On Sun, 29 Dec 2002, Bill Rising wrote:
> On 10/19/02 21:05, Lee Larson wrote > > >The Apple AirPort base station is outrageously expensive at $300, so I > >started looking around. I decided to take a chance on the NetGear MR314 > >that's available all over the 'Net for about $100. I bought it from > >Circuit City on Shelbyville road for $99, after a couple of rebates. This may not matter to you, but I have this router and while it's been great for most things, it does not appear to work with Windows XP [at least with WEP turned on, and who wouldn't]. XP doesn't allow hexadecimal WEP keys. NetGear have recently rebranded their devices from blue to silver, ie the MR814. I'm not sure if this has allowed ASCII WEP keys, or if there's some other solution in XP. > [snip...] > > Since netgear's $30 router rebate is ending on January 5th (as is my > vacation), I figured I'd start getting my wireless network started by > getting an MR814 (the followup to the MR314). > > Now for the questions: > > This thing'll have some basic firewall stuff in it, right, so I won't > need another piece of hardware? Yep. I've found the firewall to be good and easy to use. The only issue its had over my previous firewall [a PC running Smoothwall, a linux firewall] is that it doesn't have a DNS server on it. > What specs should I be looking for in a cable modem (as I haven't yet > gotten the fast internet connection)? I assume that the $100 that insight > digital wants is way too much. I've seen some on ebay for $40, but don't > know what is recommended. No idea. Insight were giving the modems away when I got one I think. They have monthly (quarterly?) different offer schemes. Check what the current one is and when it runs out just in case. > Does anyone have any recommendations for a wireless card? I've seen some > sites which recommended Orinoco gold wireless cards for g3 powerbooks > (like my wife's). Others recommend a true apple airport card. The former > cost $70 whereas Apple's cost $93. For an Apple laptop, I would only use an airport card. It plugs into the machine internally and not through the PCMCIA, leaving that port free for other devices. This is worth the $23. If the apple card doesn't go in internally due to age of the laptop, then it depends on your OS preferences. Buying an orinoco means you can use it in other machines/OSes, whereas buying airport means you can use it in your next Apple machine internally. I plugged a Dell TrueMobile card [which is an Orinoco of some kind] into the laptop and it seemed to recognise it fine, though I didn't go as far as to configure it to a network. Hen | The next meeting of the Louisville Computer Society will | be January 28. The LCS Web page is <http://www.kymac.org>.
