Wireless network duplicating a wired network

[Enquiring Mind]

Hi,

Following my previous 2 posts, can anyone help with the following questions:

1. I have two computers, a desktop and a laptop, that I normally connect
with a wired network connection for the purpose of file and printer sharing.
The printer is is connected to the desktop.

Both computers now have wireless interfaces installed. When the computers
are not connected by wire I would like to use a secured wireless network
connection to link them together so as to get the same functionality as I
get when they are connected by the wired connection. To this end, I set up a
wireless network connection in each of the two computers using the wizard,
and transferred the parameters from the desktop to the laptop using a memory
key. However I cannot get the newly set-up wireless network to appear when I
issue the "View Available Wireless Connection" command in the laptop. Is
this because a wireless Access Point is also needed to enable the computers
to communicate with each other? I was hoping that the wireless network card
installed in the desktop could be configured as the access point of the
2-computer network, thereby making a separate Access Point unnecessary.

2. Both computers can automatically connect to a wireless broadband router
that my neighbour lets me share. This wireless connection is unsecured. How
secure is my local network resources in this set-up?

Thanks for any guidance.

Enquiring Mind

 

[Jack \(MVP-Networking\).]

Hi
WIFI Wireless communication have two basic modes.
Infrastructure, Wireless Client connected to Wireless Cable/DSL
Router/Access Point.
Ad-Hoc, Wireless Client connected to Wireless Client.
To be able to connected the two computer Wirelessly you have to configure
them both to Ad-Hoc.
When you need to connect to a Wireless Router you would have to change the
configuration back to Infrastructure.
Type the term Ad-Hoc to Windows native help, and it would explain how to
configure.
Jack (MVP-Networking).

 

[Poprivet]

Hi,

Following my previous 2 posts, can anyone help with the following
questions:
1. I have two computers, a desktop and a laptop, that I normally
connect with a wired network connection for the purpose of file and
printer sharing. The printer is is connected to the desktop.

Both computers now have wireless interfaces installed. When the
computers are not connected by wire I would like to use a secured
wireless network connection to link them together so as to get the
same functionality as I get when they are connected by the wired
connection. To this end, I set up a wireless network connection in
each of the two computers using the wizard, and transferred the
parameters from the desktop to the laptop using a memory key. However
I cannot get the newly set-up wireless network to appear when I issue
the "View Available Wireless Connection" command in the laptop. Is
this because a wireless Access Point is also needed to enable the
computers to communicate with each other? I was hoping that the
wireless network card installed in the desktop could be configured as
the access point of the 2-computer network, thereby making a separate
Access Point unnecessary.
2. Both computers can automatically connect to a wireless broadband
router that my neighbour lets me share. This wireless connection is
unsecured. How secure is my local network resources in this set-up?

Not secure at all of others nearby have laptops or wireless cards installed.
Anyone can use it; that's what you're doing in fact.

 

[Enquiring Mind]

Hi

Thanks for response.

To investigate the access mode settings (Infrastructure, Ad hoc, etc.) I
called up the properties form for Wireless Network I have just tried to set
up, and noted the following:

1) The network name (SSID) field shows the correct name, but is greyed
2) The check box labelled "This is a computer-to-computer (ad hoc) netwrok
is disabled, and therefore unchecked.

The following parameters are set:
- Network authentication: Shared;
- Data encryption: WEP;
- EnableIEEE802.1x authentication: Checked;
- EAP type: Smart card or other certificate;
- Authentiacte as computer when computer information is available: Checked;
- Connect when this network is in range: Checked

In the "Advanced" form that appears when the "Advanced" button on the
"Wireless Networks" tab of the "Wireless Network Connection Properties" form
is clicked, the "Any available network (access point preferred)" radio
button is selected.

I then ensured that the same properties are set on the second computer,
disconnected both computers from the Wireless Network exposed by my
neighbour's broadband wireless router, and then issued the "View Available
Networks" command. The available networks that appear in the list only
include those of the broadband routers in the building, plus a mystery
computer-to-computer wireless network of which more later, but not the local
wireless network that I have attempted to set up. There are a couple of odd
points about the Available networks lists:
1. Although the two computers are placed only a few feet apart, each
computer produces a different list of available networks when "View
Available Wireless Networks" command is issued.
2. Computer #1 is not currently connected to a Wireless network. The
available wireless network list includes, in addition to my neighbour's
network, which is described as an "Unsecured wireless network", another
network, called "ShowCenter", which is described as "Unsecured
computer-to-computer network". When I inspected the properties of this
network it appears to be an ad-hoc open unsecured network between computers.
What could be the source of this network?
3. Computer #2. Pausing the mouse over the wireless network icon in the
notification area brings up the message "Wireless network connection
(peer-to-peer) .Speed 11.0 Mbps. Status connected".
When I select "Status" in the context menu for the Wireless Network
Connection icon that appears in the Network Connections window, I discover
that the computer is connected to "ShowCenter" and is sending data packets,
but not receiving any. But when I issue the command "View Available Wireless
Networks", "ShowCenter" does not appear in the list, thus not offering the
opportunity to disconnect from it. "ShowCenter" does appear however, in the
list of preferred wireless networks that is displayed in the "Wireless
Network Connection Properties" form.

As I cannot figure out what exactly is going on, I am naturally a little
concerned. An obvious question that springs to mind is: how can I remove
from the computers the wireless network that I set up using the "Set up
wireless network" wizard? Also why have my computers got a
computer-to-computer wireless network called "ShowCenter" that I never set
up?

Thanks for any guidance.

Enquiring Mind

 

[Enquiring Mind]

Hi,

Further to my previous post, I have concluded that the Wireless Network
called "ShowCenter" must be a wireless media player in the building that I
wasn't aware of. The only question is: why does computer #2 automatically
connect to it, and why does it not show up in the list given by "View
Available Wireless Networks"?

In order to try to set up the wireless network as an ad hoc network, I
deleted the
network I previously set up using the wireless network set-up wizard by
removing it from the list of
preferred networks. I then ran the wizard again, with a view to setting the
network up as an ad-hoc network, but discovered that the wizard assumes that
you are setting up a network that includes an Access point. Nowhere in the
process
can the user indicate a preference for an ad-hoc network. So the conclusion
sems to be: "Don't use the Wireless Network Setup wizard is you want to set
up an ad-hoc network! The wizard is not capable enough to be able to handle
all the types of network supported by the operating system!"

I therefore set up a new wireless network manually by clicking the Add
button below
the list of Preferred Networks in the Wireless Network Connection Properties
form, and checking the Ad-hoc check box. I repeated this for the other
computer so as to get the same parameters recorded in both computers.
(Whilst the Wireless Network setup wizard enables you to copy the settings
from one computer onto a flash draive so that they can be transferred to
another computer without the risk of transcription errors, no such luck with
the form you get from clicking the the Add button. The user interface for
wireless network management can be fairly characterised as poor.)

After a little more fiddling, I eventually succeeded is getting this
peer-to-peer wireless network to show up in the list produced by "View
Available Wireless Connections". However the process wasn't finished yet,
because to be able to use printer and file sharing on the newly created
wireless peer-to-peer network I understand you have to run the Network Setup
wizard. But when I tried this I did not see the newly created wireless
network appear as an option for the networks to apply the sharing to. At
that point I was tempted to give up and defect to the Mac OS !

Let's hope that Windows Vista does something to improve this inadequate user
interface functionality, or that someone can explain to me in clear terms
where I was going wrong!

Regards,

Enquiring Mind