wi fi help please - Networking

can any help with suggestion on kit please. I want to set up a wireless network at home have broadband, same in office but also want to take advantage of hotspots and public networks. Can one sd wifi card do this? What wireless boxes do you recommend for home and work?
Thank you gents

Darryl said:
can any help with suggestion on kit please. I want to set up a wireless network at home have broadband, same in office but also want to take advantage of hotspots and public networks. Can one sd wifi card do this? What wireless boxes do you recommend for home and work?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, one wifi card will do it all. What to buy for the home really depends on many factors: you may want something that includes the DSL modem if you can get it from/through your DSL provider. Otherwise, there's many very cheap wireless access points, and they're all OK.

WiFi @ home & work
Home:
Just get yourself a Linksys wireless router, connect in your cable or DSL
PDA:
Sandisk WiFi SD card

If you have an ADSL connection, you need a modem with RJ45 TCP/IP connection to connect to the access point or router. You can't use an USB modem.
Also think about it if you want to extend the range of the internal network with a wireless repeater in the future.
Only a few brands sell access points that can be used with wireless routers!
D-Link has several combinations, but the repeaters are all 802.11b, no 802.11g yet.
You could use a DI-624+ (802.11g, 54 Mbps) router with a DWL-900AP+ rev. B access point. But this limits the speed in the repeater area to 22 Mbps, since the DWL-900AP+ only support 802.11b, 22 Mbps. Contact D-Link for more info, they have a good telephonic support., at least in the Benelux. Check your local site here: http://support.dlink.com/international/
You could also use the cheaper DI-614+ (802.11b, 22 Mbps). If you don't do heavy file transfers over the wireless network (only surfing and mail etc), this is more then fast enough.
Only professional products like 3Com, Cisco, Intel etc. provide full support for bridges and repeaters, but this is a complete different price range.

Related

solved how to wirelessly connect to a wired network:)

ok here's the problem
you want to connect to a wired network or even simply a single pc connecting to the net on a broadband or dialup connection.
if there was a wireless router then it wouldnt be a problem. your pda would connect to the wireless network and the wireless router would give your pda an address and everything would work.
without the wireless router you don't get allocated an ip address.
well problem solved www.nat32.com has a program called nat32e which you can get a demo version of (works for an hour before needing to be restarted)
essentially this is a nat router which runs on any pc running windows
you need a wireless card in addition to its ethernet connection to the net.
I did this with 2 wireless cards so in theory it could be used to extend the effective range of an existing wireless network too
installation is simple but basically you give the wireless card i used a belkin usb 54g dongle type on channel 6 a fixed address and tell it to connect to an adhoc network called "whatever"
you add a network packet driver, nat32 holds your hand installing this,
then the pc needs a reboot.
first time you run nat32 it runs through the configuration you tell it what card connects to the internet and which card connects to your private net
(that is your adhoc wireless network) it sets things up
scan for a network on your pda tell it to look for adhoc networks connect to "whatever" and tell it when it asks, it connects to work.
you should then have wireless access to the net.
if your doing this with two wireless cards make sure you have seperate channels set up for your infrastructure network and your adhoc network.
the belkin 54g usb wireless dongle costs about 25 from staples or 30 from pc world (both are local for me)
the host pc will run fine without any problems with nat32 running or not
no proxys need configuring a registered verion of nat32 costs from
$25 but this gets you registered for just one pc and really you want it so you can roam with a usb wireless card in your pocket and your pda.
I think adhoc wireless networking works for up to 30 wireless points.
i did it with a pda, mdaIII and a laptop.
basically like ics but with less problems
I think you can do this with bluetooth as well but that really isn't fun
hope this is useful sorry its so rough but i have to get to work
Think you may be on the trail of a problem that I am stuck on at the moment . I have the XDA11i and want to connect it via blue tooth to a blue tooth modem connected in turn to to a BT wall socket ( in that way I can surf for 1p per min !!!) no matter what I seem to do whilst the PDA will recognise the Modem as a serial modem ( and form a secure link ) it wont talk to it and get it to dial up . Zoom ( Hayes ) are wondering if 02 have disabled the element in blue tooth that lets this work ? Any thoughts . with the above I dont need to lug my lap top round with me .
Regards
Astro1
London England

Extend Wireless Wifi coverage for 802.11b radio: How?

