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 with an Ethernet cable, we can access the Web, but we can’t sync up on the wireless connection anymore. What’s going on?

It sounds like you left your router setup with its default out-of-the-box configuration and someone took control of your network and enabled WEP while you were away. You may be a victim of a wardriver. Wardrivers / wardriving is a term used to describe people who drive around looking for unprotected wireless networks. In your email you mention you live in an apartment, so it’s possible someone in your building found your network by searching for an available network connection. If you left your router in its default configuration while you were on vacation, the wardriver could then log into your router, enable WEP, and keep your wireless connection all to himself. We know this sounds a little nuts, but it happens all the time. However, it’s not always malicious because some folks will do this to inform less savvy users that their networks are unprotected and they need to secure them.

What you should do is connect to your router via an Ethernet cable and then reset your router to its factory configuration by holding down the reset button on the back of the unit for a few seconds and cycling the power. Then, once the router is reset, immediately log into it, change your SSID and your router login password, and enable a stronger form of wireless protection, preferably WPA or WPA2 (if it’s available). If you’re unsure how to log into your router, there should be instructions in its installation manual. Log-ging in to your router is usually fairly easy: All you have to do is enter the router’s internal IP address into your Web browser (it’s probably 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1) and then enter the default username and password. For that router, leave the username blank and use the password ‘admin’ to log in. While you’re at it, we’d also recommend updating your router with the latest firmware, which should be available on Linksys’ web site.

For more, read the 10-Minutes Guide to Wireless Security

My recommendation is to get a router with firewall capabilities.

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]

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 the Available networks area, highlight the desired secure network again and click Configure. A new dialog box appears. Make sure that the secure network SSID is correct, enable encryption, and then enter the necessary key(s) in the spaces provided, this dialog will appear a bit different for WPA-type security. Click OK to accept the key(s).

You should connect to the secure network once you click OK. If you still do not connect, double check the encryption key(s) and make sure they are correct. Remember that unless you’ve set up the wireless network yourself, you’ll need to obtain any encryption keys from the secure wireless network operator.

[tags]Wireless Network Security, WPA, Encryption[/tags]

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 green bars. Close the dialog box.

If your signal strength is low, right-click the wireless network icon again and select View Available Wireless Networks from the menu. A dialog box appears and lists all of the wireless networks that your laptop detects.

Select one of the available wireless networks and click Connect. After a moment, you’ll receive a new IP (Internet Protocol) address and notification of your connection strength. Check the connection status again. If you have better strength, you can stay with that new connection (or try another available wireless network if you like).

[tags]Wireless Network, Windows XP[/tags]

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 workaround that allows you to use Windows drivers to get network cards running under Linux. It is called ndiswrapper and works very well for many cards. Newbies may be intimidated by what it takes to use ndiswrapper, but we plan to do an article on it because it really makes a huge difference in the number of network cards available for Linux.

[tags]ndiswrapper, wireless driver for linux[/tags]

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 Linksys WUSB54G wireless network adapter.

Having done a thorough check for virus or other kinds of malicious software, the issue is most likely the hardware, your WUSB54G, or the software associated with it. Check on the Linksys support website to verify you’re using latest firmware & software.

A quick check on Linksys’s Easy Answer technical sites reveals a similar issue, what they refer to as Getting Association (signal strength), but no Internet Access. (Click on the link to open for solution)

This article will guide you on setting up a fixed IP address and directly inputting the DNS settings. This ensures that your wireless adapter does not have to renew or refresh setting when it re-establishes the signal to the wireless access point.

[tags]Linksys, Wireless USB Adapter[/tags]

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 priority if there is a already a detected access point in your wireless network settings. If you wish to intervene and not let the wireless connect automatically when your notebook is in range, the simplest thing to do is use a physical switch to switch on / off the wireless.

Most notebooks today have such a switch. Should your notebook not be equipped with a switch, you can turn to the software switch.

Under wireless LAN Access Point Properties, you can set the connectivity to “On Demand”. This means that if you need to connect, you need to go into the list of available APs and click “Connect”.

[tags]wireless notebook [/tags]

I received email from Johns on setting up wireless home network.

I currently use Alcatel modem (Speed Touch 330) given to me from ISP and I simply can’t get to work with Gentoo Linux (2.6.9 Kernel). I decided to build a wireless home network, so I’m planning to buy a D-Link DSL-G604T wireless ADSL router.

My first question is: Is this hardware fully compatible with Linux or do I need to install any drivers as with the Alcatel modem?

I have notebook and wanted to connect it to the network through a wireless cardbus adapter. I want a card supported natively by a kernel module, something that could work straight out of the box. After some reading, I found that it should be a card with Prism 2/2.5/3 chipset, but I’m confused and don’t know how to find a manufacturer or vendor of a popular cheap card with that chipset. So my second is, can you suggest a good adaptor using Prism chipset?

The wireless router from D-Link will make the connection to your ISP over DSL circuit, so you will not need any PPPoE or PPPoA support on the Linux system.

You can connect straight into the router using Ethernet and DHCP against the router for an internal IP address. Essentially, everything will be offloaded on to the router, making you Linux system a plain old workstation, rather than a router.

As far as PCMCIA wireless adaptors are concerned, you can check out www.linux-wlan.org or www.prism54.org

You’ll find that Prism54 identifies devices supporting the 802.22g standard as well as 802.22b for faster connectivity. Prism2 and Prism54 cards are identified by Knoppix at boot time, and will enable you to access the internet easily without having to install a large number of supporting packages.

I’m highly recommending you to read Wi-Fi Toys: 15 Cool Wireless Projects for Home, Office, and Entertainment.