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Thread ID: 41638	2004-01-17 20:47:00	WIFI equipment	TideMan (4279)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
208136	2004-01-17 20:47:00	We're going to extend our home network to another room, but we don't want to use wires. Wireless seems to be the answer. As we've researched it, we need to plug an "access point" into our router, then have an adapter in the m/c in the other room. We understand that 802.11g is the best, but most access points also allow 802.11b, which is slower and older. The question is: what brand of equipment to buy? Dick Smith is cheap and convenient (the shop is just down the road, and they have an excellent returns policy), but D-Link is better quality stuff (and more expensive) in our experience. But, we'd need to order over the Internet and if there's a problem (almost inevitably, in our experience), we'd have to send equipment to AK and back. Any advice and experiences that others have had would be appreciated.	TideMan (4279)
208137	2004-01-17 21:23:00	Hi 2 months ago I brought a Linksys WRT54G Wireless router and a matching PCMCIA card from ascent . co . nz . I rate both these products very highly . they do the job very well . My only concern is the out of the box config of the Router is very insecure (But I understand thats normal for most manufacturers) My only tips no matter what model you install is to make sure you setup the security properly . This means Not broadcasting the SSID using Mac Address Filtering Using WPA with a shared key of at least 20 Characters (Remeber that WPA is the only secure method, even 128bit WEP can be hacked within 24hrs) Not using any DHCP server on your network (including one inbuilt to the router) And following Microsoft 1 2 3 principles . See this, if you want to know why . pcworld . co . nz/thread . jsp?forum=1&thread=43515" target="_blank">pressf1 . pcworld . co . nz Cheers Mike	Marshell (3757)
208138	2004-01-17 22:45:00	I too have used Linksys equipment for some time with postive results. However the Linksys PCMCIA card seemed to develop an intermittent fault over the past month, and it may have related to getting too hot in the laptop. I have changed over to a DSE USB jobbie in its place, and whilst it is clunky and takes up deskspace, it works very well, does not get hot of course, and because of the cable I can site it in a better place for "line of sight" to the WAP on the main PC. I don't know how accurate these things are, but the USB device consistently shows "excellent signal", whereas the PCMCIA card used to consistently show "low to very low signal". And the DSE USB thing cost under $50! John	John H (8)
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