ahh... wireless. :)

[alwayscurious]

Loving it.

Big W had a special on $98 for a wireless router so I bit the bullet and bought the thing.

A lot of my clients use wireless and I have safeguarded a number of them. So it was kind of second nature to set up .. NOT. Damn thing took me all afternoon - bridging existing routers, losing connectivity .

The smart wizard was too smart and caused me pain so I ended up going with the basic settings.

It's up and running now.

MAC address locked, WPA keyed, and I can surf from the garage if I want to :)

Love it.

Sorry - every now and then I splurge on a gadget and love it.

[vandalic]

Welcome aboard :)

[ani]

Best thing ever!

Some of my forum friends gave it to me for my birthday. It is so cool:)

[Merovingian]

Yep, wireless is definitely a technology that has succeeded in terms of usability. We use it at home and would never go back to cables. The only limitation is it can be slow in sending and receiving large files over the network, but that's certainly no big deal.

alwayscurious,
Good to know you've secured your network — a lot of people don't, and I know of someone who sits in their car outside of a house they know that hasn't got a secured wireless network. ;)

The owner came out and asked him, "Are you a cop?", because he was out there in his car from time to time. He replied, "No, I'm just using broadband". :eek: :D

[Andrew_A]

Wireless is amazing for me.

I guess I'm old enough to remember black and white TV so I shake my head when I think of how far we have come in terms of technology.

I find it incredible to be able to surf the net from economy class these days.

And there's no better office than a restaraunt with a notebook a nice meal and an ale.

What will the next 20 years bring?

[beech]

hi Andrew,what s the cost monthly/hourly for connection to wireless?

Time would fly sitting on a plane all connected. :)

[caramellokoala]

I was in Melbourne the other day doing a bit of shopping and stopped at Starbucks for a coffee. The person I was with is a smoker so we sat outside and there was a sign saying wireless internet would work there.
I am curious, if you sit in you garage or out on you back deck and pull out your laptop and your neighbour also has wireless, whose signal would you be using or doesn't it really matter??

Cheers

CK

[vandalic]

When your wireless card/device is enabled on your laptop it will bring up a list of wireless hot spots which it is able to form connectivity. You will be shown green bars of the connection strength for each connection. Unless the name of the hot spot has been set most will come up with the default brand name i.e. NetGear. If neighbours have set up security correctly you won't be able to connect to their wireless networks, as in order to connect to the device it would need to authenticate either your mac-address (computer network card unique id) and/or a password.

It generally works out best to use your own anyway, as you will receive a stronger signal (assuming you are using a similar device to that of your neighbour).

Josh

I was in Melbourne the other day doing a bit of shopping and stopped at Starbucks for a coffee. The person I was with is a smoker so we sat outside and there was a sign saying wireless internet would work there.
I am curious, if you sit in you garage or out on you back deck and pull out your laptop and your neighbour also has wireless, whose signal would you be using or doesn't it really matter??

Cheers

CK

[Jacque]

Wireless is amazing for me.

I guess I'm old enough to remember black and white TV so I shake my head when I think of how far we have come in terms of technology.

I find it incredible to be able to surf the net from economy class these days.

And there's no better office than a restaraunt with a notebook a nice meal and an ale.

What will the next 20 years bring?

I'm with you, here, Andrew. Technology has bought us so incredibly far- it won't be long before wireless is available to everyone no matter where we sit. Simply wonderful :)

[WASP]

I've looked at wireless also (for the house)as I have a laptop-how do I secure it though?

[duncan_m]

Am I the ONLY person who is less than inspired by 802.11g? The range claims border on ludicrous and I generally find it unreliable and problematic. Perhaps I've just had a bad run of Netgear access points? I took the time to retrofit CAT5 into the main places in the house where I use and have long "flying leads" for use at the kitchen table and sitting in the lounge room..

[alwayscurious]

Am I the ONLY person who is less than inspired by 802.11g? The range claims border on ludicrous and I generally find it unreliable and problematic. Perhaps I've just had a bad run of Netgear access points? I took the time to retrofit CAT5 into the main places in the house where I use and have long "flying leads" for use at the kitchen table and sitting in the lounge room..


Yes it can be problematic. I've been at clients where it's all in one room (router and receivers) and depending on where someone stands in the room, it cuts in & out.

I have also read claims that dodgy chinese made christmas lights throw off enough intereference to kill the signal altogether - broad range white noise! yikes.

802.11 g/b seems to be more stable though.

[alwayscurious]

I've looked at wireless also (for the house)as I have a laptop-how do I secure it though?


