[lug] laptop partioning, boot loaders

[D. Stimits]

Thanks to all who replied, I was able to get the laptop partitioned and 
properly set up with no surprises. At the moment it has FC5 on it, dual 
boot with XP. I have to get some work done, so I decided to just use 
what I know. However, I won't have anything on it that can't be deleted 
a month from now, so at the end of a project I'll likely wipe it out and 
try Ubuntu on it next (the live cd ran flawlessly, but I have nothing 
wireless to test on at the moment so I don't know how wireless will do).

So...now I'm looking at wireless, and not sure exactly which of the 
wireless products will actually work (although I've seen "general" 
reports that the wireless items with this laptop do well with linux). It 
has available 802.11a/g, but not b. It also has bluetooth. I happen to 
have seen what looks like a very nice wireless Linksys WRT54AG dual band 
2.4 GHz B/G-5 GHz A router on sale (which won't be on sale in a week and 
probably will be out of stock prior to that):
http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?c=L_Product_C2&childpagename=US%2FLayout&cid=1115416826028&pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVisitorWrapper

Well, the information from the data sheet and other online data about 
the WRT54AG isn't as complete as I'd like, it's more from a "wireless 
for dummies" perspective (although I've been a dummy before, it doesn't 
answer some of my questions). Especially since this particular wireless 
router is able to simultaneously run both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz...and has a 
4 port switch. There is an "infrastructure" mode for access to LANs, 
which is what I'm interested in, but I'm wondering if anyone knows if 
the 2.4 GHz G and 5 GHz A can be set independently? Or if they share 
setup entirely?

Also, it talks about bridging, but I'm not certain that they mean this 
in the technical way...it sounds kind of like marketing speak, perhaps 
requiring yet more purchases  (YMMV). Specifically, I don't want it to 
assign IP addresses, nor to consume any...I want true bridging. But I do 
want to filter such that only the laptop's MAC can talk from the 
wireless side, locked down cold and tight without some drive-by 
script-kiddy getting in (I have to laugh, I still remember all the BLUG 
presentations on this topic).

What I'd *like* to do probably is not possible...but maybe someone here 
can tell me how possible it is, and whether the WRT54AG can do this.

I have a "safe" DMZ LAN that does not touch the outside world. It 
connects only locally. Everything here so far has 2 NIC's, and only the 
stuff not touching the outside world has any ability to do anything 
interesting. I have a second wired network which talks to the outside 
world on a cable modem, and is heavily firewalled. I'm hoping that 
somehow I can take this dual band router and bridge the 802.11A to the 
'safe' net with only the one MAC being allowed, and also connect the 
802.11G side to the net with the cable modem, using this single wireless 
device to access two separate wired LAN's and not let them overlap. I 
don't think this is possible, I doubt the connections on the WRT54AG can 
be set up separately, e.g., I doubt it is possible to connect 1 of the 
switch ports to one net and another to another net. Can anyone confirm this?

Assuming I can't get one device to work on both nets, would two of these 
units within say 15 feet of each other interfere and be a mess to avoid?

I'm wondering one more thing...the WRT54AG advertises 152 bit WEP 
encryption. Is this sufficient, or is it like many of the others that 
it's merely somewhat adequate and not even that if someone is determined 
to abuse it? The 40 bit and older stuff is just a joke. I noticed one of 
the other WRT54 variants advertised AES 128 bit encryption, but I'm 
guessing that this would require custom drivers and would not be usable 
on linux without great hassle.

D. Stimits, stimits AT comcast DOT net

D. Stimits wrote:

> I'm about to attempt converting a laptop to dual boot xp and linux 
> (not decided on the flavor yet). It boots great under several live 

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