Wireless Networking

[TaylorD]

I am planning on buying an Orinoco (formerly WaveLan, made by lucent... Orinoco RG-1000 Resedential Gateway) Resedential Gateway 2.4ghz wireless network starter kit.

This includes a base unit, with a 56k built in modem, and a PCMCIA card. The base unit can connect via either the 56k modem or through an rj45 cable to a DSL/ISDN modem.

If I want to share a DSL modem between my desktop and laptop, will I have to buy another wireless card for my desktop(even though I plan to put the wireless base and dsl modem next to the desktop)?

Or is there a way that I can hook up my desktop and the wireless base to the DSL modem and have the connection shared?

Thanks

 

[barebottoms]

You can put a hub for the
pc <--> DSL ND <--> Orinco Access Point.
Since that is where most of the the stuff will be concentrated. You could go wireless with the PC if you wanted, but thats sort of a moot point, unless the pc is far from the ND and Access Point.

Just curious what your paying for the setup. I did the samething with the Apple Airport instead.
$300 for the Airport
$180 for the 128 bit Orinco Gold Cards.

 

[TaylorD]

I think its going to be about $400 for the base and one PCMCIA card.

I'm going to need another card, for a desktop, but I am having trouble finding one.

 

[barebottoms]

On the WaveLAN page Here, they list all the resellers. If you only care about 64 bit encryptions, you can get the Apple Cards. They are the WaveLAN Silver OEM'd.

 

[TaylorD]

Hey, i have a question for you...

Do each of the computers that are wirelessly connected to the network extend the network range?
(Like if I have a computer 150' from the base that works OK, can I keep going 150 more feet in that direction, and have the further computer communicate through the middle computer? Or do they all just communicate through the base?)

Also, they dont make ISA or PCI versions? Only an adapter for PCMCIA card to use in a desktop?

Thanks

 

[barebottoms]

They can go further. The Lucent cards have a provision for adding an external antennae to the card. With a good designed Yagi antennae, you can go up to 75 KM. Goto Slashdot.org and search for &quot;airport&quot;, there is a link to a Mac site that has an article of a guy that took it up to 6Km.

Yes if you're going Peer to Peer, they do relay off each other. The above was for a networked configuration.

Yup, they only sell them as PC cards, with an adapter to make it PCA or ISA.

 

[TaylorD]

This may be a stupid question, but whats the difference between &quot;peer to peer&quot; and &quot;networked&quot;?

I am going to have a desktop hooked into an ethernet hub, which will be connected to the RG-1000 and the DSL modem. I will then have a wireless pc card in a desktop and in a laptop, possibly two laptops.

Thanks

 

[barebottoms]

In wireless Networking there are two modes.
Ad Hoc (peer to peer)
And Networked.

Networked is more like your Traditional Star Network layout.
All your traffic goes to the Access Point then out to the other
clients or forwarded off to your gateway.

With Ad Hoc Networking, the Access Point is not needed.
The clients just talk or relay amongst each other. Not very useful
for Net access, but great for in meetings and you need to share
information amongst your workgroup.

 

[ktwebb]

If I read the post right, what you are asking about putting a client machine in the middle to act as a repeater will not work. AdHoc or peer to peer, machines will only talk to each other if in range. They will not bounce off each other or forward packets to another device. In Infrastructure mode, or what barebottems is calling Networked, all devices must be in range of the AP (Access Point). They all go through the AP to talk to any other device on the network.
As to your problem about finding another card. If the product is 802.11b compliant, any compliant card, should in principal, communicate with the AP, so you could use another vendors card. If I were you, I would stick with a card that uses the Lucent chipset, versus the Harris Prizm chipset. For instance, the Cisco/Aironet devices use the Harris chipset, and I have tested them with Lucent chipset devices with success, but I am still leary of interopterability.

 

[galvo]

Is the Apple compatible with any Windows base P/Cs , and any ISPs?
How good is the Apple performance? I am currently running a proxim wireless system......which is very slow ,less then 1.6 mbps.

Are you using 802.11 card right?

thanks,
galvo

 

[scoreadeal]

Linksys is coming out with some new equipment, which is the lowest price true ethernet (none of that fuddy duddy parallel port home networking stuff) wireless networking equipment. I think Intel and 3Com make some as well, but prepare to drop a grand or so for the wirless access point alone. Anyways, details of the deal are posted at:

http://www.scoreadeal.com

Best price around listed there, plus discounts. Most stores expect to have them by the 27th, so pre-order while the prices are good and discounts are in effect!

