almost the same speed as my broadband - in fact it is my 100mb LAN card that is the bottle neck.
Homeplug sends the data over your existing AC (electrical) cabling and the units can be bought freely on line or eBay.
++++++++++
To answer Hunter's criticism below.
1. Research is key Hunter - here's a couple of links so you can go and buy the right gear
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SOLWISE-PL-85PE-85MBPS-HOMEPLUG-ETHERNET-ADAPTER-NEW_W0QQitemZ150148599955QQihZ005QQcategoryZ40995QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
(85Mbps)
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/2-x-HomePlug-200Mbps-Very-Fast-Ethernet-Over-The-Mains_W0QQitemZ300138577955QQihZ020QQcategoryZ40995QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
(200Mbps which is the version I have)
2. Not knowing is not a problem - not checking makes us look silly.....
I have comcast internet and my speed is horrible its dial up level!?
Q. I cant watch youtube without each vid stopping 3 or 4 times!
When I search the web its so slow now its painful has anybody also noticed how suddenly horrible comcast socalled high spped internet has gotten.I thought about having them send out a tech but i dont know if it would do any good
When I search the web its so slow now its painful has anybody also noticed how suddenly horrible comcast socalled high spped internet has gotten.I thought about having them send out a tech but i dont know if it would do any good
A. Internet service is rarely the problem when it comes to speed. After years of solving these problems for hundreds of people, here are the most common problems that cause a high-speed internet connection to seem like trudging through cold oatmeal (i.e. slow and not fun at all):
The dmark at the location - this is the box (point of DMARKation) on the building that the wiring comes in. With Cable or DSL, sometimes the connections are old, corroded, or have bad connectors. This is usually the customers responsibility. If the television channels work fine and the phone works fine (no static, weird fuzzy video or audio, etc..) this probably isn't the problem. Moving on...
CPE (Customer Premises Equipment) - the cable or DSL modem. If unplugging the power from this equipment for 30 seconds fixes the problem, it may be time for a replacement. The devices have memory in them, just like a computer. A power surge, lightning strike, or static electricity can damage the memory (among other things) and cause excessive error-correction. A common problem with the older Motorola Surfboard modems, and a few others.
Your router (if you have one). Some cheap routers are exactly that - cheap. They don't perform well at all. D-Link made a router once that would lock up every 15 minutes if you were downloading anything larger than 5MB. If unplugging the router for 30 seconds solves the problem, it may be time for a new (better) router. If it's a wireless router, and you are connected wirelessly, it may be a bad wireless connection. Moving the antennas or changing the wireless channel (in the router configuration) may help. If it is wireless and there are any 2.4ghz baby monitors, telephones, intercoms, etc.. nearby, or anyone else with a router nearby, interference may be an issue. Changing the channel may help this as well. If not, better antennas will often solve the problem.
Wiring - if you're using a wired connection (ethernet cable from the modem/router to the computer), the cable may be crimped, twisted, or have a broken connection. This will cause massive headaches. If the cable is over 100' long, you'll likely have problems as well. Cat5 interconnects (used to join two ethernet cables together) have been know to cause similar problems.
Last (and usually the culprit) is the computer itself. If you are using any kind of peer-to-peer software (limewire, etc..), torrent software, download managers, etc.. they are likely using all the bandwidth they can, which will slow down both your router (network congestion - especially with torrents), and your internet connection in general. Disable any such software and see what happens.
A quick way to diagnose the problem (to a degree) is to ping your gateway device (cable/dsl modem). It usually has an IP address of 192.168.0.something, 192.168.1.something, or 192.168.254.something, depending on how comcast sets their equipment. You can call and ask them. Then in a command prompt (Start > Run > command) use the command "ping [insert gateway address here] -t" This will send a packet every second or so to the device. If it drops a packet, there is a connection problem on your end. If it doesn't drop a packet, try "ping yahoo.com -t" and look for the same thing. Yahoo is pretty stable, you might drop 1 out of every 100 packets (1%) - anything more than that and it's possible there is a problem with your ISP connection.
Hope that helps some,
Jason
http://www.BroadbandSatelliteDSL.com
The dmark at the location - this is the box (point of DMARKation) on the building that the wiring comes in. With Cable or DSL, sometimes the connections are old, corroded, or have bad connectors. This is usually the customers responsibility. If the television channels work fine and the phone works fine (no static, weird fuzzy video or audio, etc..) this probably isn't the problem. Moving on...
