Fun with computers (for you technonerds)

[Y2K5SRT]

It's about 3:45 AM and I am VERY late for bed. Why? I have been setting up a new WIRELESS network for my PC's at home! I was having a heck of a time getting my cable modem to configure with my access point (802.11b - 11 Mbps max throughput) but finally figured it out. I can now get high speed Net anywhere in my house or yard (or neighbor's for that matter). I have two laptops with wireless cards (<$150 a pop for the cards) and could also add a wireless card to my desktop PC. The signal is excellent and the system works like a champ! Guess I won't need to stock the bathroom with newspapers anymore!

Chris

[sleepersn95]

Watch out for the 2.4ghz cordless phones

[Tom Friend]

I tried the Cisco wireless cards. Very high power consumption for my laptop, and only 11mb speed. Sticking with Cat5 for home, but I like reading my email during those long boring meetings at work...

[Y2K5SRT]

Sleepers - Yep, gotta watch out for the 2.4 Ghz phones, as well as possible interference from microwave ovens. I've been usuing this standard for over two years all over the world and have yet to come across a problem. Never say never!

Tom - Agreed on the power consumption. I use three different cards - two from Aironet (acquired by Cisco) and one from Lucent. Both seem to do OK but do drain the power at times. I figure that I have a LOT more power outlets than I do Cat 5 outlets (1) at home. I can surf in the garage while the Zaino dries, check e-mails and read the Wall Street Journal Online edition while I eat breakfast, and do a bunch of other nifty things without being stuck in one place. With cable modem I will never even approach 11 Mbps. A T-1 will only pass a maximum of 1.544 Mbps - a fraction of what the wireless will carry on the infrastructure. They are saying that 802.11x will be closer to 50 Mbps. The challenge will be to find a pipe out of the building or home that will carry those speeds (end-to-end fiber).

I will also put in an unnamed plug for my company: We have been doing 802.11 wireless for almost four years and that is what I sell and manage on a day-to-day basis. You will find that there are a LOT of hotels (400+) where you can use it anywhere on property, as well as several airports (DFW, SeaTac, San Jose, Austin, etc.). You can sit anywhere in these airports, including the restaurants, bathrooms, and first +/- 10 rows of the gated airplanes and get a good signal. It really makes those long connections speed right on by.

I am thrilled with my home access because it has taken this long to squeeze my company for an access point (commercial grade, encrypted). I thought about some of the 802.11 home products because there are SO many coming out now (access points under $250), but I am being cheap so that I can buy Viper goodies instead. Priorities!

Chris

[RECOIL]

You guys should see my "server room" in the house. I'm running multiple rackmounted Unix servers with a T1 and 150GB.

For my personal surfing (I don't want to take away any bandwidth from my "hobby"), I use a cable modem hooked to an Aironet wireless setup. There's nothing better than walking around the house with my laptop on-line staying connected.

I'm moving my servers out of the house into an ISP next week. My hobby has outgrown my T-1. And the cooling the third floor is a pain with all that heat coming out of the server room. I was going to drop in a second HVAC zone but decided to co-lo.

It's good to know I'm surrounded by fellow hackers and Viper lovers!

<grin>

Steve

[Y2K5SRT]

So you are saying I should have called YOU when I failed to get my Aironet 4800E (Turbo DS) AP to talk to my cable modem! It is pretty fun, eh?

Chris

[RECOIL]

I run VNC on my 2K boxes. Most of my servers are BSD though.

I had no idea you could run VNC on CE PDAs. That's kinda cool.

You're right. There's nothing quite like surfing the Net wirelessly. Personally, I wouldn't admit to surfing while on the can. <grin>

Any techno guys running any cool web sites? I run and own www.virginiabeach.com.

Steve

[Supercharged Vipermad]

Cool! Nerds own vipers too. I thought I was alone. Ill be around this part . . .

I have cat 5 allover my Condo too. I want to set up my HP jornada 540 with a CF wireless lan card. Right now I have a regular Cat 5 CF ethernet card that works killer. As well as a cellular modem CF (compact flash) card.

Ultimate euphoria is surfing the internet from my color handheld HP completely wireless while sitting on the can (lord knows I sit in there sometimes until my legs go numb)

VNC works great for any of you CE junkies. I can run virtual desktop from my HP pocket_pc and control my 2 desktops on the HP just like I was behind them.

Cool.

[Supercharged Vipermad]

Scott,

I have that Linksys DSL-Cable router/Firewall. . . If its the one you have thats a killer box for a killer price . . . But beware . Its pretty hackable. My brother out as LSIL in Colorado designs semiconducters and says that there are ways in if you know what you are doing . .If you have anything of EXTREME privacy i would think of setting up something like a linux gateway/firewall . . . I have not had any problems with mine though (people hacking it). If people want in my machine they will just get a bunch of car pictures and nake lady pictures . . .All my important stuff is at work . . .

Keith

[RECOIL]

Nothing better than putting up a firewall. I would personally use BSD instead of Linux. It's free, just like Linux and less "open-source".

After owning a few ISPs, I can say it's definitely tighter security wise. I'm not saying you can't lock down a Linux server, but out of the box, for the newbie to Unix, you can't go wrong with BSD.

I had a BSD box live for over 400 days. It would have been longer had I not killed the wrong process (typo).

I've heard good things about that Linksys box too, but I haven't played with one.

Steve

[Y2K5SRT]

I ran my 3Com cable modem through a Linksys workgroup switch. This feeds my two desktops and my Aironet wireless access point. I don't store anything of importance on these PC's, but have enjoyed ZoneAlarm Pro as a software firewall. I am setting up a hardware firewall at some point soon. I am relocating my access point, as I am not getting a great signal in my basement (two stories up). Much less expensive than rewiring with Cat 5, much as I would have liked.

Chris

[Supercharged Vipermad]

Just picked up the Linksys access point and PCMCIA cards. Pretty killer. Linksys was thinking then they made this peice. They make their parts stackable. I have it stacked on my router looks wild.

[RECOIL]

BBS? Did someone say BBS? I actually ran my first BBS on a Commodore 64 (C-NET). I went to a C-128 a couple years later. Remember the day of 1200 baud modems? Luckily I skipped the 300 baud generation.

I went from the Commodore computer to DOS machines. At that time, I started running MajorBBS because it could handle more than one phone line. When it was all said and done, I had 37 phone lines coming into my house!

I went from a BBS to an ISP (natural evolution for a BBS) and later sold it off to a larger ISP. I still have my WG (WorldGroup) software, and thought about putting something up for the Viper brethen here. I have over $15K invested in this software (just sitting around) and bandwidth coming out of my eyes.

Steve
Ex-SysOp!

[Supercharged Vipermad]

I laugh.

Timex sinclair 1000 (Z-80 inside)

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