Wireless - Look here! File & Printer Sharing too

albertross_2

barjam,

if your router config page def has broadcasting unticked, and you clicked apply, then it won't be broadcasting. XP won't show it as available to the neighbours, but some third party wireless managers may show it as a network with no name on channel xx, but won't show the ssid name.

Your laptops have been told the name, so that's why they know it exists. Far more important is the bit about using wpa with a long key, if you have that, then it won't get hacked even if someone can see it is there.

barjam_2

many thanks :beer: paranoid i might be cos i keep changing my wpa everyweek:rotfl:

another query.... my kids school are going to be letting the school kids use the school network between 8am-8pm its not quite set up yet but i keep seeing a name called SETUP coming on with excellent signal strength but it has no data encryption do you think this will have something to do with the school, i'm just a bit paranoid it is coming from me because of the signal strength

albertross_2

how far are you from the school? Do you mean the school are letting outsiders connect wirelessly to their routers?

if you have a 63 character wpa key, you don't need to change it every week, it's uncrackable.

barjam_2

approx 2 miles they said it would stretch this far ....i have no intention of letting the kids use it, i will stick to my own, and yes they said they will know which kid has what password etc... but they are not going to police it, so basically i bet any tom !!!!!! or harry go on it:rolleyes: there are probably many people who have'nt got broadband etc... so the schools network will be ideal for them, but lik i say i'm staying well clear:D



also are you sure my key is uncrackable... phew

albertross_2

if you are using wpa-psk/tkip, and it looks something like this

G,+~f5ALm.C!yV]z=!!^>1"S$,%G!i4Bn2$q#@1=c0YVA?L`A1})[>)f19+avS|n

and is that long, then it is secure.

If however you use wep, or wpa with a shorter dictionary password, then it is less secure.

as the wpa key get's longer and more scrambled, the time needed to crack it grows exponentially with each extra character. WEP has design flaws which makes it crackable in minutes, whatever the nature of the key.


2 miles, a standard router won't go that far, 100metres maybe. 2 miles is a wide area network, and would need repeaters everywhere, which is a local authority project, rather than a school initiative.

albertross_2

by scrambled I meant random gibberish.

barjam_2

right i'm back with another query:o
i have a wireless printer ...brother dcp-340cw which when i first used wireless i used a wep key and set the printer up no problem but since i changed to wpa i forgot to change my printer settings (its not used much) when putting in the wpa key it just keeps coming up with connection error,
i have had a look on brother solutions and it says to use ad-hoc... i have been picking infrastructure, when i click ad-hoc the only options i have are no encryption or wep key but infrastructure lets me pick wpa-psk(tkip) but it wont let me connect..... shall i just give up:mad: or has anyone got any ideas its just mainly for the kids laptops incase they want to print off homework etc....





also what does easy secure set up mean

cledor

Sometimes the WPA key must be alphanumeric characters only, try changing it if it contains non-alphanumerics.

I would have used "Innfrastructure" mode instead of adhoc.

barjam_2

yeah i was choosing infrastructure, its still got me baffled i printed off the printer network settings and it gave a list of details ssid etc.... then said
wep/wap key 1

---

63 (my long wpa key)
but further down it said
encryption...wep ...
i'm not using wep i've also reset/reboot the printer before i put the wpa in but it still says connection error, does anyone who has this printer have been able to set it up via wpa or does it only work with wep
i've looked through other posts re set up but still no further forward... is it worth ringing brother

wbk666

jpe20 wrote: »

Hi folks,

I am unexpectedly having trouble setting up my wireless laptop to do file and print sharing with my desktop (wired). Both machines connect to the internet ok (laptop - wirelessly, desktop - wired).

Setup is as follows .....

(1) Wi-Fi Router BT Voyager 2091 - Gateway [192.168.1.1]
(2) Desktop PC (WinXP-SP2) [192.168.1.2] Connected via ethernet cable
(3) New laptop (IntelPRO wireless) -WinXP MCE 2005 [192.168.1.3] connected wirelessly

Seems that with this mixed wired/wireless setup I cannot setup these two machines to see one another!!! I have tried both the wireless net setup wiz and the normal network setup wiz to no avail.

Any pointers??

Jools

PS Is the Windows Wireless Zero Config service vital??? -- I think it is turned off and I am using the defauly INTEL PRO WIRELESS Driver software instead. I could not connect to the internet unless I use this INTEL software.

just incase you havent got sorted yet
try this
http://www.networkmagic.com/
i have 3 pc's (1 wired / 2 wireless) and an xbox360 (wired) conected to my router and windows couldnt get them talking even though all could connect to internet.
5 minutes setting that program up and i could share files, printer etc no problem.