CPE (Customer Premises Equipment) - the cable or DSL modem. If unplugging the power from this equipment for 30 seconds fixes the problem, it may be time for a replacement. The devices have memory in them, just like a computer. A power surge, lightning strike, or static electricity can damage the memory (among other things) and cause excessive error-correction. A common problem with the older Motorola Surfboard modems, and a few others.
Your router (if you have one). Some cheap routers are exactly that - cheap. They don't perform well at all. D-Link made a router once that would lock up every 15 minutes if you were downloading anything larger than 5MB. If unplugging the router for 30 seconds solves the problem, it may be time for a new (better) router. If it's a wireless router, and you are connected wirelessly, it may be a bad wireless connection. Moving the antennas or changing the wireless channel (in the router configuration) may help. If it is wireless and there are any 2.4ghz baby monitors, telephones, intercoms, etc.. nearby, or anyone else with a router nearby, interference may be an issue. Changing the channel may help this as well. If not, better antennas will often solve the problem.
Wiring - if you're using a wired connection (ethernet cable from the modem/router to the computer), the cable may be crimped, twisted, or have a broken connection. This will cause massive headaches. If the cable is over 100' long, you'll likely have problems as well. Cat5 interconnects (used to join two ethernet cables together) have been know to cause similar problems.
Last (and usually the culprit) is the computer itself. If you are using any kind of peer-to-peer software (limewire, etc..), torrent software, download managers, etc.. they are likely using all the bandwidth they can, which will slow down both your router (network congestion - especially with torrents), and your internet connection in general. Disable any such software and see what happens.
A quick way to diagnose the problem (to a degree) is to ping your gateway device (cable/dsl modem). It usually has an IP address of 192.168.0.something, 192.168.1.something, or 192.168.254.something, depending on how comcast sets their equipment. You can call and ask them. Then in a command prompt (Start > Run > command) use the command "ping [insert gateway address here] -t" This will send a packet every second or so to the device. If it drops a packet, there is a connection problem on your end. If it doesn't drop a packet, try "ping yahoo.com -t" and look for the same thing. Yahoo is pretty stable, you might drop 1 out of every 100 packets (1%) - anything more than that and it's possible there is a problem with your ISP connection.
Hope that helps some,
Jason
http://www.BroadbandSatelliteDSL.com
what to do if my computer wifi acquiring network adress and i can open yahoo but cannot open oters web?
Q. What to do if my wireless can detect signal but received signal is zero its said status acquiring network adress and i can't connect to web. Second what to do if i can connect to web like yahoo but i can't open any particular in there
A. wireless like psp or a pda? did you set the software in your pc for being a host pc ?here some help.
Understanding the Basics
If you're thinking about building a wireless network for your home or office, it pays to do a little planning to ensuree you implement it as securely as possible. Remember how you listened to your next-door neighbor's conversation with her mother-in-law about what happened at last year's 4th of July party on your baby monitor? Like all radio frequencies, anyone with a receiver can tune into a wireless channel, so you need to take extra precautions to prevent to your big-eared neighbor and cybercriminals from listening in.
The primary reason for building a wireless LAN (WLAN) is for increased mobility � so you can move around from room to room without being tethered to a network jack. Another reason people like wireless LANs is because they can network their computers together without having to snake wires through their walls. Since you don't have to deal with the wires, in some regards building a wireless LAN is actually easier than you might think.
Have questions about wireless? Start a thread in the new Intranet Journal Discussion Forum
There are all different kinds of wireless protocols used for different types of wireless networks, but if you want to build a WLAN for your home or office the type of protocol you'll want to use is called 802.11b. When you build a wireless network, you are basically setting up a transmitter called an access point that has an antenna on one side and a wire on the other. The wire plugs into a typical wired connection � an Ethernet, a DSL line, cable connection, or dial-up modem. The antenna talks to the wireless network interface card on your computer, sending network traffic from your laptop to an access point. If it sounds confusing, think of your cordless phone. On one end your cordless phone plugs into a wire, while at the same time the antenna on the hand-held receiver transmits to the base station where the wire is plugged in.