WASP - read through some internet postings on "Securing wifi" or "Securing wireless"

google these & you'll get a number of hits back.

mainly

a) change the default password on the router
b) enable WEP or if you've got it WPA-PSK (both are encryption)
c) MAC address lock your network
d) if you can - disable broadcasting your SSID once it's set up. *NB - this can be problematic and if b and c) are done it's usually enought
e) change the NAME of your SSID to something less obvious - don't leave it as NETGEAR or BILLION or something as this just screams "hack me"

Also read posts on wardriving if you are interested in hacking & how it's done.

If you didn't understand any of this - you would call someone like myself.
However I am in Brisbane. I COULD step by step you through it but it would cost you both in long distance phone & my hourly rate. :)

[Bluegem]

http://www.megapc.com.au

They have minitar routers for $88 bucks.

Great things. Wireless is great for internet access but if you share big files between computers for get it.

[vandalic]

You must be talking some pretty dodgy equipment, regarding standing in the room and it cutting in and out....I don't think I've ever seen or heard of anything like that before...

For the home user I would recommend netgear equipment, reliable, quality and easy to setup and secure.

A bit of a run down for anyone that is interested in looking at wireless:
http://www.ozcableguy.com/wireless.html

Josh

Yes it can be problematic. I've been at clients where it's all in one room (router and receivers) and depending on where someone stands in the room, it cuts in & out.

I have also read claims that dodgy chinese made christmas lights throw off enough intereference to kill the signal altogether - broad range white noise! yikes.

802.11 g/b seems to be more stable though.

[Andrew_A]

hi Andrew,what s the cost monthly/hourly for connection to wireless?

Time would fly sitting on a plane all connected. :)
I don't currently have wireless, but when I had it I was paying $99 a month for ADSL, and I was using a wireless router.

WestNet was my ISP and they were excellent.

[beech]

thanks Andrew

[alwayscurious]

You must be talking some pretty dodgy equipment, regarding standing in the room and it cutting in and out....I don't think I've ever seen or heard of anything like that before...

For the home user I would recommend netgear equipment, reliable, quality and easy to setup and secure.

A bit of a run down for anyone that is interested in looking at wireless:
http://www.ozcableguy.com/wireless.html

Josh


It was on an older laptop and was the inbuilt receiver that was playing up I believe.. It was sorted out eventually.

I've been in situations wireless cut in & out plenty of times.
A lot of times they "forget" the correct network, and it has to be re-applied.

[Davidr]

Am I the ONLY person who is less than inspired by 802.11g? The range claims border on ludicrous and I generally find it unreliable and problematic. Perhaps I've just had a bad run of Netgear access points? I took the time to retrofit CAT5 into the main places in the house where I use and have long "flying leads" for use at the kitchen table and sitting in the lounge room..

I have read that the wireless connection can be interupted by cordless phones (& other devies) that also use the 2.8MHz range.

However, I am currently typing this on my laptop which is connected wirelessly. My access point is on the other side of three walls. My cordless handset is beside me. SO not all connections are interrupted :cool:

[duncan_m]

I have read that the wireless connection can be interupted by cordless phones (& other devies) that also use the 2.8MHz range.

However, I am currently typing this on my laptop which is connected wirelessly. My access point is on the other side of three walls. My cordless handset is beside me. SO not all connections are interrupted :cool:


I got a 5.8GHz cordless phone.. out of the 2.4GHz 802.11g spectrum..

[Davidr]

hi Andrew,what s the cost monthly/hourly for connection to wireless?

Time would fly sitting on a plane all connected. :)

Hi Beech,

To obtain a wireless ISP, you need to be within the limited coverage areas, or hotspots. There are not that many around (usually the largest providers in Metro).

For the inflight experience, some airlines are starting to offer the service ( http://www.singaporeair.com/saa/en_UK/content/exp/entertainment/communications.jsp ). Boeing are shipping their new B777 to All Nipon with the service as OEM.

Getting back to wireless internet plans are generally more expensive than ADSL. Check out http://www.whirlpool.net.au/ for the plans that might work in your area.

Another alternative is to talk your favourite cafe / pub / beer garden / hang out into connecting a wireless hotspot for their customers (Or if you are a small customer service business owner consider it for yourself). For less than $1000 you can set up the hardware etc to connect into your ADSL (or other) connection, and offer wireless Internet access to your customers, for a fee or as a point of differentiation from your competitors.

Check it out at: http://www.powernoc.us/hotspot.html or http://www.azure.com.au/hotspots/new_hotspots.html

[kaf]

Yes, wireless is just the best thing! Take the laptop where the aircon / breeze / music / most comfy sofa is ...

I'm a Mac girl so the airport (Apple's wireless unit) is a bit dearer (~$200) but it's soo pretty :D and really easy to connect. And you can print wireless and play your music from your laptop to your stereo without cables ... Oh well I guess I’m right smack in the middle of Steve Jobs’ demographic …

kaf

[Glebe]

and last week mobile wimax was certified :)

anyone with voip over wireless experience?

particularly 802.11g on a PDA with voip?