Wireless Networking: Do You Need It?

There has been so much hype about wireless networking that it is sometimes hard to get to the important question: do you need it? To determine whether your notebook computer needs to have wireless networking capabilities, you need to understand what it is first.

There has been so much hype about wireless networking that it is sometimes hard to get to the important question: do you need it? To determine whether your notebook computer needs to have wireless networking capabilities, you need to understand what it is first.

WLAN

WLAN stands for Wireless Local Area Network or Wireless LAN. Wireless network cards use the IEEE 802.11 standard of wireless transmission. There are other wireless networking standards, such as Bluetooth, but the 802.11 standard is the preferred networking solution. The Wireless Network interface was developed originally for interfacing among computers connected through a local area network, but it is now also being used for Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and internet access, just like the standard Local Area Network interface.

A Wireless Networking environment has no need for complicated wiring to accommodate data sharing and internet access. The wireless network uses one or more Wireless Access Points or Wireless Routers to transmit the signal. An Access Point has an antenna and an Ethernet port, which must be connected to a broadband modem for internet connectivity. A Wireless Router adds several more Ethernet ports to allow a combination of wired and wireless connections. The Access Point or Router acts as the radio frequency transmitter and receiver (radio frequency electromagnetic waves are the medium through which data packets are sent and received). This Access Point interfaces with devices (computers, PDAs, IP Phones, and other Access Points) which use 802.11 wireless adapters.

Wherever there is an 802.11 wireless access point, a wireless networking-capable device can access that network and, generally, the internet.

Do You Need Wireless Networking in Your Notebook Computer?

Whether you need wireless networking depends entirely on you. Wireless networking capability is always a wonderful feature to have in a notebook computer, but there are scenarios where wireless networking is definitely necessary.

If you want to have a tidy office or home network, wireless networking is for you. Moreover, if there are many users in your local network or if the number of users is expected to increase, a wireless router is not limited by the number of Ethernet ports on the router. Please note, however, that a wireless network connection is not as reliable as traditional Ethernet connections, and wireless connections are susceptible to radio wave and electromagnetic interference.

If you are a freelancer, a reporter, or in another position where you frequently travel, Wireless Networking is invaluable. Wireless Networking is the most widely used form of public internet access all over the world. With a wireless networking card, you are guaranteed an internet connection, as long as you can find a wireless hotspot.

For interfacing with personal devices like PDAs and cellular phones, Bluetooth is a more common option, but Wireless Networking is absolutely necessary for wireless internet connections.

This article may be republished freely as long as this copyright notice and box of resource links are included at the bottom.

Copyright © 2007 MALIBAL, lLc

Wireless Router & Security: A Step-By-Step Guide

Setting up a wireless router is easy. Essentially you turn your cable or DSL modem off and your wireless router on. Then, you connect the router to the modem with a cable, and turn the modem back on. You are more or less done. The wireless network wizard on your computer will pick up the router and, if your ISP does not have any special requirements, away-you-go, you are on the Internet.

For ease of setup and configuration, manufacturers ship wireless routers with all sec...

Setting up a wireless router is easy. Essentially you turn your cable or DSL modem off and your wireless router on. Then, you connect the router to the modem with a cable, and turn the modem back on. You are more or less done. The wireless network wizard on your computer will pick up the router and, if your ISP does not have any special requirements, away-you-go, you are on the Internet.

For ease of setup and configuration, manufacturers ship wireless routers with all security disabled. Therein lies the problem. If you do not take any further steps to secure your router, and a surprising number of people don’t, your network will be wide open to all passersby and strangers. It’s like you’ve hung out a sign, “The door is open. Please come in and help yourself.”

The problem is not that strangers will be able to use your router to access the Internet but that, without further protection, would-be intruders will be able monitor and sniff out information you send and receive on your network. Malicious intruders can even hop on to your internal network; access your hard drives; and, steal, edit, or delete files on your computer.

The good news is that it is relatively easy to secure your wireless router. Here are three basic steps you should take.

1. Password protect the access to your router’s internal configuration

To access your router’s internal setup, open a browser and enter the routers setup URL. The URL will be specified in the manual. The URLs for D-Link and Linksys routers, two major manufacturers of wireless routers, are http://192.168.0.1 and http://192.168.1.1, respectively.

For Linksys routers, leave the user name blank and type “admin” (without the quotes) in the password field and press enter. To change the password, simply click on the Password tab and enter your new password.

For other routers, please consult your manual. Alternately, you can search on the Internet with the term “default login for ”. Don’t be surprised to find quite a number of pages listing default login parameters for many different routers, even uncommon ones.

