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No Broadband Without Wires


RiG

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I am getting Sky Broadband "installed" next week as part of their package deal and I need a wee bit of info on wireless networking.

Currently my flat mate and myself connect to the internet using a wired network through Pipex. The ADSL/Router is in the living room and our two PCs sit about 5m - 10m away in our respective rooms. Two cables link our PCs to the ADSL/Router. My PC runs Windows Xp and my flatmate uses Vista Home Premium.

With Pipex being ridiculously expensive and, for approximately 6 weeks, atrociously slow (80Kbps anyone?) we decided to leave them. We signed up to the Sky See, Speak, Surf deal and have been sent out shiny wireless ADSL/Router. At this moment I do not know the brand name but will post it later if it helps. The new router will sit where the old one currently does, only a few metres away from the PCs and with barely any kind of obstacle in the way aside from a door. Neither of the PCs currently have any form of wireless cards or USB receivers attached to them.

I had thought about getting a couple of USB receivers (some Netgear USB devices on eBuyer) for each of the PCs. Will these be better than installing a couple of PCI cards?

Further to this, I am looking to buy a new PC in the near future. When I do so, can I simply unplug the USB device from my PC and connect it to my new computer so as to reconnect to the wireless network or will I have to reconfigure the system? (I would guess some software installation would be required).

If someone else wishes to connect an adittional computer to our network can they, if they have a similar USB device, plug it into their laptop and connect straight away or will it be more complicated than that?

I am looking forward to posting on ICT online while being on the toilet  :003:

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I hate to tell you this RiG, I have a theory regardin ISP's. I am pretty positive BT customers get preferential service when it comes to broadband. I myself was with Pipex and was suffering low speeds throught the day, but specially at night time. I could be as low as 200kbps. Since joining BT I enjoy speeds of around 3Meg at  peak times now. I wouldnt be suprised if your service still suffers with Sky, especially at peak times. Hope am wrong tho, but would be intrested to know.

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I am getting Sky Broadband "installed" next week as part of their package deal and I need a wee bit of info on wireless networking.

Currently my flat mate and myself connect to the internet using a wired network through Pipex. The ADSL/Router is in the living room and our two PCs sit about 5m - 10m away in our respective rooms. Two cables link our PCs to the ADSL/Router. My PC runs Windows Xp and my flatmate uses Vista Home Premium.

With Pipex being ridiculously expensive and, for approximately 6 weeks, atrociously slow (80Kbps anyone?) we decided to leave them. We signed up to the Sky See, Speak, Surf deal and have been sent out shiny wireless ADSL/Router. At this moment I do not know the brand name but will post it later if it helps. The new router will sit where the old one currently does, only a few metres away from the PCs and with barely any kind of obstacle in the way aside from a door. Neither of the PCs currently have any form of wireless cards or USB receivers attached to them.

I had thought about getting a couple of USB receivers (some Netgear USB devices on eBuyer) for each of the PCs. Will these be better than installing a couple of PCI cards?

No difference really between those or the PCI version.  Good choice going with Netgear though as I believe Sky distribute Netgear routers and Netgear are a very reliable company.  The USB ones will certainly be easier to fit into your new computer rather than opening it up to remove the PCI card.

Further to this, I am looking to buy a new PC in the near future. When I do so, can I simply unplug the USB device from my PC and connect it to my new computer so as to reconnect to the wireless network or will I have to reconfigure the system? (I would guess some software installation would be required).

Install the Netgear software on your PC, restart it and plug in your USB WiFi dongle and you're live.  Simple as that

If someone else wishes to connect an adittional computer to our network can they, if they have a similar USB device, plug it into their laptop and connect straight away or will it be more complicated than that?

Depends if you put WiFi security on you're network or not.  I'd reccomend using WPA2 encryption to secure your network.  If someone else comes along with a computer, all they need is any WiFi adaptor and your WPA2 password and they can connect no sweat at all.  Essentially it can be as easy or as complicated as you make it. 

I am looking forward to posting on ICT online while being on the toilet  :003:

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Cheers Jamie  :003: I think I shall purchase a couple of these USB devices then for next week. Any recommendations from the eBuyer site? As for WPA2 security - how easy is that to set up? I noticed you made no comment on the final sentence :015:

As for Smee - stop trying to ruin my Sky dream!  :004:

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It might be worth finding out what model of Netgear router it is that Sky distribute to new customers.  The last time I had any experience of this, they were distributing the DG834G ADSL Modem/Router.  If this is the case for yourself, you wont be needing anything higher spec than the WG111.

If they are shipping out anything like the DG834PN you might want to look at something from the RangeMax range to make use of increased data transfer rates as well as actual range and signal quality from the router itself.  Something like this.

