wireless

[Johnney]

anyone have any pro's and con's about it? i used it when i was down south in NC and GA, but it was in hotels and the boss's house. anyone have wireless in your houses? and what do you think about it?
im asking this cause i went x-mas shopping with my mommy and she asked me what i wanted so i told her i wanted a wireless router and she baught it for me

 

[freeandfun1]

anyone have any pro's and con's about it? i used it when i was down south in NC and GA, but it was in hotels and the boss's house. anyone have wireless in your houses? and what do you think about it?
im asking this cause i went x-mas shopping with my mommy and she asked me what i wanted so i told her i wanted a wireless router and she baught it for me

i've got it in my house and love it. keep an eye out though, cuz the next round of available wireless equipment is right around the corner. keep your eyes on companies dabbling in Ultra Wide Band (UWB) technology......

 

[Johnney]

cool. my sister is a CNA and they use UWB in the hospital to keep track of everyone there. could be interesting

 

[Shattered]

anyone have any pro's and con's about it? i used it when i was down south in NC and GA, but it was in hotels and the boss's house. anyone have wireless in your houses? and what do you think about it?
im asking this cause i went x-mas shopping with my mommy and she asked me what i wanted so i told her i wanted a wireless router and she baught it for me

Wireless freakin ROCKS. I can sit outside during the summer, and play on the laptop. I can take the laptop in the bathroom and shop online while taking a bubble bath..Get it. Install it. You'll never regret it. Just make sure you use a good firewall, too..(well, with ANY set up).

 

[freeandfun1]

cool. my sister is a CNA and they use UWB in the hospital to keep track of everyone there. could be interesting

UWB will eventually replace wi-fi. it uses a wider band and plus, it is much, much more secure. Since UWB polls and then uses pulses to transmit and receive, it is impossible to hack.

I recently invested in a small start-up that got started by developing UWB stuff for the Nevada Test Site and the DOE.

 

[Johnney]

Wireless freakin ROCKS. I can sit outside during the summer, and play on the laptop. I can take the laptop in the bathroom and shop online while taking a bubble bath..Get it. Install it. You'll never regret it. Just make sure you use a good firewall, too..(well, with ANY set up).

cool! well i dont take bubble baths, so until they make a water proof laptop, ill refreain from the bathroom...lol


but i do have another question about routers... im running a linksys 5 port right now for my network, it has 2 pc's and this laptop. can i hook a wireless/ wired 802.11g to a regular router and have it work?

 

[freeandfun1]

cool! well i dont take bubble baths, so until they make a water proof laptop, ill refreain from the bathroom...lol


but i do have another question about routers... im running a linksys 5 port right now for my network, it has 2 pc's and this laptop. can i hook a wireless/ wired 802.11g to a regular router and have it work?

if the router doesn't have wireless built into it, you could make it work, but it would just be cheaper (and easier) to buy a router that allows for both wireless and wired applications. Lynksys makes one. Otherwise, you have to buy a wireless transmitter to plug into your existing router and that just will become troublesome.

 

[Johnney]

the router im using now doesnt have it built in. the new one im getting is wireless and a 4 port switch. i was just thinking i could save myself a little time by just hooking the new one to the old one and jsut putting the new software on the laptop. but thats ok, not likes its an all day affair

 

[freeandfun1]

not likes its an all day affair

nope, it ain't. but what you were thinking of doing to save time.... well, that would probably take longer anyway! lol

 

[Shattered]

cool! well i dont take bubble baths, so until they make a water proof laptop, ill refreain from the bathroom...lol


but i do have another question about routers... im running a linksys 5 port right now for my network, it has 2 pc's and this laptop. can i hook a wireless/ wired 802.11g to a regular router and have it work?

Psst! Laptops replace "reading" material in bathrooms, too.. For guys, anyway.

 

[HorhayAtAMD]

Psst! Laptops replace "reading" material in bathrooms, too.. For guys, anyway.

Too bulky... I prefer my wireless PDA.

Anyway, just make sure you turn on encryption when you set it up. The default router settings are usually to broadcast the router's existence and allow anyone to connect, not a good thing! Another good idea is to turn on MAC filtering. I have 2 wireless devices so I've setup my wireless router to never accept connections from anything other than those 2 devices. It isn't foolproof but it is easy to setup and adds another layer of protection.

 

[no1tovote4]

Too bulky... I prefer my wireless PDA.

Anyway, just make sure you turn on encryption when you set it up. The default router settings are usually to broadcast the router's existence and allow anyone to connect, not a good thing! Another good idea is to turn on MAC filtering. I have 2 wireless devices so I've setup my wireless router to never accept connections from anything other than those 2 devices. It isn't foolproof but it is easy to setup and adds another layer of protection.

And another reason for clients to contact tech support when they get new machines or hardware. This is a good thing for those of us that make money making other people's computers work!

 

[Johnney]

yeah when we were on the road and i needed to get on the net for supplies or check email id wander around until i found a hotel with access and sit in thier parking lot! wasnt the best connection in the world, but it worked

 

[pretender]

Got my duaghter a new laptop for Christmas and it has wireless technology. We have cable at home so I am still wondering how it will work. We will see. Research is needed.

 

[freeandfun1]

Got my duaghter a new laptop for Christmas and it has wireless technology. We have cable at home so I am still wondering how it will work. We will see. Research is needed.

unless you have a wireless router to go with the cable modem, the built-in wireless on the laptop won't work.

well, that is, unless it works on cellular frequencies and you sign up for the service.....

 

[no1tovote4]

Got my duaghter a new laptop for Christmas and it has wireless technology. We have cable at home so I am still wondering how it will work. We will see. Research is needed.

You will need to purchase a router, you can get attachments for the router in order to make just the one pathway wireless and hook it up like a normal computer afterward.

One bonus of this way is that the Router makes a natural firewall for your cable access. Both computers will be safer this way.

 

[pretender]

Thanks!!! I figured I would need some sort of router but haven't had time to even think about it. She can figure it out and make the necessary purchases if she wants to go that way.

 

[KarlMarx]

Too bulky... I prefer my wireless PDA.

Anyway, just make sure you turn on encryption when you set it up. The default router settings are usually to broadcast the router's existence and allow anyone to connect, not a good thing! Another good idea is to turn on MAC filtering. I have 2 wireless devices so I've setup my wireless router to never accept connections from anything other than those 2 devices. It isn't foolproof but it is easy to setup and adds another layer of protection.

Very good point. Without encryption (sometimes called "WEP" - wireless encryption protocol) turned on, anyone can use your internet access as long as they have a wireless enabled computer that is within range. Also, any data transmitted between your laptop and router can be seen without WEP turned on. That is a big security risk, especially if you do online banking or shopping.

 

[pretender]

Very good point. Without encryption (sometimes called "WEP" - wireless encryption protocol) turned on, anyone can use your internet access as long as they have a wireless enabled computer that is within range. Also, any data transmitted between your laptop and router can be seen without WEP turned on. That is a big security risk, especially if you do online banking or shopping.

hummmm.. that's kinda scary. It seems to be rather complicated and maybe dangerous for a novice like myself.

 

[KarlMarx]

hummmm.. that's kinda scary. It seems to be rather complicated and maybe dangerous for a novice like myself.

No, actually WEP (or some other type of encryption) is already installed on your router and wireless card. All you need to do is enable it. In my case, I had to supply a password. Others have theirs set up so that only computers with certain addresses can access the network