I recently got this modem from 3 COM, it does wireless and Ethernet ADSL.
http://www.3com.com/products/en_US/detail.jsp?tab=features&pathtype=purchase&sku=3CRWDR101A-75
But it does not reach all rooms in house with a good signal. Is there any way I can extend the IN/OUT 802.11b signal further. Like a hall way antenna or something...
My pocket Pc uses 802.11g
Any ideas
I just found out that you can get adsl modem that have a removable antenna, so one can get a more powerful antenna.
Also one can get a Wirless Range Extender for the home, a booster.
I have found his one..DWL-G710 > High Speed 2.4GHz (802.11g) Wireless Range Extender
http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=357
The wireless stuff is a night mare of product selection and finding the best tool that covers one needs.
Be careful ou there !

hotel room without wireless

Anyone know how to convert CAT5 Cable to wireless in the Hotel room. I love to bring my PDA with me , when I travel. But, I found a problem to using the internet in most of the hotel.
Problem: Most hotels only have CAT5 network , when you plugin your notebook computer, you have to go to the login page to login. But when you using PDA(wireless). The question is how to use the internet?. If you bring a wireless rounter with you. When you plugin . how to make it found the hotel login page on your PDA?
Easiest method is to buy a Wireless bridge. Linksys sells these. Its a device that will tern an Ethernet Cable into a wireless signal.
I travel a great deal and although there are a great number of ways to deal with this issue...this is how I get around it.
I bought one of the little Dlink pocket routers like this one for a great price (less than $30). What you can do with this product (and others I'm sure...) is clone the MAC address of your laptop's ethernet port. Basically...it'd work like this...
1.) Plug your laptop into the hotel network.
2.) Jump through their proxy hoops to get out onto the net.
3.) Unplug the cable from the hotel network and into the pocket router.
4.) From the router's config pages...set the NIC to clone your laptop's MAC address.
5.) Plug the hotel network into the pocket router WAN port.
Badda bing! You're sharing their network wirelessly...doesn't take a lot of time at all. I've really enjoyed the Dlink one I got...small...flexible...and it comes with a nice travel case. Linksys (or Cisco now), Apple, and others all make similar products and some of them have the benefit of not needing a power adapter and just plugging straight into the wall outlet (a big benefit IMHO), but I can't speak for exactly what kind of functionality they provide versus the Dlink product as I've never used them.
By the way...a bridge will not help you do what you want...you need at least an AP...but if you get one of the devices like I mentioned...you get the added benefit of a NAT firewall between your device and the hotel LAN (which can be a very good thing by the way).
I can't see why you can't just plug in a standard access point via the WANport. Set the internet connection to Automatic DHCP.
Then the first time you access the net it will be ready for logging in.
eangulus said:
I can't see why you can't just plug in a standard access point via the WANport. Set the internet connection to Automatic DHCP.
Then the first time you access the net it will be ready for logging in.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because many hotels control access to their internet connections by utilizing various methods but most often by controlling access via MAC addresses. Think filtering a wireless connection by only allowing certain MAC addresses... Now...if an AP allowed MAC address spoofing...then I certainly don't see why just an AP wouldn't work just as well (other than the fact that you don't get the benefits of a router).
By the way...this topic is certainly not Hermes specific and should likely be moved to a more appropriate forum.
One note should be made.... If the hotel is using NAT to assign IP addresss, and you use a second NAT with your router... you may not be able to use various VPN clients. Double NAT'ing doesn't work for many IPSEC VPN clients. i.e. AT&T NetClient
A number of switch vendors offer the ability to limit each port on their switch to allow traffic to one MAC address per port. A bridge would show multiple MAC addresses and typically when the switch sees that, the port is automatically shut down. This is done in many cases where there is a $10-15 a day charge for internet access and the hotel doesn't want you setting up an AP to share the cost with your travel mates. Thus they limit to one MAC address per port. The router solution would show up with only one MAC address... but you then have the double NAT issue in some cases. If you are not using a VPN, that may not be a problem.
Just some additional data points to consider.
