[ale] [OT] really stupid wireless questions

[BruceG]

On Fri, 2004-02-20 at 14:05, J.M. Taylor wrote:
> What's the easiest/chepest way to integrate a wireless notebook into an 
> existing wired network?  Replace the existing switch with a 
> switch/wireless base station?  
> 
> Also, anybody know how easy it is to allow an authorized user to jump from 
> one wireless network to another if those networks have been properly 
> secured?  Unfortunately I'm dealing with WinXP here. The user in question 
> will need to regularly (and seamlessly) move from one network to another 
> with absolutely minimal pain.  And I know *nothing* about wireless except 
> what I've read about securing a wireless network on SANS and others.
> 
> 
>  Thanks
> jenn

Well, I can help answer one part. You can use a combination router /
switch / wap - or a standalone wap. Since your network is already up and
running (I'm guessing) - the quickest, easiest thing to do is just buy a
wap.If you plan on supporting 802.11G at some point, you could install
an 802.11G WAP. They are backwards compatible with 802.11B.

I personally like the Linksys product, but there are a lot of choices.
My Linksys Wireless Access Point installed quickly, and dhcp / dns is
served from my pre-existing Linksys router.

Some gotchas - you either configure the Linksys with a CD under Windows,
or you make sure your IP address is in the 192.168.1.0 range, and you
open a web browser to 192.168.1.245 (the default IP for the Linksys
WAP). I'll not pass the default password - it will be in your docs.

For ease of use in going from one zone to another, you can set the WAPS
up to broadcast their SSID, operate in mixed mode (both 802.11B and
802.11G) and disable wireless security. That's not a pretty thing - so
you would want to disable SSID broadcast and enable wireless security
after testing.