Wireless configuration

Hi- My brother called me and wants me to set up a wireless network for him this weekend. He has a cable modem and a WAP that is connected to a desktop running Windows 98SE. He wants to add a notebook running XP, a desktop running ME and another desktop running XP. Whew! I will also need to enable the WEP privacy option as well, to keep the gang safe. Can anyone give me some pointers on exactly how to do this? Thanks much. Clydeo22.

 

Get him to buy a 4 port router/switch with built-in firewall. DLink makes a good one as does Linksys. It will do 90%+ of the work for you.

Does he intend for you to hook the other PCs up wired or wireless?

 

Thanks Newt! All the PCs other than the Windows 98SE desktop that is connected to the WAP will be wireless. I have heard that it is necessary to run some sort of XP network disk on non XP computers if there are machines that are not running XP on the
network. Also, I am not sure about how to set the WEP stuff. I'm sure that once I get there I can read the documentation, but I'd like to be as prepared as I can be. I have done searches for information on the topic but I can't seem to find one that addresses one that has three different OSes. So, anything that you care to impart to me will be appreciated. Clydeo22.

 

Will do the thing for you tomorrow. Too dang late now and no telling what I'd recommend.

But trust me on this one - if you want to avoid driving yourself crazy and want your brother to have a network he will enjoy, he needs to spend a few dollars (or pounds or whatever) for a router/switch.

 

Thanks Newt- To update- he's got the router and all cards. He has also decided to hard wire the desktop running 98SE, and the desktop running ME to the router- which is of course connected to the cable modem. The XP laptop and the XP desktop will be the wireless nodes. I dug up the home networking issue of PC magazine and will look through that later today. I am also planning on reading through any documentation when I get there, but once again, I just want to have a good idea of what to do when I get there. It's the three different OSes that throw me. I am also concerned about the different file systems that are in play. Will all shared resources be available to all systems? Thanks again. Clydeo22.

 

Networking removes any issues with different OS types and file systems in use. Everything is basically a TCP/IP packet and all the machines should understand those.

You should be able to simply set all of the network cards to use DHCP and let the router/switch do the managing.

 

Thanks Newt- That should be easy enough! Just one more thing, is the WEP setting part of the router configuration and how do I access the router software to set options? Thanks you again. Clydeo22

 

I am no kind of wireless expert but from what I read, the router/switch should see the WAP as just another device and not even be aware it's hooked to a wireless NIC.

 

Thanks for posting back, Newt. I was referring to the Wired Equivalency Privacy settings and not the Wireless Access Point. Sorry if I was unclear. I want to know how to access the router's configuration program. Can I just locate it on the network and open its properties? Thanks. Clydeo22.

 

I've set up a couple of wireless networks for SOHO friends and customers and it's basically a walk in the park.

If I understand you correctly you have a router with a WAN (internet) port and a number of LAN ports and added to that you have a WAP (Wireless Access Point) that you need to add and use WEP (Wired Equivalency Protection) security on. Is this correct?

If this is correct, I would begin with setting up the router and the hardwired computers.

Then I would add the WAP to the router and if it's anything like the Access Points I've worked with earlier it should have an USB port, so install the management software that came with the Access Point on the laptop and connect it to the USB port on the laptop. I've mostly worked with Netgear products and without knowing the make of the products I can't say anything specific about settings, but they should be almost self-explanatory.
Things to think about:

• Change the name of the SSID so you know you're connecting to the correct router.
• Set the WEP settings to 128 bit
• If you have the option of using Passphrase to set up the WEP security use that (must be supported by both WAP and WNICs)
• If the WAP has an option to activate DHCP client do NOT use this
• If it's possible to set an admin password on the WAP, do so

If I've misunderstood your setup and you instead have a router with the WAP built into it, it's even easier.
In that case all you need to do is to add the hardwired computers and surf to the router.... I think most routers have a default of 192.168.0.1 and log in to it using the username/password combination shown in the documentation.
Then you set everything via the web-based interface.
Same things apply here as above. But added to this I'll say, change the admin password on the router.

And it goes without saying that you need to specify same settings on the WNICs as are on the router or WAP.

 

The setup is - a cable modem which is connected to a router/WAP combination. Thanks for the very lucid instructions. It doesn't sound too bad. I'll post back with the results after the deed is done. Thanks, Clydeo22