Post #201,240
3/30/05 11:24:46 AM
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So lemme get this straight (wireless/Broadband question)
It's time, folks. Enough of dialup using the remnants of dear old Interaccess (which was bought by Hosting.com, which was bought by Allegiance, which was bought by XO Communications -- and who seems to be the source of my SdBot infection of recent past...). Since I can't get DSL here (I'm 10,500 ft away from the central office, and they won't come out here, even though my daughter who lives 5 miles outside of Bumfuck, Illinois can get it[!]), It looks like a cable connection for me.
So here's what I have planned, based on the little I know (and on the fact that funds are bit tight right now...): Call Comcast (ugh!) and have them condition the line. I'll have a coax connection located somewhere in the house -- probably one of my existing cable connections or down in the crawlspace somewhere, and nowhere near any of my computers. So I'll need a cable modem (e.g. Linksys BEFCMU10) to convert coax to RJ45 100baseT. Then, I'll need a Wireless Router (e.g. Linksys WRT54G) to connect the RJ45 to the wireless "net". Finally, I'll need wireless adapters for my two computers. My beast is basically tapped out card-wise, so I'm thinking a USB adapter (e.g. Linksys WUSB54G). My wife's computer (an old Gateway PII 400MHz box that is plenty fine for her, or so she says) has some spare card slots, so I'm thinking a PCI adapter (e.g. Linksys WMP54G).
The parts listed can all be gotten on eBay for something like US$150 - $160.
The router can do MAC filtering, so I'll have it only recognize the MAC addressess of the two adapters exclusively (they do have MAC addresses don't they?), and it supports 128-bit WEP encryption, which will, of course be enabled.
What am I missing? I'm coming to you folks because the holes in my knowledge are...uh, large. For example, based on the talk from the Comcast drone, I was under the impression that the wireless router plugged directly into the coax...until I looked up the part on CDW and noticed that there was no coax connector listed on it, then called up CDW and asked them about it. That's when I discovered that the modem and router were separate. (Being sequestered in embedded land for all this time has its advantages [no Microsoft development tools], and its disadvantages [you don't necessarily keep up with what's happening in the "mainstream" of PC computing].)
jb4
shrub\ufffdbish (Am., from shrub + rubbish, after the derisive name for America's 43 president; 2003) n. 1. a form of nonsensical political doubletalk wherein the speaker attempts to defend the indefensible by lying, obfuscation, or otherwise misstating the facts; GIBBERISH. 2. any of a collection of utterances from America's putative 43rd president. cf. BULLSHIT
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Post #201,243
3/30/05 11:30:23 AM
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Why separate router and wireless?
Linksys has combined units which I've used successfully. Is the coax too far away from the computers?
[link|http://www.aaxnet.com|AAx]
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Post #201,249
3/30/05 11:54:22 AM
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Re: Why separate router and wireless?
Good question, Andrew. This topology seems to be what I needed based on the equipment I was able to track down. The coax will (depending on the installation) either be in the basement or coming out of an existing coax port already used for cable TV (I'm not sure exactly how this works; is the [analog] cable TV available simulatneously at the same jack as the broadband connectin, and the signals are multiplexed, or does a separate cable need to be run from the amplifier ont he telephone pole? More ignoracne on my part....) In either case, the computers are up on the second floor of my house, so running a hard-wired connection between the cable modem and the computer(s) is out of the question. Hence the wireless. I've seen boxes that allow you to run the coax directly to a card on the computer, then wireless to the other computers in the installation, making the computer the router (of sorts) and the WAP. This topology wouldn't work here.
[link|http://z.iwethey.org/forums/render/content/show?contentid=196834|Peter drew this picture] which seems to fit the model of how I need to hook this proposed system up. for the purposes of this discussion consider the cable modem and router in the basement, and the computers on the second floor.