I love the linksys travel router - more expensive then their mini router (about the same size) except for 2 things that are key for me. First, it's powersupply is embedded and 110-220v and 2 - it let's you connect it to a hotel wireless hotspot and then share that hotspot over wifi. This is great - it means that 4 people with rooms next to each other can share the fee of the hotspot and share it. It also means I can share that same hotspot with my phone! The only downside on this one over the mini router is it only has one wired out jack but that's no big deal for me!
Note that plugging a router into a network jack when the site in question is set up to use DHCP can cause some havoc on the network. I doubt many hotels are savvy enough to start hunting around for rogue routers when people in the hotel can no longer get IP addresses, but bear in mind that it's always a possibility. It's probably not a good idea to leave something like this plugged into the network longer than necessary.
Also note that whenever I've encountered a location where the establishment requires you to log into a web page in order to access anything, I've had no problem doing that from the Hermes.
Doom Tints said:
Note that plugging a router into a network jack when the site in question is set up to use DHCP can cause some havoc on the network. I doubt many hotels are savvy enough to start hunting around for rogue routers when people in the hotel can no longer get IP addresses, but bear in mind that it's always a possibility. It's probably not a good idea to leave something like this plugged into the network longer than necessary.
Also note that whenever I've encountered a location where the establishment requires you to log into a web page in order to access anything, I've had no problem doing that from the Hermes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The one I mentioned only asigns an IP to people on it's end and not outside - it even uses it's own IP range. It is designed to be transparent to the existing network.
Yes, I know. However, depending upon the network setup, this can still cause problems.
For example, some versions of Symantec's 'On Command/CCM' (a suite for pushing software updates to computers automatically when they are booted on the network) can communicate with some routers in such a way to where the router thinks it needs to try to provide one of its IP addresses to the network. This invariably ends up having a computer in some random place on the network ending up with a 192.168.x.x IP. When an admin sees this, he/she knows that there is a rogue router on the network.
Alot of work... as you know these hotel internet connections are controlled. If you're posting here use that 3g or even edge instead of giving the hotel your credit card to have a field test (is that a ppc program?) or field day with.
Doom Tints said:
Yes, I know. However, depending upon the network setup, this can still cause problems.
For example, some versions of Symantec's 'On Command/CCM' (a suite for pushing software updates to computers automatically when they are booted on the network) can communicate with some routers in such a way to where the router thinks it needs to try to provide one of its IP addresses to the network. This invariably ends up having a computer in some random place on the network ending up with a 192.168.x.x IP. When an admin sees this, he/she knows that there is a rogue router on the network.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I doubt this will happen in most hotel networks and aside from that - I doubt that there is hardly ever a network admin on hand 99.9% of the time
The Linksys Travel Router is the product I'd highly recommend as I've been using it around the world for some years now.
It has a hardware switch that let's you control its functionality. In one position, the Wired Ethernet is simply converted to Wi-Fi and once you connect, you still get the IP from the hotel's DHCP server. If you need to share the connection with more systems (such as your laptop and your phone or with some colleagues in adjacent rooms), you just switch to another mode after logging in to the hotel's network and the Linksys becomes a NAT router and gives you a private IP.
It also comes with a nice travel case...
SayMobile said:
The Linksys Travel Router is the product I'd highly recommend as I've been using it around the world for some years now.
It has a hardware switch that let's you control its functionality. In one position, the Wired Ethernet is simply converted to Wi-Fi and once you connect, you still get the IP from the hotel's DHCP server. If you need to share the connection with more systems (such as your laptop and your phone or with some colleagues in adjacent rooms), you just switch to another mode after logging in to the hotel's network and the Linksys becomes a NAT router and gives you a private IP.
It also comes with a nice travel case...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's the device I've been talking about - the only thing I add to the kit is a european outlet adapter (which fits nicely inside the coiled ethernet cable included