Set Up Your Access Point
One of the first things you'll need to do is setup a wireless access point (AP). If you're setting up your wireless network for a business, you'll want to use a more fully featured high-end AP like a Cisco Aironet 350 Series access point. If you're setting up an access point for a home network, a low-end access point such as a Linksys WAP 11 or an Apple AirPort will suffice. Any access point worth its salt has a TCP/IP interface whether you are setting it up for your home or office, which is something to keep in mind when making your purchasing decisions.
When setting up your access point, you'll want to first connect it to the wired hub, then configure the wireless interface, then the wired interface, and last but not least, configure the security. Configuration of the various network interfaces and access point features is different for every vendor. However, if you can read and follow directions, it's possible to do the installation yourself, even if you don't have prior experience. Just open the access point installation and configuration guide and follow along. If you run into snags call the vendor support line list in your access point manual and ask for help. The types of things you'll need to setup include the radio frequency, the distance between access points, and the access point IP address.
Some of the features you can expect to find in either home or enterprise class access points are listed in this table:
Feature Small Office/Home Office Large Office
IEEE 802.11b compliance
DHCP Server
Network Address Translation
IPSec Pass Through
IAPP
Site Management Tools
WEP (Security)
TKIP (Security)
You can also use what is known as a wireless station instead of an access point. However, wireless stations may take a bit more work to setup, and I won't be talking about them further in this article. For more information on wireless stations can you check out http://www.live.com/wireless/unix-base-station.html.
Your access point is the link between the wireless world and the wire. So after you setup the wireless interface, you need to setup up the wired end of the connection � the Ethernet interface. When you configure the Ethernet interface, you will select the speed and duplex particulars. For many access points, however, the speed and duplex settings are self-setting.
Set Up Your Laptop
Since the purpose of a wireless network is mobility, it makes more sense to use a laptop (rather than a desktop) to connect to the WLAN. If the purpose of your WLAN is to avoid shoving wires through walls, it's possible that you may want to connect a desktop system or server to the WLAN. For the purpose of this article, we'll use a laptop to get you up and running. Your laptop will need a wireless network interface PCMCIA card. A wireless network interface card made by any reputable company should suffice. Some of the popular ones of the market today that you might want to consider include:
Agere Wireless LAN PC Card
Proxim/ORiNOCO Wireless Proxim ORiNOCO 11b Client
Cisco Aironet 5GHz 54Mbps Wireless LAN Client
Wireless network interface cards have a 48-bit MAC address associated with them that is completely unique to each card. Installing the wireless PCMCIA card is really no more difficult than installing a regular PCMCIA card. In fact, all the new laptops running Windows operating systems should recognize the card and launch a Setup Wizard that will actually guide you through the installation process by prompting you to make certain decisions along the way. You'll need to install the device driver and enter the SSID associated with your access point.
Setting Up the Security
If you have a low-end access point, your security will be limited to Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) and MAC address filters. With a higher end access point, you'll be able to turn on Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP). WEP is a system for encrypting your data to keep it private from unauthorized users. It was designed to provide privacy equal to what you get on a wired network. TKIP works on top of WEP, offering stronger security than WEP, and increased assurance that your data will not be compromised.
While it has been found that WEP does not offer strong security, it does offer some security, and any security is better than none. Therefore, you should turn WEP on no matter what. You can also layer more security, such as TKIP, on top of it. WEP uses secret keys that get combined with a keystream that then encrypts your data into ciphertext. At the receiving end, a corresponding keystream is used to decrypt the data.
WEP is used to authenticate you to the network and a component of it needs to setup on both the PCMCIA card and on the access point. WEP can be implemented in 40-bit mode or 128-bit mode. As you may suspect, using the 128-bit mode offers more security than the 40-bit mode.
TKIP evolved to solve some of the security problems that WEP does not solve. However, TKIP is relatively new, and many access points and wireless client cards do not support it. If you want to use TKIP, you'll need to be sure you purchase wireless access points and client cards that support it. With WEP, wireless hackers who have the will and time to do so, can obtain the encryption key need to unlock access to the data. In response to the vulnerabilities of WEP, a task group of the IEEE designed TKIP to add stronger security on top of WEP.
