PTravel

A follow up report:

I got my repaired WiFi amp back and modified my layout.

WiFi amp on the WiFi router in our conference room.
1 Linksys repeater in the library.
1 Linksys repeater in my office.

Now my system flies -- the best WiFi internet connection I've gotten anywhere. Part of the problem, I think, is that my otherwise powerful laptop isn't the strongest WiFi receiver (probably because it uses a built-in WiFi nic, which limits the antenna possibilities). Putting a repeater in my office makes all the difference -- it's a 5-bar signal.

QuantumMeruit

Glad things worked out for you. I wouldn't have had similar problems because we have wifi throughout our office. We need to authenticate to use the service, but it's not locked down by MAC address. Clients can plug into jacks in our conference rooms or use "guest" ids to access wireless. It works pretty well.

I have local administrator access on my laptop and can install software. I run a VNC client to access my stuff at home and have had no problems with that. There's some weirdness with our firewall and my SSH connections getting disrupted, but it hasn't been a big deal.

Extra hardware has been fairly easy for me. I got the firm to get me an extra battery for my laptop since I travel a lot, and there was almost no red tape. I've been able to requisition portable storage devices for various client projects without problems, too.

We had some problems with early Blackberry adopters getting onto the firm program, but that wasn't a problem for me. I can't say that we're perfect, but our CIO has done a pretty good job of implementing the philosophy that technology issues shouldn't get in the way of getting work done.

Hope that helps and hasn't diverted too much from the thread topic!

GenevaFlyer

Having read through the whole thread, there is one thing I will say, and it's been mentionned already. You are opening up a resource that is paid by your company to the outside world. While your company provides it as a courtesy service to visitors, I'm sure they do not intend it to be available across the street. As such, I do believe that you are mis-using your company's resources, which has to be against policy.

I'm sure that your computer policy has something about changing configurations, including a wireless router that is company property (while you are not hacking the config, you are changing the network topology).

(And if they are in the slight bit serious about security, they will run the occasional sweep for unauthorized wireless).

Cheers,

GenevaFlyer

PTravel

Wow! Could you possibly PM me with the name of your firm? I'd love to use your IT practices as an example of what we could be doing.

PTravel

Let me guess . . . you work in IT, right?

Okay:

1. I didn't open this resource. My firm did by deciding to make the connection insecure. It was a specific and deliberate choice by the firm not to use WAP or even WEP.

2. I have specific and express permission from IT to do what I've done, i.e. install the WiFi amplifier and range extenders. I am not "misusing" firm resources.

3. Using signal extenders is something anyone can do without tampering with the network, i.e. anyone within range of our signal, e.g. the restaurant on the corner or the hotel next door, could use signal extenders to extend our signal from Santa Monica to New York City (though it would take a lot of extenders). There's nothing the firm could do (on a technical basis) to prevent it.

Sorry, but that's sophistry. You might as well say that anyone who connects to the network with a laptop is also changing the topology.

Once again -- this was done with full disclosure to the IT department and PERMISSION.

kanebear

There's always security through obscurity. Our in-plant wireless pre-dates 802.11 and is based on the OpenAir standard. Not a secure standard, but it's also nothing anyone has a radio for, much less is looking for. 1.6Mbps ain't fast but it does the trick.

Mikey likes it

Same is true for corp travel agents. And the security guards.

AC110

Can you talk them into giving you your own DSL line? That would probably be the best solution and is sounds like you could justify it.

Alternatively, perhaps they could run a drop from the DSL access point to your office - they could possibly even to it by simply re-cabling existing drops at the patch panel.

Where iffy web-surfing and research is required, I'd suggest taking an old end of life PC taken out in a cyclical replacement, building it with minimal applications, not much more than a browser and security software, imaging that onto a bootable CD, and working from that. Whenever the machine gets a little polluted, just pop in the CD, reboot and re-image the machine. You'd have to have the BIOS set to boot from CD first.

PTravel

I asked for it. They wouldn't do it. I also asked if they could run a wired line to the "visitors" DSL drop, but they wouldn't do that either.

I already suggested it. They wouldn't do it.

My belief is that IT should provide a computer containing the common packages, e.g. Word, Outlook, etc. I should be able to install anything I want (subject to IT approval), but it would be entirely my responsibility to maintain the software that I install. If the machine gets corrupted, IT's only responsibility would be to re-image it back to the base configuration. I think that adequately balances IT's interest in not having to maintain 800 different configurations and myriad packages and my interest in having the tools that I need.