Best Source for Wireless Networks Info?

try practicallynetworked.com

The short answer to your sharing
problem is to simply spend the
$50 or so on a home router and
plug everything into it.

The router will handle the
distribution of IP addresses
and security.

The only 'issue' is if your
cable setup requires you to
give the hardware/MAC address
of the connected computer to
the cable company. Even then,
alll you would need to do is
call the cable company and give
them the MAC address of the router
or get a router that can 'clone'
MAC addresses (most can).

Thanks for the link. I'll check it out. Maybe you can answer a quick basic short question for me.

I actually do have a router in my current setup. It's a 4-port one. And it cost way more than the $50 ones cost now. Oh well, the price for being an early adopter.

I have a cable modem plugged into the WAN port of the router. The router 'clones' my MAC Address for my static IP address form ATT. The router then assigns a dynamic IP address for the Mac and PC I have connected from 2 of the 4 LAN ports.

Ok, my question is:
If I want to go wireless, do I just add a wireless router from 1 of the remaining 2 LAN ports I have available? And if I do, does that mean my current router assigns a dynamic IP to the wireless router and then the wireless router assigns a dynamic IP to any computer I add to the network?

If the above is possible, can I just get a wireless access point (cheaper than a router, I think) and connect that from my routers LAN port? I'm just not sure how to handle the IP's.

You may think I'm crazy but I plan on adding a PCMCIA wireless card to an ancient PowerBook I have (running OS 8, if you can believe it!) and hook it up to my stereo and use it as an Internet radio broadcaster. Just for fun.

Thanks for your help.

I have that exact setup.

Get a wireless access point ( I use
a Lucent RG1000 cause it was free) and plug it into one
of the router ports. Configure the
WAP to do nothing more than 'bridge'.
You do not want it to do any DHCP/NAT
or much else (turn on security like WEP,
MAC address restriction and closed network
if you can).

The router will assign DHCP'd addresses
to both the WAP and the powerbook.

(I will say, on the Lucent I have, that
didn't work. I needed to manually assign
an IP address on the WAP on the same DHCP subnet
the router uses. No big deal). The
powerbooks and PC laptop get everything
they need from the router via the WAP.

Hey, thanks for the help. Isn't the Internet wonderful? You can learn anything. I need something that'll 'bridge'. Thanks. Love learning new keywords.

I'm thinking about getting this NetGear model because it seems pretty Mac-friendly and reliable. Also a good price.

But I also found this D-Link model that is like $50 cheaper. I'm suspicous of it though. Why would it be that less expensive? I don't know. I'm e-mailing a guy who posted that he had one.

I wonder why you couldn't DHCP from your Lucent? Seems odd.

I got a Orinoco AP-200 which is really an Orinoco Gold Card. I opened it up and attached the Orinoco Rage Extender Antenna and my coverage has greatly improved. I just don't think you can go wrong with Orinoco for wireless. It works very well in my PC/Mac network.

Having a hard time finding that anywhere. Wasn't at MacMall or MacZone. Where'd you get it?

True, it's difficult to find because it is fairly new. Our vendor at work ordered it for me. You can check here for a review of it: http://computers.cnet.com/hardware/...tml?tag=rev-rev and some prices here http://computers.cnet.com/hardware/...052-311-9680892 or you can try searching google for a price

I can't be more pleased with this unit. And the reason I like it is the fact that it can accept an external antenna. This isn't a feature made available from the factory, but it only took me about 5 minutes to open the access point and notch it out for the external antenna. Then you just plug it in. If money was no object, I would have plunked down 300 bucks for the airport. Assuming the airport base station still uses a lucent card, I have essentially the same thing for half the price. Besides, the airport station is too nice to cut holes in to.

-Josh

most all of them 'bridge'.

It's not that you can't route via the
WAP. There's just no compelling reason
*to*. You already have one router,
why double route????

One other thing: If I get a PMCIA card for an older PowerBook I need to make sure it has drivers for the Mac, correct?

Just any old compliant card won't work without Mac support, will it? I mean there is nothing in the sytem that will automatically configure and recognize a PC Wi-Fi card?

I'm assuming I can use any brand because 802.11b is a open standard.

yes, you need to check whether drivers
are available or not for the OS your
running.

For OS 8,9, you'll find a larger
selection. For OSX, the Cisco card
is the only supported PCMCIA card but
wirelessdriver.sourceforge.net has
a usable driver for some other card.

I'm using an Orinoco Silver on a Lombard
under OSX w/ the sourceforge driver.

''Airport Base Station is too nice to cut holes in'' . . .

But if I could get a better signal by attaching a little antenna extender wire, I'd drill away!

My TiBook would appreciate the extra signal. Anybody experimented with such naughty modifications?