Wow, this thread has been so enlightening. I just realized we have a gaping security risk on our home wifi network...

On a different note, however, does anyone know of an easy way to wirelessly extend the range of our wifi network? We have a Netgear ME102 Access Point that doesn't quite beam to the far corners of our house. Unfortunately, we cannot run cabling any farther, so any "wired" solution wouldn't work. Would simply buying a second ME102 do the trick? (note: it couldn't be connected by any wire other than power).

I welcome any suggestions, thanks!

is cost an issue?
 

If cost is an issue, you can run another repeater AP.

IF you are looking for best solution, I would buy TWO homeplug, or HPNA plugs and run them through your home electrical outlets to the room you want to have another AP for WIFI broadcast. The Homeplugs can be found as low as 20, usually 40$. Then, just stick a cheap 20$ 802.11b or g AP on there.

Some WifI APs won't work w/ homeplugs... check before you buy.

You can also buy a WiFi repeater if your AP will accomodate it.

Both have to have the same Workgroup name. You can easily change it and reboot.
XP: Control Panel / System / Computer Name tab / Change... button.
I do not remember where it is w/ ME but maybe a similar place.

Is there any way to know this?
 

is there a way to know this? I have two types of homeplug, Netgear, and Belkin. they work with each other fine, strangely. I guess there IS a standard somewhere.

As for AP'.s I have a Linsyss, Dlink, 3com, Two netgear and an Apple AE, and they all get IP fine over the homeplugs.

I don't know specifically, which ones done work? Any list would be GREAT!!

I have only seen it mentioned in reviews when a homeplug does not work w/ a router/AP. It looks like you are doing OK, though! Sorry I can't be of more help here.

Great thread, very informative.

I moved to a new place three weeks ago, got broadband via cable last Wednesday, and a Belkin 54g wireless router yesterday. Why that one? Circuit City had it for $19.99 after rebates, which is hard to beat. Set it up last night in about five minutes using their installation wizard under Mac OS 10.3. Excellent coverage everywhere in a two-floor townhouse from an upstairs bedroom (office).

So far all I've done for security is to change the name from the default and turn off SSID broadcasting. My neighbors aren't into technology and there's essentially zero foot traffic on my street, so that may be enough.

Figured out my problem! I'm running on ZoneAlarm on my desktop. Apparently you have to tell it to add the other computer's IP addresses on the network to the 'Trusted Zones'. I did that, and now I'm all set. Cool.

I guess I'll need to figure out the difference between router, bridge, and switch, and other definitional issues. The Windows XP "Help and Support Center" under "Control Panel", "Network Connections," seems like a good place to start.

See also questions about home wireless network (25 Aug 04) (focused more on basic installation of a DSL network, but less on issues that might arise afterwards, as in this thread)
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=349219

My WiFi Woes This Weekend (12 Apr 04) (encryption slowing down home WAN)
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=312498

A switch goes from one port to many, and is typically transparent. It lets you fan out your network to multiple wired devices.

A router connects one network to another network. As in broadband cable modem public network to private local area network/wireless network. Most routers that you buy today also have a built-in switch for locally connected devices near the switch. (Any router that has multiple LAN ports has a built-in switch.)

A bridge provides a way to extend a network, and is also mostly transparent, once configured. It doesn't do NAT like a router does and it doesn't have a built-in firewall. It's really a simplified version of a router. Or in my case, you could picture it as the reverse of a wireless access point. You have to be able to configure it to tell it what network to join, how to get its IP address and how to talk to the next higher node in your network and what WEP key or other security methods it should use if it's a wireless bridge.

Here's a diagram of part of my home network. What I really wanted was a single device that was both a wireless to wired bridge with a built-in switch, but I couldn't find one like that.

cable modem
|
| ethernet cable (1)
v
wireless router
z
z
z 802.11b/g wireless network
z
z
wireless bridge (802.11g wireless to 10/100 wired network)
|
| ethernet cable (1)
v
switch with 8 ports connected to local wired equipment
| | | | |
| | | | |- computer1
| | | |
| | | |--- computer2
| | |
| | |----- computer3
| |
| |------- series 2 tivo
|
|--------- network printer
...