Is this what you were looking for in an answer?
jb4
shrub\ufffdbish (Am., from shrub + rubbish, after the derisive name for America's 43 president; 2003) n. 1. a form of nonsensical political doubletalk wherein the speaker attempts to defend the indefensible by lying, obfuscation, or otherwise misstating the facts; GIBBERISH. 2. any of a collection of utterances from America's putative 43rd president. cf. BULLSHIT
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Post #201,260
3/30/05 12:16:12 PM
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Note that the unit that converts cable to ethernet . .
. . will be provided by your cable company. The Linksys does not do that conversion but is actually just an ethernet router with no cable or DSL smarts whatever. You are concerned with what's in Peter's blue box where the Linksys would replace his Buffalo. Outside the box is provided by the cable company.
The Linksys (or any similar unit) has one WAN ethernet connection that can plug into any ethernet device. It has 4 LAN ethernet connections and the wireless access point which connects internally.
The Linksys is a Linux box which provides basic firewalling, port forwarding and that sort of stuff on a scale suitable for home or small business.
[link|http://www.aaxnet.com|AAx]
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Post #201,397
3/31/05 10:21:33 AM
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Yes, the cable people will provide the cable modem...
...for a "small monthly fee". My purpose in looking at the BEFCMU10 (or equiv) is to eliminate that "small monthly fee". In Peter's picture, that cable modem is the Motorola SurfBoard. I believe that the BEFCMU10 replaces that in my proposed layout.
Other than that, I'm with you....
jb4
shrub\ufffdbish (Am., from shrub + rubbish, after the derisive name for America's 43 president; 2003) n. 1. a form of nonsensical political doubletalk wherein the speaker attempts to defend the indefensible by lying, obfuscation, or otherwise misstating the facts; GIBBERISH. 2. any of a collection of utterances from America's putative 43rd president. cf. BULLSHIT
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Post #201,402
3/31/05 10:30:46 AM
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I wasn't aware of that unit.
Apparently it's new, and I don't think they're charging rent for the modems around here, at least not separately itemized so there would be no savings. I'll ask a couple of subscribers.
[link|http://www.aaxnet.com|AAx]
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Post #201,457
3/31/05 2:30:49 PM
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Is/was charged here
Had so many ownership changes, don't remember who originally had it. Comcast now. I purchased my modem to eliminate the monthly charge.
Comcast charges for everything. Even the remote control for the TV cable box.
A good friend will come and bail you out of jail ... but, a true friend will be sitting next to you saying, "Damn...that was fun!"
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Post #201,346
3/31/05 1:03:25 AM
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Cabling.
The cable modem will be able to plug into an existing outlet. If you still want to use that outlet for TV, then you'd just use a splitter like you normally would to get an extra outlet.
The internet connection comes down a few bandwidth slots designated for data. Each channel has a slot; they just assign one or two for Internet traffic and tell the cable modem. There's another special channel used for upstream data. So, no extra cable from the street. :-) Due to cable TV being a largely "one-to-many" system, one thing that needs to be checked is that at each repeater and head-end the doohickeys are in place for the upstream traffic to flow. That activity would come under "line conditioning".
Wade.
Is it enough to love
Is it enough to breathe
Somebody rip my heart out
And leave me here to bleed
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Is it enough to die
Somebody save my life
I'd rather be Anything but Ordinary
Please
| -- "Anything but Ordinary" by Avril Lavigne. |
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Post #201,296
3/30/05 1:22:34 PM
3/30/05 1:50:57 PM
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I'd try to go with WPA-PSK if possible
instead of WEP, also disable SSID broadcasting on the wireless router and on the PCs, so you're not advertising to wardrivers. Of course you should have the router set up in infrastructure mode not ad-hoc
~~~)-Steven----
"I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country.
He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country..."
General George S. Patton
Edited by Steven A S
March 30, 2005, 01:50:57 PM EST
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Post #201,307
3/30/05 3:23:46 PM
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Re: I'd try to go with WPA-PSK if possible
WPA-PSK is like WEP, but the key changes during the session, making it harder for someone to sniff traffic and use available tools to break your key. The newer Netgear wireless broadband routers do WPA-PSK. It takes a few extra dialogs to set up on WinXP, but it's painless after that.
