[lug] Wireless router shopping

[BOF]

Thomas R Detman wrote:

> I<snip>
> Now I'm shopping for a wireless router for my house.  My house is
> a "Microsoft free" zone; well except for an old dual boot pentium 3
> that is rarely turned on.  It's not currently connected to anything.
> We also have an iBook (the old clam shell type) and an inkjet printer.
>
> I'm looking for advice and options to network most or all of these
> things together.  Also what pitfalls to watch out for.


I just went through this in setting up my home wireless net.

Be very careful about what hardware (especially wifi PCMCIA cards) you 
choose --- check first to see that it will work with Linux, or can be 
made to work with minimal effort, or you will be in for a lot of 
headache. This link may help in selecting equipment

http://www.linux-wlan.org/docs/wlan_adapters.html.gz. 

Be advised, however, that some manufacturers will change chipsets 
without notification, so pay attention to version numbers. You might 
also find this page useful

http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_Tourrilhes/Linux/

I am currently running a Linksys WRT55AG (802.11a/b/g bands) as my 
access point. It can be set up via a web browser, as I believe that most 
of the Linksys products can. The WRT54G might be useful 
(http://www.linksys.com/products/product.asp?grid=33&scid=35&prid=6) and 
I think is running on sale for about $60 - $80.

Also, of course, be aware of security. When I got my network going, I 
found that there were three other access points that my system could 
pick up. All of them used the default 802.11g channel (six), none of 
them used encryption, and only one had bothered to change the SSID for 
the network. CLUE had a meeting on wireless security in August. See 
http://clue.denver.co.us/presentations.html for the August meeting to 
download the presentation.

Hope this helped.

BOF