Jeff, The easiest way to go is to set up a wireless LAN in your home. All laptops made in the past few years have wireless LAN support built in; I'm sure the new Fujitsu does. If your other laptops don't have wireless built in, you can add it using a PC card or USB dongle solution.
You can get a basic wireless access point at your nearby Staples/Office Depot/computer store or order one online. Prices at Newegg start at $35 but I think I've seen them as low as $25. Stick with a "name" brand -- they all use the same basic chipsets but if you need customer service you have a better chance of getting a human on the phone with Linksys or D-Link or Netgear (remember, I said "better" chance -- and the support may be coming from India). I have run Netgear and Linksys in my home network with no problems on either box. I'm running a Linksys WRT54G ($48.49 + shipping from Newegg) in my network because I'm also using the Linksys range extender and wireless print server. It's advisable to stick with a single brand. The clients in my home network include three Lenovo Thinkpads, two Dell Inspirons, an HP tower and an eMachine tower running Linux. My daughter's boyfriend runs his Mac off my net when he brings it over. I also have the above Linksys wireless print server and a wireless HP Officejet All-In-One -- no problems connecting any of them, printing wirelessly etc. That said, your biggest issue with a wireless LAN is locking it down. We've had discussions on this list about the pros and cons of sharing your broadband connection with the world and I don't know where you stand on the topic but I'll assume you want to keep your neighbors out of your LAN. When you set up your access point chose the strongest security consistent with your laptop clients. At a bare minimum turn on 128-bit WEP (don't even bother with the 64-bit WEP). If your clients support it turn on WPA or WPA2 instead of WEP. WEP is getting a little long in the tooth, lots of hacking advice on breaking WEP available on the web. WPA is much stronger. Also consider turning off SSID broadcasts from the access point (usually a check box in the config). If you do this you cannot let Windoze "discover" your home network, you will have to tell it the SSID so it can find your access point. Whether or not you turn off SSID broadcasts CHANGE THE DEFAULT SSID! Just pick a word that's easy for you to remember but do not use your last name or anything else easy to guess. Finally, consider MAC filtering. It's harder to set up since you usually have to enter the MAC addresses manually of all your wireless devices. And invariably when you add a new device you will forget to add it into the MAC filter and waste hours scratching your head how come the new computer can't connect to your network. Someone on this list will point out how easy it is to spoof MAC addresses but I point out that what this will protect you from is the casual, script-kiddy hacker, not the NSA or anyone determined to get into your network. Neither SSID broadcast suppression or MAC filtering will really secure your wireless LAN but they'll obscure it from the war-drivers trolling suburbia with Netstumbler. It's like locking your front door when you go to the store: it won't keep out a real burglar but crack heads trying door knobs will pass your house by. Good luck! -Mike __________________ Michel David Lowe Purcellville, VA > -----Original Message----- > From: Computer Guys Announcements and Discussion List > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Jeff Myers > Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2007 7:43 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: [CGUYS] Home network > > Well, my daughter has a new laptop (a really nice Fujitsu tablet), and I > think it's time to bite the bullet and set up a home network. I have > comcast cable and want to connect the service to a number of laptops. > What's the easiest/cheapest way to go? > > Thanks, > Jeff Myers ************************************************************************ * ==> QUICK LIST-COMMAND REFERENCE - Put the following commands in <== * ==> the body of an email & send 'em to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <== * Join the list: SUBSCRIBE COMPUTERGUYS-L Your Name * Too much mail? Try Daily Digests command: SET COMPUTERGUYS-L DIGEST * Tired of the List? Unsubscribe command: SIGNOFF COMPUTERGUYS-L * New address? From OLD address send: CHANGE COMPUTERGUYS-L YourNewAddress * Need more help? Send mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ************************************************************************ * List archive at www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ * RSS at www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.xml * Messages bearing the header "X-No-Archive: yes" will not be archived ************************************************************************