WPA2 security is easily set on the router interface.  Usually for Netgear the interface is located by typing in 192.168.0.1 into your browser and you'll be prompted for a username and password.  Defaults here are Username: "Admin"  Password: "Password".  Once you're in select the Wireless tab and set your security type from "None" to "WPA2-PSK" where PSK stands for Pre-shared key - essentially just a password and totally unlike the less secure WEP where your key is just gobbledygook.  Type in a password of your choice and click apply.  Voila, your network is secured by WPA2.  When anyone tries to connect to your network they will be prompted for this password to get any access at all.

As for your final sentence, it's none of my business if you want to post on here from your Dingwall toilet  :004:

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Cant really add much to what Jay_7 has said other than to mention that a lot of the new (HP) PCs we are seeing coming into our IT department for evaluation actually have some internal USB ports so you may even be able to fit the dongle inside your pc leaving the external ports free. I would definitely go USB rather than PCI although that is my personal choice. Having said that, your new PC will likely have in-built wireless anyway as its pretty much standard these days.

As for router security agree with Jay_7 there too !!! In my case, I also add a couple of additional pieces of protection too. I use the router's interface to restrict the range of IPs given out to only as many computers as I have in the house as well as using mac address filtering to only allow the mac addresses of the wireless cards of each PC to obtain an IP.

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WPA2 security is easily set on the router interface.  Usually for Netgear the interface is located by typing in 192.168.0.1 into your browser and you'll be prompted for a username and password.  Defaults here are Username: "Admin"  Password: "Password". 

I would also recommend changing the IP address of the router to something else in the 192.168.xx.xx range or the 10.xx.xx.xx range and of course the password so that anyone trying to do nasty things to your network at least has a tougher job !

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Exactly, hence it can be as easy or as difficult as you want to make it to access the wireless network.

My config for example is intensely difficult to gain access to.

The address of my router (incidently a DG834PN) is not the default 192.168.0.1.

The password for access to the router interface is a mixture of letters and numbers and doesn't even look like a real word.

The PSK on my network is a mixture of letters and numbers similar but not the same as the interface password.

There is MAC filtering enabled.

DHCP is disabled.

The SSID is set so it doesn't broadcast.

I can't see RiG wanting to tackle the like of all that though.  Simply changing the default password for the interface and applying WPA2 is enough for most folk.  The only reason I have made mine so difficult is because I have noticed a couple of Devices that aren't mine on the device list within the router interface obviously attempting to hack in.

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Exactly, hence it can be as easy or as difficult as you want to make it to access the wireless network.

My config for example is intensely difficult to gain access to.

The address of my router (incidently a DG834PN) is not the default 192.168.0.1.

likewise

The password for access to the router interface is a mixture of letters and numbers and doesn't even look like a real word.

likewise

The PSK on my network is a mixture of letters and numbers similar but not the same as the interface password.

likewise

There is MAC filtering enabled.

likewise

DHCP is disabled.

you got me there. I decided not to use static IPs but restricted my range of IPs to 5 which covers my PCs, laptops and printer and by using mac filtering, only those 5 nics can get an IP.

The SSID is set so it doesn't broadcast.

likewise

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DHCP is disabled.

you got me there. I decided not to use static IPs but restricted my range of IPs to 5 which covers my PCs, laptops and printer and by using mac filtering, only those 5 nics can get an IP.

The DHCP is disabled on my router but I have a Server 2003 box running at home that's configured to allocate an IP address to devices registered in AD.

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lol - yup, totally different language .... Technalese  :004:

I surrender to Jay_7 .... I dont go that far with my home network .... its 1 main desktop PC, 2 laptops, and a network printer plus an old PC that I use as network attached storage / shared drives. No server OS, No Active Directory and no time to think about doing that !

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nerd.gif

Incidentally the router appears to be manufactured by Sagem. No idea of a model number (yet).

The Sky guide to installing your wireless router also confused me somewhat. It mentioned that you needed to plug your router into the back of your PC using the ethernet cable. I imagined you need to plug in the power connector and the phone line from the microfilter to the back of the router and that was it if you were going wireless - surely no other wires are reuired and certainly not ones going between the PC and router anyway.

Advice appreciated geeks guys.

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I needed to attatch my wireless router to pc via ethernet cable initially to allow it to set up. After it was all up and running, I no longer required any wires except the power cable

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The one thing that put me off getting SKY BB was that you must use the supplied router.  Aside from the fact that it's stated in the T&C's, your username and PW details are locked into the router itself and you don't even get to know them so you can't use another router.

Not a problem....unless of course the router fails and you find yourself without broadband until they deliver a new one  :029:

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Currently hitting 6.5Mbps  :003:

During your first 7-10 days of service your speed will fluctuate wildly.  It's just the guys at the exchange end trying to get the balance right in your area.  If your hitting that speed, chances are your neighbour will be pulling his/her hair out at how slow theirs is.  The most I hit was 6MBps, then it went as low as 1.2MBps and settled on 4.4MBps.

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