Wifi Tethering to a wifi router / network

A picture is better than 1000 words.
For an application I'm trying to get this configuration working:
Is this possible or not?
WiFi Tethering to a WiFi Router / Network
Yes, IF your wifi router will accept wifi as an input.
If all of the devices need to be on a network OTHER than your cell phone, then yes, you need a router. The router will have to accept wifi as it's source.
If all of the devices can be on the same wifi network as your cell, then you can get a wifi repeater or range extender. Repeaters "extend" the range that wifi will reach. I don't see that as an issue here as should be able to place your cell phone well within range of your other wifi-enabled devices.
I don't immediately see why you can't have all of the devices connect to your phone directly, but I don't know anything about the application you are working on.
What I cannot say is whether this setup could bypass the number of wifi devices your service provider limits you to. I know my hotspot (Verizon) limits you to five concurrent.
I hope I've answered your question and I've helped. BTW - your picture was perfect!
Thank you for your explanation.
This is a very specific setup.
The router is an Airlink NMini and I carry in my pocket. It has to be near my camera for the wifi connection to work. I get a lot of interference from wireless equipment on my photoshoots. The Wifi router is trong enough to overpower the interference (only when used in B-mode). It's hooked up to a 5 volt power pack.
Close to me I have an Android tablet for quick selecting the right images, then the images are copied over to a remote laptop that is used by my colleage to edit the images.
I needed the internet connection for sending the processed images to a ftp server or dropbox, so my clients can download the images.
I tried using the router as a relay/bridge, but couldn't get that to work. Maybe it's possible, but that's higher networking config.
I finally got it to work by connecting the phone to the laptop using usb.
Configured the laptop for ICS connecting the USB-internet connection to the wireless router. Had to set ip adresses manually, becaue the dhcp of the router did not transmit the correct gateway. But as there are only 2 devices attached, that's not a problem after documenting this change.
So I'm good to go for our next photo assigment. Case closed.
Sent from my Transformer TF101
Sweet setup man

Tether to Router?

