VERY SIMPLE HOME NETWORK

[Fairlight]

When asked his whereabouts on Fri, Dec 24, 2004 at 11:28:24PM -0500,
GCC Consulting took the fifth, drank it, and then slurred:
>  
> The last choice I would make is wireless unless you plan to use this with
> broadband.  Wireless takes a little more care in setting up.

All of a screenful of parameters that are pretty simple.  Really, I was a
wireless virgin in March and had next to no trouble getting it going.  The
biggest headache, in fact, was -from- the 10b2 to 10/100bT hub--My old
ethernet cards were configured for one frame type that the hub just had no
idea about--it would light up when there was traffic, but I couldn't
communicate with the bridge I had on the hub.  It was a card-specific
issue, and the card has to be a good seven years old.  :)  Changed the
ethernet frame type in use on the card and *poof* all was well.  It was
literally a difference between the .2 and .3 frames, as I recall.

Wireless, like just about every other subsystem over the years that I've
been told is quirky-to-bitchy to set up and maintain, is something beset by
large amounts of FUD.  It's really pretty simple if you do the tiniest
modicum of reading.

NOTE:  MAC filtering will -only- prevent bandwidth stealing, -not- packet
sniffing.  Use WEP encryption at a minimum.  I haven't dinked with WPA or
WPA-SP and the like, but WEP couldn't be more simple.  

> Once the router is set up and the wireless NIC turned on, your computers
> will find the network.

Assuming you leave everything at the standard DHCP configurations, even the
IP stuff will set itself up correctly.  Of course, I totally reject the
thought of -anything- dynamic, and I use static addressing.  I entirely
disable DHCP.  The only annoyance I've run into there is that if you have
problems, tech support staff at the wireless vendors seem to be unable to
cope with the fact you're not using DHCP, and do all but refuse to support
their products--despite the fact the features for static IP addressing are
amply supported in their hardware.  Tech support for these places (D-Link,
LinkSys, in my experience) is mostly only good for the lowest possible
level of problems on stock configurations with factory defaults.  Change
anything they don't expect changes in, you're possibly on your own.

> Just remember that you will need to set up shares on both machines for
> sharing files.  Some folders are set to share by default.

Only the administrative ones like C$ and such, I thought.  And I thought
not in the conventional sense...?  You go to change the password on Win2K
for C$ or E$ and it says it's for administrative purposes.  You have to
actually make a new user-based share, in my experiences.

mark->
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