TKIP offers new encryption algorithms, and constantly changes the encryption keys making them harder for wireless hackers to capture them. Because the keys are constantly changing, if one of them gets captured, it won't do a hacker much good because by the time they try to use it, the wireless LAN will be using different encryption keys. With TKIP, the encryption keys are also encrypted themselves so you would first need to decrypt the key, before you can use the key to decrypt the network traffic.
MAC address filtering is used to limit what pieces of hardware can access the wireless network. On a large network, filtering the MAC address can be quite an administrative chore and it's worth using cards with sequential MAC addresses to make the job easier. If you want to use sequential MAC addresses, this is something you will need to specify when you make your purchasing decisions. On some wireless PCMCIA cards you can change the MAC address, but on many wireless PCMCIA cards the MAC address is fixed.
For even more security, you can also install a Virtual Private Network (VPN) on your wireless network. Unless you have truly sensitive information, it's probably not worth the time and effort to do this. By using a VPN, you tunnel your wireless data through an IPSec gateway. Using WEP, TKIP, and a VPN together will create a very strong security barrier on your wireless network. Using a VPN can create performance bottlenecks, so don't use one if you don't need one.
Summing It Up
Setting up a secure wireless network is not as hard as it may seem. Anyone with the ability to research wireless product capabilities, and follow the installation instructions can do it. The advantages of not using wires is tremendous, and while some organizations may be reluctant to use wireless networks today, in time they will become ubiquitous and wires will become history.
Understanding the Basics
If you're thinking about building a wireless network for your home or office, it pays to do a little planning to ensuree you implement it as securely as possible. Remember how you listened to your next-door neighbor's conversation with her mother-in-law about what happened at last year's 4th of July party on your baby monitor? Like all radio frequencies, anyone with a receiver can tune into a wireless channel, so you need to take extra precautions to prevent to your big-eared neighbor and cybercriminals from listening in.
The primary reason for building a wireless LAN (WLAN) is for increased mobility � so you can move around from room to room without being tethered to a network jack. Another reason people like wireless LANs is because they can network their computers together without having to snake wires through their walls. Since you don't have to deal with the wires, in some regards building a wireless LAN is actually easier than you might think.
Have questions about wireless? Start a thread in the new Intranet Journal Discussion Forum
There are all different kinds of wireless protocols used for different types of wireless networks, but if you want to build a WLAN for your home or office the type of protocol you'll want to use is called 802.11b. When you build a wireless network, you are basically setting up a transmitter called an access point that has an antenna on one side and a wire on the other. The wire plugs into a typical wired connection � an Ethernet, a DSL line, cable connection, or dial-up modem. The antenna talks to the wireless network interface card on your computer, sending network traffic from your laptop to an access point. If it sounds confusing, think of your cordless phone. On one end your cordless phone plugs into a wire, while at the same time the antenna on the hand-held receiver transmits to the base station where the wire is plugged in.
Set Up Your Access Point
One of the first things you'll need to do is setup a wireless access point (AP). If you're setting up your wireless network for a business, you'll want to use a more fully featured high-end AP like a Cisco Aironet 350 Series access point. If you're setting up an access point for a home network, a low-end access point such as a Linksys WAP 11 or an Apple AirPort will suffice. Any access point worth its salt has a TCP/IP interface whether you are setting it up for your home or office, which is something to keep in mind when making your purchasing decisions.
When setting up your access point, you'll want to first connect it to the wired hub, then configure the wireless interface, then the wired interface, and last but not least, configure the security. Configuration of the various network interfaces and access point features is different for every vendor. However, if you can read and follow directions, it's possible to do the installation yourself, even if you don't have prior experience. Just open the access point installation and configuration guide and follow along. If you run into snags call the vendor support line list in your access point manual and ask for help. The types of things you'll need to setup include the radio frequency, the distance between access points, and the access point IP address.
Some of the features you can expect to find in either home or enterprise class access points are listed in this table:
Feature Small Office/Home Office Large Office
IEEE 802.11b compliance
DHCP Server
Network Address Translation
IPSec Pass Through
IAPP
Site Management Tools
WEP (Security)
TKIP (Security)
You can also use what is known as a wireless station instead of an access point. However, wireless stations may take a bit more work to setup, and I won't be talking about them further in this article. For more information on wireless stations can you check out http://www.live.com/wireless/unix-base-station.html.
