WIRELESS NETWORK AT HOME

jaspal

Hi all, I have a BT Home Network 1250 (wirelesss adsl modem / hub & router). Now i need to buy an adapter for my PC. I just came accross a very good deals for wireless adaptors.

USB: Ebuyer Wireless 11Mbps USB Adapter £19.96
PCI: Belkin 802.11b Wireless Desktop Network Card £18.74

Both are under £20 and include delivery.

A few questions to our "Techi - mse's".

1. Are these items worth getting. - Are they good ?
2. Which one is recommended ?
3. Can I get an adpater cheaper anywhere else ?

Many thanks

Paliwali

MisterT2

I have a wireless system which consists of two or three different makes (Netgear, Cisco, Toshiba). I don't think that there is much to chose from in those you have listed, but the decision gets more difficult as you near the technological boundaries of speed i.e. 54G and up as some of these only guarantee top speed when connecting to their own make. Several of the manufacturers show expected speed vs distance, so it might be worth having a look around if this is of concern

A couple of points worth mentioning. Make sure that you understand about security otherwise you will have everyone using your network as a free internet connection. If nothing else, you will lose bandwidth. I can connect to 2 unprotected networks near me and if I wanted to, could use their bandwidth in addition to my own. Have a look at "not broadcasting SSID" and use a high level of encryption.

If you have confidential information on your network then make sure that you periodically change the encryption signature otherwise people that use things like net stumbler will hack in and stay in - and you will be none the wiser. Personally, I only use wireless for ad-hoc internet access - call me a ludite, but everything else is hardwired.

Hope this helps.

jaspal

Hi, Mister T2,

Thanks for your response.

I need to grasp a better understanding about security, are there any sites / guidelines you can reco ???mmend ?

I will take a look at "not broadcasting SSID" - but what is this and how and where do I do this ?

High level of encryption - How do I do that ?

Final Question - is there any way i can make my wirelesss network so secure that only i can access it ?


Thanks

Paliwali

BigAl94

I dont know your particular piece of kit but there should be someting in the settings to allow only trusted wireless devices to connect rather than have it open for all. You can enter the MAC addresses of the "trusted" PC's. Thats the way it is on my Netgear modem/router

Woby_Tide

technically someone could spoof the MAC address though it is unlikely, generally for home networks it would have to be a really keen person to go through trouble of keep finding out your details of network however, it is always worth trying to be as secure as possible

from memory I just did what I found on a wireless networking site/forum for mine

• includes only allowing MAC of my wireless USB adaptor to access the router(if I buy any new hardware i.e. another adaptor will have to add that to trusted list)
  
• the ssid that is mentioned earlier is basically an ID to help you setup initially, the router etc. broadcasts it's ID (usually the manufacturer of routers name i.e. Linksys), you disable the router from broadcasting the ID, you should also change the ID as even if the name isn't broadcast, if someone attempted to find Linksys, even though it isn't broadcast, the person would find the network called Linksys. Best to rename it to something obscure that technically within reason only you know, and change it every now and again
  
• also make sure you enable any WEP that is available (128 bit if possible) and then change the key weekly/monthly depending how often you use network.
  Finally if it is feasible don't leave network on permanently if you don't need it, unplug it when you aren't using for a long period so no-one can be attempting to do anything  whilst you aren't using network

also just to add that whilst as much security as you can get is the best bet, in a lot of cases as wireless networking is still relatively in its infancy, unless you are in a densely populated area i.e. flats/inner cities you may find that there is no-one else around who can find your network as signal depletes gradually through walls so in a normal suburb it may only reach a couple of houses away

but you can never be too careful with dear old Doris over the road, always the quiet ones

vinnieboy

Good advice Woby_Tide

I use WPA-PSK Security, and change SSID and WPA-PSK Frequently.