2. Change the default SSID (Service Set IDentifier)

The SSID is the name of a WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network). All wireless devices on a WLAN use SSIDs to communicate with each other.

Routers ship with standard default SSIDs. For example, the default SSID for Linksys routers is, not unsurprisingly, “Linksys”. As you can see, if you don’t change the default SSID of your router a would-be intruder armed with a few common SSIDs from major manufacturers will be able to find your wireless network quite easily.

To change the SSID, click on the Wireless tab. Look for an input item labeled SSID. It will be near the top. Enter a new name for network. Don’t use something like “My Network”. Use a name that is be hard to guess.

3. Disable SSID broadcast

Wireless enabled computers use network discovery software to automatically search for nearby SSIDs. Some of the more advanced software will query the SSIDs of nearby networks and even display their names. Therefore, changing the network name only helps partially to secure your network. To prevent your network name from being discovered, you must disable SSID broadcast.

In the same screen that you changed the name of your network, you will see options for SSID broadcast. Choose “Disable SSID” to make your network invisible. Now save all your settings and log out.

Since your wireless network is now invisible, you will have to configure your computers to connect to your wireless network using the new name. On Windows XP, start by clicking on the wireless icon in the Notification Area and proceed from there.

With these three steps, your network now has basic security. However, if you keep sensitive information on your computers, you may want to secure your wireless network even further. For example, you can

- Change the channel your router uses to transmit and receive data on a regularly basis.
- Restrict devices that can connect to the router by filtering out MAC (Media Access Control) addresses.
- Use encryption such as WEP and WPA.

As with most things in life, security is a trade off between cost (time, money, inconvenience) and benefit (ease of use). It is a personal decision you make. However for the majority of home uses, the three basic steps plus WEP/WPA encryption provides reasonably strong security.

Turning on encryption is a two-step process. First you configure your router to use encryption using an encryption key of your choice. And then, you configure your computer to use the encryption key. The actual process of configuring your router for encryption varies from router to router. Please consult the router’s manual.

There are even stronger methods for ensuring security. A strong and robust security method is RADIUS (Remote Authentication Dial In User Service). Using RADIUS requires additional hardware and software. However, there are companies that offer RADIUS security as a subscription based service. The fees are reasonable and dropping.

Therefore for example, if you run a business on your wireless network, have sensitive data on your computers such as credit card information, and have a number of users who access your network, you should consider using RADIUS. Since the service sector for RADIUS is dynamic and growing, a search on the Internet with terms like “RADIUS subscription” or “RADIUS service” is probably the best way to locate one.

Hang Up The Phone And Fix Your It Problem Yourself

Information technology (IT) problems can be one of the most frustrating problems facing both homeowners and small business owners. For many, the source of this frustration is problems with the Internet connection. Both homeowners and small business owners rely on their Internet for their daily activities and when there is a problem with their connection it can delay business. They usually do not have a dedicated, onsite IT staff and often have nowhere to turn except the custo...

Information technology (IT) problems can be one of the most frustrating problems facing both homeowners and small business owners. For many, the source of this frustration is problems with the Internet connection. Both homeowners and small business owners rely on their Internet for their daily activities and when there is a problem with their connection it can delay business. They usually do not have a dedicated, onsite IT staff and often have nowhere to turn except the customer service department of their Internet service provider (ISP). Although the customer service department may be knowledgeable and helpful, they are also usually small in number compared to the customers with questions or problems. This can mean minutes or even hours spent on hold waiting to ask a question. Fortunately there is a better solution. With a little bit of education, these same homeowners and small business owners can learn to fix some of the simpler problems so they won’t be put in the position of being reliant on customer service. This article will illustrate some of the common Internet problems and offer suggested solutions for these common problems.

Homeowners and small business owners who depend on email for imperative communications may be troubled by difficulties when email functions aren’t working properly. Before picking up the phone and dialing customer service there are a few things the individual can try for themselves. Not being able to open attachments, receive or send emails are just a few of the common problems.

If an attachment is not opening properly it may mean the user is trying to open the application in an incorrect program. Try opening the document in a text editor such as Notepad or Wordpad. If this doesn’t work contact the individual who sent the email and ask them the application used to create the attachment. If the correct application is available, try saving the attachment and attempting to open it with the, "Open with," option. This is available by right clicking on the file name. An alternative solution would be to set the correct application for the default for the particular file extension. This can be changed through the "File Types" tab of the folder options dialogue box.