If you go with a Linksys box, give it good ventilation. They run hot, and will cook themselves to death in an annoyingly slow way. I'm happier with the Netgear, which to my eye has a better web admin interface (and it plays nicely with dyndns.org, though Linksys may have caught up by now).
I have a Netgear 801.11b/g router upstairs, and get decent coverage throughout our house on a pair of b-only laptops. You might need to fiddle with channels if you can your neighbors's APs. I can see 6 from my study; one of them was stomping on the default channel.
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Post #201,403
3/31/05 10:31:29 AM
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Thanks for the feedback
WPA-PSK (Pre Selected Key); that's where I get to hard-wire my own key? (I thought that was what WEP was...hoo-boy!). OK, so then I should be able to pick my own key...and probably change it every so often.
Thanks about the warning about Linksys stuff heating up. I chose linksys because it 1) was cheaper than similar devices when compared on CDW's website (although I did notice that Netgear did not show up on their comparison guide...Hmmmm) and 2) Was the brand Comcast themselves used. I'll go back to the website (and eBay) to do a price and feature comparison with netgear.
What's a "b-only laptop"?
And yes, I can get to my next door neighbor's AP if I put my wireless-enabled laptop in the right place. They are not particularly tech-savvy, and have the setup that was installed when their cable modem was put in a year or two ago. I have actually connected to IWETHEY using it. I'm usre they are using the default setup.
Appreciate the pointers, dws.
jb4
shrub\ufffdbish (Am., from shrub + rubbish, after the derisive name for America's 43 president; 2003) n. 1. a form of nonsensical political doubletalk wherein the speaker attempts to defend the indefensible by lying, obfuscation, or otherwise misstating the facts; GIBBERISH. 2. any of a collection of utterances from America's putative 43rd president. cf. BULLSHIT
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Post #201,440
3/31/05 12:25:17 PM
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Re: Thanks for the feedback
With WEP you pre-share the key and it doesn't change during a session. With WPA-PSK, you pre-share a starting key, but it gets recomputed as the session progresses, making it harder for wiley h4x0rz to reverse-engineer the starting key.
"b-only" means that my laptop won't talk to the g (higher frequency) radio on a 802.11g WAP, but that's not a problem, since 'g' WAPs also have a 'b' radio ('g' really means 'b/g', though it is possible to configure the WAP to disable the lower b frequencies (as opposed to 802.11a, which plays in its own sandbox). Unless you have older gear, you have to go our of your way to buy b-only now.
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Post #201,463
3/31/05 3:03:08 PM
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Got it...thanx
BTW, CDW is showing both router and adapter gear by Linksys that is "b-only"
jb4
shrub\ufffdbish (Am., from shrub + rubbish, after the derisive name for America's 43 president; 2003) n. 1. a form of nonsensical political doubletalk wherein the speaker attempts to defend the indefensible by lying, obfuscation, or otherwise misstating the facts; GIBBERISH. 2. any of a collection of utterances from America's putative 43rd president. cf. BULLSHIT
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Post #201,464
3/31/05 3:24:01 PM
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Old Linksys gear
That'd be the WAP11, which is several years old. I cooked one. Folks on my team avoid 'em. If you really want to go with Linksys, spring for the WAP54G.
I'm having good luck with the Netgear WGR614, which is a bit less expensive and takes up less desk space (it'll sit upright instead of flat, giving it even better airflow), but YMMV.
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Post #201,468
3/31/05 3:29:57 PM
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My experiences with Netgear
[link|http://z.iwethey.org/forums/render/content/show?contentid=186782|http://z.iwethey.org...?contentid=186782]
If it's blue'n'square, it's probably good; if it's round'n'silver, it's probably crap.
