Greg,On Saturday 10 April 2004 09:47 pm, Carroll Grigsby wrote:Questions: 1. Has anyone used any of this hardware?I tend to use Netgear stuff, but it seems to me that it is all pretty good, exspecially if you don't mix and match brands between the router and the nics.2. How good is the router's integrated firewall?It will probably be good enough to prevent anybody that might scan your ip address from seeing a machine running.3. Since wireless introduces some security problems, what measures should be taken?You can turn on WEP to encrypt your traffic, but this in my mind is less of a risk than preventing people you don't want to access the lan from logging in. -Change the default essid and password -Turn on authentication by mac address, so only your two computers can log on and obtain an ip address -Turn on wep, realizing that you might lose some network throughput, although if you are not transferring files back and forth, your wireless net will still be faster than the cable modem, so you shouldn't ever notice it.4. Wife's PC is pure Mandrake 9.1; mine is Mandrake 9.2 with a non-functional Win98SE installation. (No, not another MS dig -- it hasn't been used since a major hardware upgrade last year. I'd like to keep it that way.) DLink claims that the router and wireless adapters are compaible with Linux, but their manuals only cover Windows.Be prepared to possibly have to at least update your wife's kernel to get support for whatever nic you choose. Depending on how new, the kernel from 9.1 (or 9.2 for that matter) may not support the nic you have chosen, although later kernels might. Try to find someone using this hardware and find out what kernel version works well before committing. You may wanted to consider upgrading both boxes to 10.0 when it becomes official in a couple of weeks. The drakconnect wizard is really good at setting up wireless now and there is a better chance the new kernel will support your nics.4. Can I install, configure all of the DLink stuff and verify that it works prior to the visit by the cable guy?Yes, in fact it might be helpful to see if the signal will be strong enough from the most convenient place to place the router, instead of the best place to get strong signal, which might be inaccesible and difficult to run a cable line to.5. How much of a hassle will it be with the cable modem and router in a remote location?If you have to reset the modem and router, you usually have to remove power from it and then recycle them, nmodem first and then router. I rarely have to do that with mine, but when I do, it is nice that it is accessible. Plus, when I am havng a problem, it is easy to check and see if the modem has sync.
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What about having the cable run on the outside of the house for the office? They should be able to split it where it comes into the house on the outside. My home has a box on the outside with 3 or 4 connections for different runs.
Steve
