[Gloucs] Re: gloucs Digest, Vol 67, Issue 1 - suse and wireless

[Guy Edwards]

disclaimer: I've setup a total of 2 wireless networks and so am mainly
just guessing here. There are some wireless gurus here, so I'm sure
they'll help as your problem gets tougher.

On Mon, 2005-02-14 at 19:09 +0000, Tom Faraday wrote:
[snip]
> Im talking about one Victorian cotswold stone house 
> which is about 30ft tall, their aren't any stone walls 
> to go through just thick ceilings and the large height 
> to deal with (i want to go from top to bottom idealy 
> but could stick the box on the middle floor (of three))

You'd think the middle would be best but I'd borrow a wireless access
point from someone and experiment for a weekend as you'll find the
coverage gets affected by weird things. 

My fear would be that my wireless access point wouldn't reach between
the rooms I'd want the most but will somehow reach that dodgy teenager
down the street you've never noticed before but who loves your broadband
connection and really likes to download large volumes of images of
certain things. Painswick's not exactly densely populated mind, and I'd
suggest your exterior walls are going to block a lot, so you can
probably safely ignore my paranoia in you case but it wont hurt to
practise the sensible things like restricting connections (IP and Mac
address) and encrypting your traffic, not broadcasting your SSID, it's
not too hard and quite fun to learn. There's some other things you can
do if you're really paranoid.   

Something else: I know some people aren't bothered but I'd also suggest
it's not good to have a wireless point within 10ft of somewhere you
spend a lot of time (like not under your sofa or bed). certainly all the
Cisco stuff I've seen comes with health warnings and gives 10ft as the
recommended distance.

> I have looked into this and  have seen all the popular 
> offerings from Netgear/3Com/Belkin etc. Currently there 
> is a product available from an american company,

again, if you can, try and find someone friendly who will lend you a
access point for a day or two. If you know that make/model works fine,
you can buy your own.

[snip]

> Maximum budget would be 200ish for a router, 2 PCI/USB 
> and a PCMICA for the laptop. 

I'd read around a bit on some of the wireless geek websites where they
compare ranges of different cards. I can't remember which is best but I
do remember there's significant range differences (like over twice as
far for certain cards). 

have a google about, here's a starter for a wireless access point review
http://www.zdnet.com.au/reviews/coolgear/wireless/0,39023505,20281086,00.htm

hope it helps.

just thought I'd mention:
> Virtual IRC meets every Sunday 8-10pm in #glug on irc.slashnet.org

...and just about every other day of the week. If anyone joins and
no-one says "hello" back to you, just hang about for a while, people are
just off doing things.

Guy

-- 
Guy Edwards <guy_j_edwards at hotpop.com>