Networking with Leythos

T

t0m

As promised.......

Greetings Leythos,

I have a friend that thinks that since I have a wireless network, that
I can set his wireless up... Between you, me and the fence post, I
messed up when making my wireless network by somehow getting it
working right the first time and I have no idea what I did wrong....
er Right! Soooooo....

He has a Comcast cable modem (not setup yet), D-Link wireless router,
D-Link wireless adapter (for his laptop) and a single laptop running
XPHome-SP1 with onboard 10/100 Ethernet port plus slot for wireless
adapter. All but the laptop are in the boxes with nothing setup yet.

What he wants is to be able to move about the house with the laptop
connected to the internet. There will be no established wired desktop
system acting as the server or base.

Since my wireless network is not hooked into the Internet, I'm flying
blind on that one but I assume I have to set his modem and Comcast
account up with the modem wired directly to the computer (before
getting the wireless stuff involved) right?

Now, after that is done, I also know that to setup a router, you must
do it through a wired connection (can't do the HTTP://192.168.0.1
thing from a wireless computer, right)?

Now after setting up the router, I assume I then unhook the wired
connection to the router and install the wireless adapter on the
laptop. Again, I am assuming that there does not have to be a wired
"Main" system connected to the router in order to have a wireless
internet connection via a network except when doing the above
mentioned router setup, right?

Like I said, I have a wireless network (all Linksys Equipment) but it
isn't connected to the internet and it includes an always wired
desktop connected to the router with my laptops floating around
wirelessly while my friend wants a wireless network connected to the
internet with a single laptop floating around wirelessly with no base
system hard wired into the router.

If the way I am looking at setting this thing up for him is all wrong,
could you step me through it (Comcast cable modem, D-Link DI-524
Wireless Router and D-Link DWL-G630 Wireless Adapter).

Sorry for being off topic to the group....

Regards,
t0m
 
L

Leythos

As promised.......

Greetings Leythos,

I have a friend that thinks that since I have a wireless network, that I
can set his wireless up... Between you, me and the fence post, I
messed up when making my wireless network by somehow getting it working
right the first time and I have no idea what I did wrong.... er Right!
Soooooo....

He has a Comcast cable modem (not setup yet), D-Link wireless router,
D-Link wireless adapter (for his laptop) and a single laptop running
XPHome-SP1 with onboard 10/100 Ethernet port plus slot for wireless
adapter. All but the laptop are in the boxes with nothing setup yet.

What he wants is to be able to move about the house with the laptop
connected to the internet. There will be no established wired desktop
system acting as the server or base.

This is all normal stuff, what we do in our own offices/homes and for
clients also. We actually try and discourage wireless access for most
users, but, if you monitor it and secure it, it can be used with some
security.
Since my wireless network is not hooked into the Internet, I'm flying
blind on that one but I assume I have to set his modem and Comcast
account up with the modem wired directly to the computer (before getting
the wireless stuff involved) right?

Now, after that is done, I also know that to setup a router, you must do
it through a wired connection (can't do the HTTP://192.168.0.1 thing
from a wireless computer, right)?

All of the wireless routers for small offices/homes (the ones that are not
firewalls) need to be setup from a local connection - unless they have
come out with some new method. You can connect using any wired connection,
assuming the router is still in it's default state.

I would change the routers default network to something like
192.168.10.0/24 instead of 192.168.0.0/24 - meaning the router would be at
192.168.10.1 with 255.255.255.0 and you would make sure that the DHCP
service is enabled on the router.
Now after setting up the router, I assume I then unhook the wired
connection to the router and install the wireless adapter on the laptop.
Again, I am assuming that there does not have to be a wired "Main"
system connected to the router in order to have a wireless internet
connection via a network except when doing the above mentioned router
setup, right?

Well, if you do this, without securing the wireless first, that will leave
your wireless connection wide open for anyone to use.

You need to look at the manual for your particular routers wireless setup,
at the very least you want WEP/128bit and a strong key. You can also do
MAC address filtering so that the router will only talk with the wireless
card in the laptop - you need the MAC of the adapter card, but I would
suggest that you do MAC filtering AFTER you get the WEP/WAP

Here is something I thought was worth pasting in here from a site that
talks about the router you mention below:

WIRELESS SECURITY MEASURES

Enable WEP
Enabling WEP* (Wired Equivalent Privacy) will require anyone wishing to
access the Internet through your wireless network to enter a password.
After the correct password is entered, a connection is established, and
all data sent from the D-Link to the computer and back is encrypted. From
the D-Link configuration screen:

1. Click the "Home" tab.
2. Click the "Wireless" button.
3. Click the "Open System" button next to "Authentication".
4. Set the "WEP Encryption" to "128 bit".
5. Set the "Key Type" to "ASCII".
6. Type a 13 digit password into "Key 1".
7. Click "Apply".
8. When you connect to your wireless network from a computer, you will
need to enter the 13 digit password. *Note: If your computer's operating
system supports it, enabling WPA is more secure than WEP. The steps above
can be modified to set up WPA.

