Your Guide To Wireless

Your Wireless Router Hacked

I bought a Linksys WRT54G wireless router so that my brother and I could share one Internet connection in our apartment. As soon as I plugged the router in, it worked fine with my cable modem service and everything was OK for a few weeks. But we recently went on a vacation, and when we got back, neither of us could wirelessly connect to the network. We're both getting a WEP error. I know WEP is a security thing, but I don't remember ever setting it up. If we connect our laptops to the router wit...

Wireless Bandwidth

Why doesn’t my wireless notebook exceed more than 10Mbps (megabits per second)? How can I speed this up? If you're not breaking 11Mbps, either your notebook or wireless access point is probably using the 802.11b standard. To achieve higher wireless bandwidth, both your notebook and the wireless accessvpoint must be upgraded to the 802.11g standard (up to 54Mbps) or the emerging 802.11n standard (up to 540Mbps). You're limited to the slowest part of your network link. For example, if you use an 802.11n wireless router but use a notebook with an 802.11b wireless NIC (network interface card), you'll be stuck at the slower 802.11b rate. If both ends of your wireless link support higher data rates, there are some other factors to consider. Long distances, obstructions, and nearby wireless telephones on the same frequencies can impair your bandwidth. You can try turning off wireless telephones and move closer to the access point to improve the line of sight between your notebook and the access point. [tags]Wireless Bandwidth[/tags]

Quick Tips for Wireless Network on Windows XP

Question I want to use a different wireless network, but it's secure. How can I get onto the new wireless network? If a wireless network is secured with encryption, you will need to provide a valid encryption key to access the secured network. First, right-click the wireless network icon in your System Tray and then click View Available Wireless Networks. Highlight the name of the secured wireless network that you want to use and click Advanced. A Properties dialog box should open. In th...

Quick Tips for Wireless Network on Windows XP

Question: There are several wireless networks operating at work, but how can I choose the one that is best for my Windows XP laptop? The best connection is usually the fastest, so select the wireless network that offers the best signal strength. First, right-click the wireless network icon in your System Tray and select Status from the menu. A dialog box will illustrate the connection and report on signal strength as a series of green bars. The strongest connections will have five gr...

Drivers for Linux

Your Guide to Wireless's reader email to me, asking for help in wireless driver for linux. One of the main limitations of Linux is the lack of drivers written for Linux. I have two computers, but I've installed Linux on only one. The other has a USB wireless adapter that connects to the Internet. It's a NETGEAR WG121, which doesn't have a Linux driver. I lack the skill to develop a wrapper, or whatever it's called, for this driver, so I just have to stick to Windows XP. There is a work...

No Data Transmission

Another email from Chester. He is facing Internet communication problem with his latest Linksys wireless network adapter. When I disable my Internet connection for a period of time and try to activate it again, I find that no data is transmitted. I have tried scanning with Ad-ware, AVG Free AntiVirus, Spybot S&D and AntiVir PE. I have tried release and renew IP address with ipconfig, but the IP address is 0.0.0.0. My system details: P4 2.8Ghz, 512MB RAM, on Windows XP Professional SP2 and a...

Wired with Wireless

Another received this week from Milton Goh for his Windows XP Pro notebook. I have a home network with a wireless access point. I would like to surf via local area network or wirelessly using my notebook computer. My problem is that it seems that I can do the above, but only after reconfiguring the notebook network settings each time. Is there a way to permenently configure my notebook with fixed settings? He is using Windows XP Pro edition The wireless network connectivity will have...