[Leaplist] advice on wifi router please

[patrick]

andrei raevsky wrote:
> One more follow up question:
> 
> I was shown a bunch of wireless routers yesterday and they were of
> different
> speeds.  I was told that a "G" series is the fastest one which does not
> require special wireless cards.  Is this correct.  
The "G" specification is 54kb/s (kilobits per second) within about 200
feet, usually.  Then, it drops by half for the next 200 feet, and by
half again, or more, out to the limit of the receiver's range.

So, the specs are all about the bandwidth over the wireless system, and
not at all about the network speed of the hardwired local network, or
the portal...


> Brighthouse will install
> a 10MB/sec connection for me.  How fast are those "G" series devices?  Is
> that what I should get?  If these are slower than the connection itself, I
> could always connect one computer with a regular network card I suppose.
> 
> Thanks for any clarifications,
> 
> Andrei
> 
> On 7/18/07, andrei raevsky <raevsky.andrei at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Hi Brian and Steve,
>>
>> How are wireless routers configured?!  I was at a Radio Shack yesterday
>> and the manager told me that I can go online to a Brighthouse webserver
>> which allows me to configure my router via the Internet.

He probably was referring to the fact that you can administer your
router from anywhere on the local network, or from the internet, if you
know the name and password.

All routers come with factory set username and passwords that the whole
world knows.  Change them immediately!  Here is one page listing them.
     http://www.phenoelit-us.org/dpl/dpl.html

Also, set up a domain name for your network, and turn off the SSID
broadcasting.  It is an open invitation to all the world to use your
network for free access to the Internet, and to all your computers!


>> Is that correct,  or do I need to connect to the router via a local network and 
>>call up some  http interface on the router itself?  
Usually, makers set address is 192.168.1.1, 192.168.123.254, or
192.168.254.254 and can be changed to any address you desire, in the
ranges of those acknowledged as available for private networks.

 http://compnetworking.about.com/od/workingwithipaddresses/f/getrouteripaddr.htm



>> Or do I need to connect the router
>> directly to my computer and do it from there?  I have no win32  machines at
>> home at all (have been totally free since 2000 already) so cannot do the
>> latter.

I configure all routers in Linux, in a firefox window.

>>
>> Right now I do have dial-up so if the Brighthouse tech connect the NAT
>> box/cable modem as they said they would, I could dial-up to the
>> Brighthouse
>> website and configure my wireless router like that I suppose.
>>
>> But how much configuration would I really need?  My (very limited)
>> understanding is that the Brighthouse servers would give each machine
>> on my
>> home network a DHCP given IP address.  And for what concerns
>> firewalling, I
>> don't care what the box would do anyway - I run a firewall on each
>> individual machine at home.  So what kind of configuration are we talking
>> about?
>>
>> Many thanks for your help!
>>
>> Andrei
Sure, the built-in firewalls seem to work, but, there are portsniffing
idiots and lots of exploits that a central piece of hardware can rebuff.

I won't go onto the internet without a hardware firewall immediately
plugged into the box provided by the service.

An IPCOP.ORG configured computer works best, and then plug the wifi
firewall box into  it.

>>
>> On 7/18/07, Steve Litt <slitt at troubleshooters.com> wrote:
>> >
>> > On Wednesday 18 July 2007 06:41, Brian Rose wrote:
>> >
>> > > I bought my parents a recent Linksys (non-Linux-able)
>> >
>> > Hi Brian,
>> >
>> > When you say non-linuxable, you just mean it won't run Linux as its OS,
>> > right?
>> > You don't mean it won't transmit to Linux boxes, or that it can't be
>> > configured via the web interface by Linux boxes, do you?
>> >
>> > Thanks
>> >
>> > SteveT
>> > _______________________________________________
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>> > Leaplist at leap-cf.org
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>> >
>>
>>
> 
> 
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