 

[sixsigma]

Lucent right now has one of if not the best wireless solution going out there. good places for info are WECA and WLANA aka wireless lan association and wavelan.com.

 

[ktwebb]

I am biased since I have used the Aironet, now Cisco product since before the 802.11b spec was written, but I have used the Lucent product. It is based on the Lucent chipset, while the Cisco product is based on the Harris Prizm chipset, which beat the Lucent technology out the door by a fairly wide margin. I have nothing bad to say about the Lucent product, but it is by no means better. That, of course, is only an opinion. Access Point for AP, I think they are all relatively close to each other. The Cisco bridge is the best WAN wireless bridge out there that falls under the 802.11b umbrella. That opinion is based on experience. LAN stuff, take your pick. Each has a slightly different feature set. Find out which one suits your needs and get it.

 

[ktwebb]

&quot;With a good designed Yagi antennae, you can go up to 75 KM&quot;

I doubt it. Not with a high DBI parabolic and amped to the moon.

We have gotten a bridge to hit at close to 30 miles, but that was with the high gain parabolic, 22 dBI, and with a one watt amp, which is a lot of juice to one of these devices. And that was only 5.5 Mbps steady. We could do 11 but not consistently. 75 KM is what, 50 miles. No way. Well, I guess there is always a way, but not with any Yagi I have ever used. Yagis suck, IMO. Never tested with anything over that one watt amp and the 22dBI dish, but I would not advise it. Might have 3 legged children.

 

[IsOs]

TaylorD

On the computer that will act as a relay, you'll need 2 Wireless unit configured to have 2 distinct IP. Use an IP/Port forwarder (Proxy + will do) to direct communications (let say three computers A, B C where B is your relay - Computer C should be set to communicate with B) Now if C is in a position greater than 150 feet from B but closer to A (less than 150 feet), then you need to change settings in C to communicate with A for that instance.

It's a bit complicated but will work on Wireless network costing less than $100 a piece. (Intel USB 1.6 wireless is $99 each from my local Circuit City here).

Goodluck

 

[lerder]

KTwebb,

In regards to the lucent equipment I came by my assessment of these products through testing. I am currently moving a wireless net work at work from a test situation were we had incorporated products from cisco, aironet,3comm,lucent, and many different handheld devices and operating systems to see which products were more stable and user friendly to a supported platform. we chose lucent for its stability and ease of use. we currently have approximately 60 to 70 AP's with two wireless bridges setup spanning altogether a little over 2 miles. by the end of next year our site will have close to 150 AP,s augmenting our current wired lan supporting all together roughly 2,000+ users. Just my opin9ion wanted too let you know how I came by it. also I have to find the link to a study done not that long ago showing lucent products outperforming but not by alot all other products out there. and no it wasnt done by lucent.

 

[ktwebb]

That is cool lerder. Opinions will vary and my experience is a little different and that experience is extensive. Been doing the wireless LAN/WAN thing for close to four years, and the 802.11b stuff since it came out in late 98. Like I mentioned earlier, I believe the AP's to be in a statistical dead heat. If the Lucent outperforms the others, that is cool, but I suspect any test would show marginal improvements, and all the ones I have seen back that up, as well as my testing has shown this. I will stand by the Cisco bridge though. We have tried others on our long WAN links and have always come back to the Cisco bridge. The reliablity and feature set are simply the best IMO. We have put out about 100 Point to Point, and Point to Multipoint bridge solutions in the last couple of years and more AP's than I care to think about, so my experience with these products runs pretty deep, but if you guys like the lucent, then that is fine with me. Here is a link you might be interested in. You may have already heard/read about this company and their technology, but gigabit wireless is just about here and we are pumped to the f'n gills about it. We are testing this complanies 12 Mbps full duplex product at one of our sites right now, and hope to get the 480 Mbps Full duplex as soon as we can get our hands on it. Cheers.

Just hit the products link to look at the future of wireless. That may be a litte strong but the speed is almost here.
www.wmux.com

 

[lerder]

Thank you.

Have you played around with any VOIP with the WLAN? also have you tried doing MAC authentication using a radius server rather than having the MAC address list on the local machine, and if so have you run into any problems.??

thanks
again