Difficulty sending or receiving emails may involve more complex analysis. There are, however, still a few simple things to check before contacting customer service. If both sending and receiving emails are problematic, one of the most common errors is not actually being connected to the Internet. Verify the connection was made and if it is found to not be valid, attempt to reconnect. If sending is not an issue but receiving is, there may be an email with a large attachment attempting to come through. This can be difficult and may create delays in receiving emails. If this problem is suspected, accessing email through a web application may be helpful. The attachment can often be saved to the hard drive through the web application. There may also be problems with sending emails while there are no issues with receiving. If this is the case, it is often useful to verify the user name and password for SMTP authentication is correct. Both the user name and password can be case sensitive.

Viruses are another problem faced by homeowners and small business owners. If a virus is suspected or an email recipient had a virus transmitted from your account, it is possible the computer has been affected by a virus. This may be the result of non-existent virus detection software, virus detection software which has not been updated or a virus which was not recognized by the virus detection software was acquired. If the virus detection software is non-existent or not properly updated, it is time to install a program or update it. This may correct the problem. However, if it is not corrected by the installation or update of a virus detection program, contacting customer service may be required to ensure no further damage is done by the virus.

Not being able to access a particular website is another common problem. If this occurs and other websites are functioning correctly, verify the address is correct. If the correct address is being used, there may be problems with the host server. Wait an hour or so and attempt to access the website again. If no websites are accessible, there may be other problems. Try rebooting the computer and re-establishing the Internet connection. If this does not fix the problem, contact your ISP, they may be having problems which are affecting service for their customers. ISPs often update their voice message to indicate they are aware of the problem so it may not take long to find out if there is an existing problem.

Another common problem accessing websites may be the parental control settings. These settings may deny access to websites with adult or otherwise offensive content. The user can customize these settings to filter or allow access to any type of content they desire. If the user suspects this as the cause of the problem adjustments can be made to this setting in the "Content" tab of the Internet options dialogue box.

Although this list of common Internet problems is by no means conclusive, it does provide the reader with a few of the most common problems and possible fixes for these problems. This can give the homeowner or business owner a few tools for fixing their own problems before spending hours waiting for customer service.

Good Reasons To Have A Wireless Network

Having a wireless network opens up many possibilities.

Wireless networks provide an inexpensive and easy way to share a single Internet connection among several computers. This means you only need one modem, and you can add additional computers to the network just by plugging in a wireless card and turning them on. The new machines are connected to the Internet immediately.

A wireless network also lets you access files and printers from anywhere in your home. It allows ...


Having a wireless network opens up many possibilities.

Wireless networks provide an inexpensive and easy way to share a single Internet connection among several computers. This means you only need one modem, and you can add additional computers to the network just by plugging in a wireless card and turning them on. The new machines are connected to the Internet immediately.

A wireless network also lets you access files and printers from anywhere in your home. It allows you to synchronize files you have on your laptop with your home computer, and you can easily send files between computers as well. Using a wireless network to transfer files is faster than sending them via e-mail or burning them to a CD! Because printers connected to one of the computers on a network are shared by all the computers on that network, you can write documents anywhere in your home, press the ‘print’ button, and collect the printed files from a printer that is connected to another computer.

If you are a game player, you’ve probably noticed that your games often have an option to play over a local area network or LAN. Wireless networks are LANs! This means you and your family can play these games together and don’t have to be on computers that are next to each other to do so. Let’s face it – it’s more fun to play against real people, and it’s even more fun to play against people you know instead of strangers on the Internet. Your games will also play much faster over your LAN. Additionally, you can connect game consoles to the Internet and begin playing these games online. It is much easier to experience online play through an Xbox or PlayStation 2 that is connected to a wireless network than have to use a modem!

Wireless network connections are always on. This means you can connect to the Internet whenever you want without waiting for your modem to dial in. Laptops can be carried from room to room, and they will always have access to the Internet. Since wireless networks operate without the need to log in, you don’t need to set up usernames or passwords.

The single greatest thing about a wireless network is that it is, well, wireless! The biggest reason to have a wireless network is because it eliminates the need for costly, ugly, and dangerous wires trailing all over your house. You can use your computer in any room you want – no more being trapped near a phone outlet or walking over that tangle of wires in your home. The cost of getting enough Ethernet cables can add up, and sometimes, you may even have to make holes in your walls to set up a wired network. If you’re renting, of course, this is impossible. With a wireless network, you don’t have these problems - you can even use your computer outside if you want! And if you move, there is no need to disconnect and pack up all those wires, and you no longer have to examine all the wires for damage whenever your Internet connection goes down.

You can see how having a wireless network can simplify your life.