Peter
[link|http://www.ubuntulinux.org|Ubuntu Linux]
[link|http://www.kuro5hin.org|There is no K5 Cabal]
[link|http://guildenstern.dyndns.org|Home]
Use P2P for legitimate purposes!
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Post #201,467
3/31/05 3:28:14 PM
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don't bother
with 802.11b only, It's limited to 11 Mbps. You want a 802.11b/g or an 802.11a (or a/g).
802.11a and 802.11g have basically the same throughput (basic set-up is 54 Mbps, some setups are faster by reducing packet headers). The advantage of 802.11a is there are few phones and routers using that frequency (5GHz) so you have less interferance. The disadvantages are shorter range (25-75 feet versus 100-150 feet) and higher cost.
~~~)-Steven----
"I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country.
He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country..."
General George S. Patton
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Post #201,539
4/1/05 10:42:33 AM
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Understood...
Wasn't planning on going with "b-only". The difference in proce between the B and the G is not worth quibbling over...and, besides, if my wife is going to use it (and she is), she will want the extra speed.
jb4
shrub\ufffdbish (Am., from shrub + rubbish, after the derisive name for America's 43 president; 2003) n. 1. a form of nonsensical political doubletalk wherein the speaker attempts to defend the indefensible by lying, obfuscation, or otherwise misstating the facts; GIBBERISH. 2. any of a collection of utterances from America's putative 43rd president. cf. BULLSHIT
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Post #204,841
4/26/05 10:46:49 AM
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Suh-WEET!
OK, it's in! Comcast cable guy came yseterday, and set up the box (which consisted of basically plugging in a Motorola SurfBoard -- which I'm renting for the low, low fee of $3/mo). My son-in-law had some surplus D-Link stuff that He was no longer using (DI624 G-Xtreme router, Indoor antenna, and PCI card). After some fiddling with it, I got the whole thing to connect, and I'm getting LRPDs as fast as when I was at work.
Now for the bitching. The morons a Comcast are a bunch of lying SOBs. Not one, but two sales drones stated most emphatically that I could transfer my domain to their servers, and that there would be no cost for the transfer. Would that mean that I can get mail sent to my domain-based email addresses forwarded to the Comcast servers? Sure, no problem, I'm told. WRONG! They don't host mail domains, period. So I need to figure out how to whack the DNSs to point mail directed to burnsgroup-dot-com to one (or more) of the severn mailboxes I'm permitted to have at Comcast without having Interaccess/Hosting.com/Allegiance/XO Communications hostthe domain. (Greg, any ideas?)
Then there was the problem of getting the modem comissioned. Since the modem is located well away from the computers (which is why I have a wireless network...duh!), there was no way to directly connect to the modem and do the commissioning dance. The installer, after repeatedly asking whether I had a laptop to directly connect to the modem (answer: No, I don't), gave me a phone number to call and have them commission it. OK, so I call the number, get "Ravi" on the phone, who insists that such a thing cannot be done, and that I will have to schedule a service call for a tech with a laptop to come out and do the comissioning...for a small fee that he "didn't know". Well, in the process of forwarding my call to the place where such a call could be set up, "ravi" dropped the call completely. So I call back, ready to take "Ravi"'s head off. Instead, I get a very nice lady ("Marion", I think), who comissioned the modem, and set up my base e-mail address (although she didn't give me the server name so I could set up Thunderbird...mostly because I forgot to ask).
Lessions: 1) Comcast's help is highly variable as to their knowledge, so if you don't get the right answer first, try again. 2) Don't believe anything the sales staff says WRT technical issues (but I should already know that...).
Anyway, Zoom-zoom! Thanks one and all for the counseling during this adventure!
jb4
shrub\ufffdbish (Am., from shrub + rubbish, after the derisive name for America's 43 president; 2003) n. 1. a form of nonsensical political doubletalk wherein the speaker attempts to defend the indefensible by lying, obfuscation, or otherwise misstating the facts; GIBBERISH. 2. any of a collection of utterances from America's putative 43rd president. cf. BULLSHIT
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