Change the SSID and Disable SSID Broadcasting By default, the D-Link is
set to advertise the existence of your wireless network to computers. It
does this by broadcasting an SSID (Service Set Identifier), also called a
"network name" because it identifies your wireless network. Changing the
SSID and disabling SSID broadcasting makes it harder for someone to locate
the network. Note that if you disable SSID broadcasting, you will have to
know the SSID in order to connect wirelessly to your network. From the
D-Link configuration screen:

1. Click the "Home" tab.
2. Click the "Wireless" button.
3. Change the "SSID" from "default" to an SSID of your choice.
4. Click "Disabled" next to "SSID Broadcast".
5. Click "Apply".
6. When you connect to your wireless network from a computer, you will
need to enter the SSID.

EXTRA WIRELESS SECURITY MEASURE

MAC Address Filtering
The D-Link can be set up to only allow access to certain computers. This
can be done with or without WEP enabled. This is done by allowing access
to the network based on the MAC address of the computer's network card
(note: in this context, the term "MAC" is not related to Macintosh
computers). The MAC address is a unique number that identifies a network
device, such as a Wireless or Ethernet card. A MAC address can also be
referred to as "Physical Address", "Hardware Address", "Ethernet ID",
"Airport ID", etc. An example of a MAC address is 00:30:65:9c:2e:4f.

While MAC address filtering is a very good security measure to implement,
it is also very restrictive, and some users might find it inconvenient to
configure. For networks that are large, or that frequently change
computers, MAC address filtering might be more hassle than it is worth.
However, it is a very effective way to protect your network.

From the D-Link configuration screen:

1. Click the "Advanced" tab.
2. Click the "Filters" button.
3. Select the "MAC Filters" radio button.
4. Select "Only allow computers with MAC address listed below to connect
to the network".
5. Type the name of the computer and its MAC address (we recommend starting
with the MAC address of the computer that you are configuring).
6. Click "Apply".
7. Repeat Steps 5 and 6 for each additional computer that should have
access to the network.
Like I said, I have a wireless network (all Linksys Equipment) but it
isn't connected to the internet and it includes an always wired desktop
connected to the router with my laptops floating around wirelessly while
my friend wants a wireless network connected to the internet with a
single laptop floating around wirelessly with no base system hard wired
into the router.

The typical setup is a DSL modem that provides a public IP to any device
that connects to its ethernet port - there are also DSL modems that
provide a private IP to the ethernet connection. Some DSL modems don't
provide a bridge mode (SBC is one that does that sometimes).

From the DSL modem, you connect its ethernet port to the WAN (public) port
on the D-Link, then the wired port on the D-Link to a computer to setup
the DSL settings on the D-Link (and the wireless). You need the wired
connection to setup your PPOE settings (if your dsl does that), and to
setup the wireless security).

Now, once you the connections wired to each other, turn on the power for
the D-Link and the DSL Modem, wait for the DSL to initialize, then web
into the D-Link to setup the PPOE connection for the DSL connection.

Now, once it's properly setup you should be able to get to www.google.com,
if not, you can't go any further until you can make wired connections work.
If the way I am looking at setting this thing up for him is all wrong,
could you step me through it (Comcast cable modem, D-Link DI-524
Wireless Router and D-Link DWL-G630 Wireless Adapter).

Sorry for being off topic to the group....

Regards,

Once you get the wireless setup on the D-Link you can then setup the
laptop and enter the security keys/setup on the Airport device, and it
should start working without any additional work.

Don't forget, change the default network address, change the password,
change the default SSID, disable broadcasting of the SSID once you get the
laptop working wirelessly, even change the default channel. Oh, also add
in MAC filtering once you get all of that working.

WAP is the way to go if you can get it working.

If you have any serious problems you can post again, but there are a lot
of sites listed in google when you search for "wireless security DI-524".
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Similar Threads

can't connect to wired computer 2
networking LAN and Wireless 1
wireless network 1
Networking 2
Adding wireless to wired XP-Home Network 2
Home networking 4
XP Networking Browse Issues 1
networking problem 1

Top