So I can use my standard USB cable and tether to the laptop and have net connection on lappy. Same with desktop. USB tether works just the same as wifi tether. What about getting a micro USB to RJ45 (ethernet) cable and tethering to the internet in jack on my router. Would that put the net signal on the router like a modem would?
Chopstix9 said:
So I can use my standard USB cable and tether to the laptop and have net connection on lappy. Same with desktop. USB tether works just the same as wifi tether. What about getting a micro USB to RJ45 (ethernet) cable and tethering to the internet in jack on my router. Would that put the net signal on the router like a modem would?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Or you could get a wireless adapter for your Desktop. That's what I did. Now I can stream Amazon Prime on my Xbox 360, and PC game at the same time.This is what I have and works like a charm.
Good luck.
Oh my desktop is already wireless enabled, that's not an issue... Been running the house off the phones for a couple years... Just gave up a little bit when I got rid of cable interet. Whole house networking to other computers in the house, had to plug the wireless printer back into the desktop, it's no longer a network printer, etc.... was just toying with the idea and wondering if it would work is all.
Actually, in looking at the micro usb - rj45 adapters, I don't think it will work. Those are actually ethernet adapters, like adding a network card to a slot on a pc. Made for taking a net signal FROM a network, not sending one TO it.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but can't you just get a compatible wireless dongle (Something you would use for sniffing/injecting packets) and use it as an access point so you can broadcast the signal throughout the house?
Another thing you can do is pick up a router that you can install Tomato or DD-WRT on and use it as a wireless client bridge. It would connect to your phone, and again, broadcast that signal through the house.
Chopstix9 said:
So I can use my standard USB cable and tether to the laptop and have net connection on lappy. Same with desktop. USB tether works just the same as wifi tether. What about getting a micro USB to RJ45 (ethernet) cable and tethering to the internet in jack on my router. Would that put the net signal on the router like a modem would?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
DJNads said:
Another thing you can do is pick up a router that you can install Tomato or DD-WRT on and use it as a wireless client bridge. It would connect to your phone, and again, broadcast that signal through the house.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Correct. Assuming the phone would even operate in this manner (I've never tried but sounds like a great idea!), you'd need a router that is capable of operating in bridged mode/wireless bridge/access point mode (may be labeled as either of them). You'd then have to configure the router to said bridged mode. An easier route (and possibly more expensive) would be to purchase just an access point.
MrHyde03 said:
Correct. Assuming the phone would even operate in this manner (I've never tried but sounds like a great idea!), you'd need a router that is capable of operating in bridged mode/wireless bridge/access point mode (may be labeled as either of them). You'd then have to configure the router to said bridged mode. An easier route (and possibly more expensive) would be to purchase just an access point.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I may have an old WAP in my junk closet. A router that can bridge may work but first thing I think I would need is a router or WAP that has a USB connection on it.... I'm looking to plug the phone into the router to provide the internet signal instead of a cable/dsl modem, creating a typical LAN ... I can still use the LAN in-house sans the net connection. Just a pain to disconnect from one network (phone hotspot) and connect to another (netless LAN) for file transfers network printing etc ...
Chopstix9 said:
I may have an old WAP in my junk closet. A router that can bridge may work but first thing I think I would need is a router or WAP that has a USB connection on it.... I'm looking to plug the phone into the router to provide the internet signal instead of a cable/dsl modem, creating a typical LAN ... I can still use the LAN in-house sans the net connection. Just a pain to disconnect from one network (phone hotspot) and connect to another (netless LAN) for file transfers network printing etc ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You shouldn't need to physically connect your phone to the router at all. Depending on what router you get, it should be able to pick up the wireless signal from your phone's hotspot and rebroadcast it as its own network.
Edit: And honestly, I'm not sure connecting the phone via usb to the router would even share the connection. That router doesn't have the drivers needed for that to work.
To the OP, off topic question but what did you have to do to activate wi fi tether? your sig, tells me that your on stock and can still do it, yes? thanks!
Side note, it's been awhile but when I moved into my apartment I had no internet for a few days.
I did the USB wired tether to a laptop, then the laptop I think I enabled ICS/internet connection sharing and then connected with rj45 to a router, and it shared that as the WAN connection.
motrinHD said:
To the OP, off topic question but what did you have to do to activate wi fi tether? your sig, tells me that your on stock and can still do it, yes? thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What part of my sig tells you I am on stock?
I've done both these things. I've taken my cell and flashed a router with dd-wrt and set it up as a repeater bridge but that means that only the computers near that router gets internet, unless your house is wired for ethernet (or using wireless). My current setup is having the phone tethered to a computer running Zentyal linux. This is a cool distro that can replace a 2008 Small business server in a work environment but it does the trick for my router at home. I had it running on an old P4 and recently graduated to a Zotac Zbox Mini ID41 which is tucked away behind my TV. I set up the computer to hand out dhcp and be the router and gateway. When i plug in my cell in tethering mode, zentyal recognizes it and i set that USB device as external WAN. It usually takes some getting used to and about a minute to normalize after the phone is unplugged and taken on the road. This has worked for me so far but when i'm at work, no internet at home. I'm currently attempting to talk my workplace into letting me subsidize a Verizon Jetpack i can leave home which will do the same job.
As a side note, i live in rural WI and we only have Satellite internet as a choice, which really stinks as both carriers have a bandwidth cap which we were constantly hitting two weeks into the billing cycle. They then throttle you down to less than a meg until your billing cycle renews.
We RV all summer most years and I use WiFiRanger gear to network our 5th wheel. That way we can grab a WiFi AP if one is available and the credentials are known or I HotSpot my phone and the Router grabs the phone's WiFi AP and we are good to go.
If you are stationary and only intend to use the phone's HotSpot as a WiFi AP then WiFiRanger's GO2 should do the trick. They are currently working on a firmware upgrade that will allow some great bandwidth monitoring and device usage controls. Their price is comparable to most full featured routers being offered but not cheap.
I am a satisfied user and Beta tester of their equipment, not an employee or representative. We use several of their offerings to maximize our capabilities on the road.

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