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Wireless Networking and WiFi
Questions concerning setting up and troubleshooting a wireless network from Netgear, Linksys, Actiontec or other manufacturers
2,897 Questions
Where is a wireless router connected to a computer or modem?
A wireless router will usually be connected directly to a high speed modem between the modem and any other device. This allows the router to correctly pass internet requests from the local network (computers connected wirelessly or to a standard port) to the ISP (the high speed modem connected to the Internet port).
Connecting a wireless router to a computer would be unusual but it could function if connected to the network port on the computer provided the router-computer connection was properly configured. In this case the computer would have to be configured to route.
Where can one find Linksys wireless routers?
There are various options to obtain a Linksys router. You can get it loacally in any store that sells computer equipment, specialised stores usually are the cheapest. You can also obtain it online at places such as Newegg, BestBuy or Amazon. You could also visit the Linksys website for a list of their resellers.
How do you set up a network firewall?
You can setup your network firewall with your accessing router. consider you are using the Belkin Router : than follow these steps :
Access the Belkin router setup utility via the web browser. For doing that, browse the Internet and enter the '192.168.2.1' in the browser's address bar. Click 'Enter' to continue. On the login web page, type your router password and click the 'Submit.'
On the setup page, click the 'LAN Setup' menu in the left corner window. Now, you can see the current configuration of the firewall of the router. In Features section, check that the firewall is turned on or not.
Once you assure that the firewall is not enabled, click the 'Firewall' menu to display the firewall settings on the screen. Click the 'Enable' button to select it and then 'Apply Changes' to save your settings.
That's all process allow you to enjoy setup the firewall on the Belkin router and the safety and protection when online or offline.
What Cable configuration used in PC to router connection?
Use a straight through cable, just as you would with a hub or switch.
Are all Wi-Fi adapters the same?
A device that adds wireless connectivity to a computer or PDA. It is attached via a USB port, PC Card, memory card or is plugged into the PCI bus inside the computer. There are three types of wireless adapters: Wi-Fi, cellular and Bluetooth. Wi-Fi Adapters Wi-Fi adapters provide wireless connectivity to the local area network (LAN). Typically plugged into laptops, they can also be installed in desktop computers for wireless connectivity throughout a home or office. See network adapter, 802.11 and Wi-Fi.
Where can I find how to setup a Linksys wireless router?
One can find Linksys router setup material in the packaging which comes with the product when the LInksys products are first purchased. If one cannot find the original packaging, going to the Linksys website should prove useful.
What is difference between static and alternate routing in a circuit switching network?
Static routing is fixed, alternative routing is dynamic and therefore adaptive.
If a primary route is fails, static routing will not adapt and routing is lost. However, alternative routing will dynamically change in order to maintain routing.
Do you need a desktop for wireless on your laptop?
with windows xp home/pro/sp2, you can use the remote desktop connection, the server is already implemented in windows xp, the client can be downloaded free from microsoft. ( The client works well on old computers running windows 95 ^_^) The only trouble is that windows xp home/pro/sp2 only allow 1 working user at a time unless you use another software ( I use the xp unlimited terminal server) to unlock to 16 the number of active users. Hope it helps ^_^
Where can one find wireless router deals?
eBay is always a good place to find cheap electronics. You can also purchase online from DABS, PC World, Maplin, Currys, Staples, Amazon, Tesco, or Ebuyer. Some of these outlets can also be found on the high street.
Will a wireless N-LAN adapter work with a 802.11g router?
Yes, a wireless n adapter is backwards compatible with wireless g. Check the box you are buying and it will tell you if it is compatible with which wireless ranges.
What is the stanard frequency that is used by wireless interent routers?
2.4 GHz and in 5 GHz too in case of IEEE 802.11n compliant wireless network
How do you share a printer lexmark 5400 with wireless laptop?
The easiest way to share a Lexmark P4350 is to reinstall the driver and select YES when asked "Do you want to share this printer".
If you are using Vista goto the network and sharing centre and enable printer sharing.
You should now be able to view connected PC's on your network and therefore the printer that's attached to one of them.
How do you be secure on an unsecured network?
You con not be totally secure on any network, secured or unsecured. There is always someone out there that would "love to show us what we don't know about computers". Not my words, someone else's that I used to work with. However, you can be relatively secure. You can use SSL. You can use a secured VPN. You can ... It hard to quantify security. Is it 99%? Is it 99.997%? It comes down to safe practices - Updated OS - Current Antivirus - not doing unsafe things.
