Bam Bam

802.11 is great because it frees you up to roam. The only reason I still use cable in my house is because they have not secured the signal yet. Meaning, somebody with a sniffer can possibly capture your data. I log in to work from home and this can be a risk. If it was just my home stuff, I wouldn't care.

Donzi38ZX

All 802.11 traffic can be secured with 128bit WEP encryption.

36spectre

I tried plugging my router into the 220 line from my drier and it's not any faster but it does smoke alot now.Otto

Peconic

Hence the expression: "This machine is smokin!"

Audiofn

You can put more then one in a house for better coverage. In some of the houses I work in I have 6 of them so that the customer has seamless coverage.

Jon

Kohldog

WEP is not secure! Think of it as a padlock, it will keep honest people out but if someone wants in their getting in. WEP can be broken within a couple of hours.

I only know of one non-military wireless encryption that has not been broken. That is Cisco's proprietary LEAP. Even though it hasn't been broken yet, It's only a matter if time.

36spectre

Isn't there a law as to how far the encryption can go.Otto

Kohldog

I don't think so but I do know it's illegal to export some software to certain countries due to the encryption used

Donzi38ZX

Even with WEPs flaws it takes 5 to 15 million packets to break the key which is about 2 weeks of traffic on a lan with 4 active users. that is some dedication to snoop a home network. Any info passed to a company should be through a virtual private network which is much more difficult to break and in fact is relied upon by millions of companies. If they want the info there are far easier ways to retrieve it.

Chart

Timely post Audio. We just got hi-speed to the house, and are planning to wifi network three computers. One in the basement where the modem is, and two above within 20 feet of the modem. One laptop, and two desk tops.

I'm not very computer literate, and don't really want to be. Therefore, using K.I.S.S., exactly what equipment does the board recomend, for my level of computer geekness, to wifi our computers?

thanks.

PS we're using windows 98 now, but considering upgrading to 2000 or xp in the near future.