At long last - wireless!!
Dec. 26th, 2007 08:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dreamsharkOff and on for about the last 4 years I've been trying to add internal wireless access to my existing home LAN (which is served by DSL). This has proved surprisingly difficult. I started out trying to set up some old wireless equipment I got at a yard sale, with predictably unsuccessful results. Then I bought a Linksys home router that almost worked, briefly, before it just disintegrated like the piece of worthless junk it is. My third attempt is a Netgear (a brand I've had much better luck with) but it's been sitting around for a year waiting for somebody to muster up the enthusiasm to try and install it.
This is probably fairly easy to do if you don't have any kind of home network to start with and are planning to connect to the Internet through something that might conceivably be described as a "DSL or cable modem." If you already have a DSL router that is managing a small LAN with addresses configured the way you want them, the instructions and setup wizards that come with these home network devices are essentially worthless. I am also unreasonably resentful of the requirement to uncable my computer from the Internet, disable my static IP address, and plug my 'puter directly into the new device so I can fight my way through an insufferable browser interface just to change the IP address.
It took me a couple of tries this time, because I kept trying to use the "Internet port" to connect to my local LAN. I finally found a page on the Netgear Knowledge Base on "Using WPN824, WGR614, or WGT624 Routers as an Access Point." The secret is: don't use the "Internet port" for anything. Just cable to one of the 4 Ethernet hub ports, assign the port a static address on the LAN and disable the DHCP server. Once I'd done all that, the wireless network popped right up, and the computer in Amber's room can now go through the wireless network onto the Internet!
Now I'm trying to figure out how to set up basic security. I tried enabling WEP and entering a "passphrase" on the router, but couldn't find anyplace in the wireless setup on the client to enter the same passphrase. Also, online info indicates that WPA is "newer and better" than WEP. Should I use that instead? Or will it be too new for the USB wireless adapter I'm using on the client computer? What security do you people use for your wireless networks??
This is probably fairly easy to do if you don't have any kind of home network to start with and are planning to connect to the Internet through something that might conceivably be described as a "DSL or cable modem." If you already have a DSL router that is managing a small LAN with addresses configured the way you want them, the instructions and setup wizards that come with these home network devices are essentially worthless. I am also unreasonably resentful of the requirement to uncable my computer from the Internet, disable my static IP address, and plug my 'puter directly into the new device so I can fight my way through an insufferable browser interface just to change the IP address.
It took me a couple of tries this time, because I kept trying to use the "Internet port" to connect to my local LAN. I finally found a page on the Netgear Knowledge Base on "Using WPN824, WGR614, or WGT624 Routers as an Access Point." The secret is: don't use the "Internet port" for anything. Just cable to one of the 4 Ethernet hub ports, assign the port a static address on the LAN and disable the DHCP server. Once I'd done all that, the wireless network popped right up, and the computer in Amber's room can now go through the wireless network onto the Internet!
Now I'm trying to figure out how to set up basic security. I tried enabling WEP and entering a "passphrase" on the router, but couldn't find anyplace in the wireless setup on the client to enter the same passphrase. Also, online info indicates that WPA is "newer and better" than WEP. Should I use that instead? Or will it be too new for the USB wireless adapter I'm using on the client computer? What security do you people use for your wireless networks??
no subject
Date: 2007-12-27 04:52 am (UTC)We're using WPA2 with backward compatibility for WPA, because the Palm TX won't do WPA2. Our wireless access point is an Apple Airport Extreme.