Your access point is the link between the wireless world and the wire. So after you setup the wireless interface, you need to setup up the wired end of the connection � the Ethernet interface. When you configure the Ethernet interface, you will select the speed and duplex particulars. For many access points, however, the speed and duplex settings are self-setting.
Set Up Your Laptop
Since the purpose of a wireless network is mobility, it makes more sense to use a laptop (rather than a desktop) to connect to the WLAN. If the purpose of your WLAN is to avoid shoving wires through walls, it's possible that you may want to connect a desktop system or server to the WLAN. For the purpose of this article, we'll use a laptop to get you up and running. Your laptop will need a wireless network interface PCMCIA card. A wireless network interface card made by any reputable company should suffice. Some of the popular ones of the market today that you might want to consider include:
Agere Wireless LAN PC Card
Proxim/ORiNOCO Wireless Proxim ORiNOCO 11b Client
Cisco Aironet 5GHz 54Mbps Wireless LAN Client
Wireless network interface cards have a 48-bit MAC address associated with them that is completely unique to each card. Installing the wireless PCMCIA card is really no more difficult than installing a regular PCMCIA card. In fact, all the new laptops running Windows operating systems should recognize the card and launch a Setup Wizard that will actually guide you through the installation process by prompting you to make certain decisions along the way. You'll need to install the device driver and enter the SSID associated with your access point.
Setting Up the Security
If you have a low-end access point, your security will be limited to Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) and MAC address filters. With a higher end access point, you'll be able to turn on Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP). WEP is a system for encrypting your data to keep it private from unauthorized users. It was designed to provide privacy equal to what you get on a wired network. TKIP works on top of WEP, offering stronger security than WEP, and increased assurance that your data will not be compromised.
While it has been found that WEP does not offer strong security, it does offer some security, and any security is better than none. Therefore, you should turn WEP on no matter what. You can also layer more security, such as TKIP, on top of it. WEP uses secret keys that get combined with a keystream that then encrypts your data into ciphertext. At the receiving end, a corresponding keystream is used to decrypt the data.
WEP is used to authenticate you to the network and a component of it needs to setup on both the PCMCIA card and on the access point. WEP can be implemented in 40-bit mode or 128-bit mode. As you may suspect, using the 128-bit mode offers more security than the 40-bit mode.
TKIP evolved to solve some of the security problems that WEP does not solve. However, TKIP is relatively new, and many access points and wireless client cards do not support it. If you want to use TKIP, you'll need to be sure you purchase wireless access points and client cards that support it. With WEP, wireless hackers who have the will and time to do so, can obtain the encryption key need to unlock access to the data. In response to the vulnerabilities of WEP, a task group of the IEEE designed TKIP to add stronger security on top of WEP.
TKIP offers new encryption algorithms, and constantly changes the encryption keys making them harder for wireless hackers to capture them. Because the keys are constantly changing, if one of them gets captured, it won't do a hacker much good because by the time they try to use it, the wireless LAN will be using different encryption keys. With TKIP, the encryption keys are also encrypted themselves so you would first need to decrypt the key, before you can use the key to decrypt the network traffic.
MAC address filtering is used to limit what pieces of hardware can access the wireless network. On a large network, filtering the MAC address can be quite an administrative chore and it's worth using cards with sequential MAC addresses to make the job easier. If you want to use sequential MAC addresses, this is something you will need to specify when you make your purchasing decisions. On some wireless PCMCIA cards you can change the MAC address, but on many wireless PCMCIA cards the MAC address is fixed.
For even more security, you can also install a Virtual Private Network (VPN) on your wireless network. Unless you have truly sensitive information, it's probably not worth the time and effort to do this. By using a VPN, you tunnel your wireless data through an IPSec gateway. Using WEP, TKIP, and a VPN together will create a very strong security barrier on your wireless network. Using a VPN can create performance bottlenecks, so don't use one if you don't need one.
Summing It Up
Setting up a secure wireless network is not as hard as it may seem. Anyone with the ability to research wireless product capabilities, and follow the installation instructions can do it. The advantages of not using wires is tremendous, and while some organizations may be reluctant to use wireless networks today, in time they will become ubiquitous and wires will become history.
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