What are advantages and disadvantages of wireless security?
The initial setup of a wireless connection infrastructure that implements security is not complicated as that of wired connections. The disadvantage of wireless security is that most of the encryption methods are common and have weaknesses.
Which wireless standard provides a maximum speed of 54 Mbps?
There are actually two of them. First one is type A working at 5Ghz and second is type G working at 2.4Ghz.
802.11a & 802.11g
How can you get a WiFi connection between vista and xp?
You should be able to accomplish this task by buying a router. Install it in your main PC. Connect it to the inputs of your laptop and run Windows network setup. Like this you will be able to log onto the internet thru one
account. You now have your own network. I am pretty sure this is all you have to do but don't take it as the gospel truth.
Can someone see Internet history on a wireless router?
Only for certain kind models. Usual commercial available routers don't have such options.
Is the Dell Dimension 8400 wireless capable?
Yes, it's. You have to purchase either a PCI wireless card (you will have to open the computer case to install it) or USB wireless adapter (which is easier to install, just put it one of usb ports).
How do you turn your Blackberry into a WiFi hotspot?
Most Blackberry's do not have the power to make a wifi-hotspot. Why because they are based on the 3G network therefore internet speed would be very slow.
However If you device is able to make a hotspot simply go to the black berry market place search "PDANet" there is full step by step instructions in how to make a wifihotspot on your blackberry device.
Can 2 printers connect to one mac?
You can just unplug the USB cable from the desktop and plug it into the the laptop when you need to print something on the laptop. When you are done printing, you can just plug it back into the desktop.
The wireless bridge function is no longer available. All recent versions of the Belkin F5D7230-4 router (version 7000 and above) no longer support this function although I cannot find any announcement on the Belkin website. Check the version number on the outside of the package. The web screen for version 7000 does not have the "wireless bridge" option.
This is from a search I did on the Belkin web site. This tells you how to setup the router to become a bridge.
How To: Configure WDS (Wireless Bridging) with the 54g router
The information in this article applies to the following products:
- 802.11g Wireless DSL/Cable Gateway Router (F5D7230-4)
- 802.11g Wireless Network Access Point (F5D7130)
Router Configuration
1. Open a Web Browser 2. In the address bar type http://192.168.2.1 3. Click on Wireless Bridge in the left hand column under Wireless 4. Enter your password if any and click Submit 5. Check the box that says Enable Wireless Bridging, click Apply Changes. 6. Click Home, note the WLAN MAC address under LAN settings
Access Point Configuration.
1. Open a Web Browser 2. In the address bar type http://192.168.2.254 3. Click on Wireless Bridge in the left hand column under Wireless 4. Enter your password if any and click Submit 5. Check the box that says, Enable Wireless Bridging 6. Check the box that says, Enable ONLY specific Access Points to connect and enter the WLAN MAC address from the router, click Apply Changes. Note: The channel must be identical on both the router and the access point.
Note: The WDS feature is not completely specified in IEEE or Wifi standards. Therefore interoperability between 802.11 products of different vendors is not guaranteed.
Yes, you can, but only using Belkin Router and Access Point, or 2 Belkin Routers (one configured as AP).
You must set the MAC Addresss of AP in the Router and the WEP (Also channels must match).
I have 2 Belkin routers in Bridge. You know it is working when you get DHCP from the AP. I tried using two belkin routers (802.11g, Firmware 4.05.03, Boot 2.01.09, Model F5D7230-4V4) in a chain. The layout is like this:
Cable Modem <- Belkin Router A <- Belkin Router B <- rest of the network.
I configured Router A with "Enable wireless bridge" and "Enable specific access points to connect". I used WEP 128bit (WPA did not work) -- same channel ID and SSID.
I got DHCP from Router A to the machines connected to Router B, but after a while Router B doesn't respond any more. Last night, I set it up, checked the connectivity, and in the morning it is not there any more.
Any idea about what could be going wrong?
Thanks, Is Router B set up as a bridge as well? Both routers have to be set up as bridges to work.