Most people don't need bridges, unless, like me, you have a bunch of wired equipment not near your physical network and you don't want to rewire. If you're willing to make a CAT5 wire run from the router to the other room, then you can eliminate the bridge. The bridge/switch allowed me to use the wired network ports that already existed on all the equipment in that room. (well, ok, I needed to buy a usb->ethernet adaptor for the tivo.)

The devices at the bottom are simply on a wired network. They don't care or know that I have that wireless bridge in-between them and the cable modem & router. It's all transparent to them. Same thing in the other direction.

-David

I've just set up a network using a later version of the WGR 614. I've enabled WPA and want to set up MAC filtering, but I'm not sure exactly how to do it.

My idea was that, after I've added the second computer to the network I should be able to turn off the SSID broadcast.

Also, what is MAC spoofing and how does that affect security?

so, if you have put a wifi router into the mix, through the configuration screen it should have a MAC address filtering tab or area, under WAN. Just put in the MAC addresses (make sure you get the wifi network card addresses from the laptops or wireless devices) and put THOSE in. I do not think MAC address filtering will work for wired filtering, at least it doesn't on my netgear products. Which is nice, since then you can leave it on and when friends come over just give them a network cable and they can have acccess.

So, the wireless router is now setup only to allow IP traffic access to a select group of MAC addresses. If someone can SNIFF the MAC address of a device that is currently acessing the network, then they can SPOOF it, meaning they type very simply into their networking dialogue, USE THIS MAC address. So the computer they are using is sending a FALSE MAC address to the network, supposedly one that has ACCESS and therefore they now GET access. Sniffing airborne, unencrypted packets for MAC addresses, is fairly trivial. so therefore turn on some level of encryption and you will reduce the risk.

MAC filtering, simple to install, reduces access easily.
WPA encryption, reduces most other risks.
Turn off SSID broadcast, if you don't need it
You could also setup a VPN connection from your laptops to the router, if the router supports it, most newer better ones do, but this is getting to be overkill.

Is this a stupid idea?
 

With help from FTers and some kindly tech support folks at my ISP, I have my home network up and running. At the moment that consists of 1 PC and my NETGEAR WGR614v6.

I have a new laptop, and I thought that, after I get it up and running, I would connect it via ethernet cable to the router in order to download WinXP patches, anti-virus updates, etc. (When I'm not downloading stuff like that I could just connect wirelessly.)

So I've been bugging everybody (FTers, NETGEAR, and HP techs) to make sure I have all the info I need to make first the wired, and then the wireless, connection.

And I've started wondering if this is just a stupid idea (born of my incredible cluelessness) to begin with.

Assuming your laptop has a built-in NIC (network interface card), then simply plug the ethernet cable into the RJ-45 jack and Win XP will recognize a LAN connection automatically. When you are done, remove the ethernet cable and switch back to your wireless connection.

But to be honest I always run my laptop via wireless when I am at home. For the tasks you describe, IMO you are overly cautious. This assumes you've enabled encryption for your WiFi router.

Hope this helps.

My laptop can't find my printer.
 

You're probably right. At any rate, I have successfully connected to the internet on my laptop (I'm typing from there now) both with the ethernet cable and wirelessly. Downloaded all the Windows and Symantec stuff wired yesterday. Today I wanted to download some anti-spyware programs and forgot that I was connected wirelessly. They all did fine.

My only problem now, apart from getting used to the differences between limited and administrator accounts, is that my laptop can't find my printer. (Haven't tried to transfer any files yet, so I don't know if that works.)

I know there must be something wrong with my settings, but I can't figure out what. And I'm afraid of messing up my internet access. Oh, well, I guess things were going too smoothly.