WDS OnlyThis is a related answer and it adds extra WDS/bridging setup info. Credit goes to the people on fatwallet forums who gave me the last missing puzzle piece. I write this away from the hardware being discussed so no exact menu/option names are used but it should be clear enough if you banged your heads on the walls trying to get it to work. I hope this disambiguates enough as not to be completely redundant.The configuration discussed is illustrated below:
DSL Modem -- Wired router -- Wireless router A \/ ... \/ Wireless router B
Wireless router A = Belkin F5D7320-4 v3000 w factory firmware
Wireless router B = Belkin F5D7320-4 v2000 w factory firmware
Motivation:
The wireless network uses a different address than the wired network and router A has NAT enabled i.e. it works as a gateway. Router B has NAT disabled and is used to connect some wired ethernet clients to the internet. Router A also has one wired client. The location of some of the clients makes it difficult to use cables so WDS is used.
The beef:
There are two important observations that come up during setup but are badly documented on the web:
- After changing certain settings the router has to be restarted (hard reset, unplug) BUT not after each change AND there is a better way, see 2. If this is not done I found that some settings didn't take effect. Rebooting takes ~30s. The"restart router" option didn't seem satisfactory and I don't recommend it for this scenario.
- Saving the router settings via its menu and then immediately restoring instead of a hard reset seems to work reliably and it's faster. However if things don't work as expected fallback to 1.
The routers use WDS and work as access points; note that they are NOT used as dedicated APs, meaning the switch hw is enabled on both. As mentioned above, only router A uses NAT. Both routers have static IPs and no DHCP server is enabled. If you enable the DHCP server on the router do it only for one of them.
For BOTH routers in the WDS section there are 3 important settings each w a check box and all are checked.
- The first enables the WDS/bridging.
- The second lists the MAC addresses allowed to connect (on router A you put the MAC of router B and vice versa)
- The third DISABLES the client's ability to connect to the APs!
This is an important point for two reasons:
- WDS uses bandwith and the wireless throughput decreases for the wireless clients. It is possible to allow them to connect which brings us to the second point.
- if the clients are ALLOWED to connect to the APs (w WDS enabled), ONLY WEP security will work! Your network's security will be limited to WEP.
Security:
I wanted to use only WDS but I wanted better security than WEP. The WDS page on both routers mentions only WEP security which is misleading. Both routers support WPA (but NOT WPA2) with PSK or Radius servers. This setup uses WPA-PSK. I tested both TKIP and AES and both work. When setting up WPA-PSK with TKIP or AES remember to use the same password on both routers and to double check for typos before "obscuring" it (if you so choose).
Channel and SSID:
- Both routers have to use the same channel.
- Both routers have to use the SAME SSID. When using it with WEP and allowing client access for both 802.11b and 802.11g I used different SSIDs for roaming and that works as well. In that scenario the settings below were tried in almost all combinations and didn't interfere with the WDS. "Clientless" WDS didn't work with different SSIDs when I first tried it but I didn't experiment any more. If you want it to work as described this is irrelevant but you can always try it *8-)
- SSID broadcast is disabled but it's not important for this discussion.
For better throughput I
- enabled only 54g
- disabled the protected mode
- enabled the turbo mode (on the v2000 it's called something else; maybe "frame bursting")
If you enable MAC filtering remember to enter into BOTH routers the MACs of ALL your clients and the routers themselves. They will go in a different section than WDS related MACs! Remember to do this for all new hardware as you add it.
Summary:
WDS/bridging w WPA-PSK is possible without allowing wireless clients and using the same SSID on both routers.
Using WDS and allowing wireless clients is possible only with WEP and then you can use different SSIDs.
The ability to use WPA gives new life to this old hardware and if you can find it don't hesitate to use it.
How can i tell if i have a network card?
If on Windows Vista/Windows 7, click start and type 'cmd.exe'
When it appear right click it and then click 'run as administrator'
A command prompt window will appear. In it type ipconfig and hit enter
If netwprk connections appear you have a network card, if no network connections
appear you dont have a network card.
Most computers still come with a phone jack expansion in one of the PCI slots, try plugging it into that, and ethernet cable into the onboard ethernet adapter. I dont use fax machines personally, so this is just a theory, but it should work. You will probably want to pick up an A/B splitter box with a manual switch at Radio Shack for like $10. Make sure the configuration is setup so the computer still has internet while you are faxing.
Does your printer have to be wireless to be on a wireless network?
No, it does not have to be. You can make it accessible in wireless network if you connect it to one of computers working in that network. Some routers have on board print servers it makes possible connecting your printer directly to router (via USB).
