[RESOLVED] going wireless

hey all i'm thinking of going wireless as i'm getting a laptop and all. i was wondering what you would say is the best wireless router/ nic's and what are the cheapest? now i live in canada but i'm sure that the hardware should be similar in price here. what are some pointers on how how to secure my wireless connection lol because i know from experience (my friend has piggybacked off a bunch of people wireless when driving around with his laptop and i believe he's been dumb enough to try "war driving" as well ) :wave: thanks for the help

I have a netgear and love it...

a lot of new laptops have built in wireless so u shouldnt need a nic.

as far as security just use the WEP key, it creates a an encryption key so it will be hard to break in. you could even turn off broadcasting your network name...

I dont have any encryption on mine, i only used card access control so only the cards i choose are allowed in. ive never found anyone else using it...(u can check connected devices...)

well its not a new laptop so it doesnt have a wireless nic with it. you know any places that explain the use of wep keys and such so i can do a little research on it ? and how much did you pay for you netgear?

I prefer Linksys WRT54 series router/WAPs (open source, lots of info, etc.) I like their PCMCIA wireless cards too.

As far as encryption, WPA is stronger than WEP (all modern equipment gives you the choice). I'm on a WPA/TKIP-secured wireless LAN at the moment and the owner (my wife's nephew) is a security expert, so I trust his judgment.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi-Fi_Protected_Access
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/u..._03july28.mspx
http://www.tomsnetworking.com/2002/11/01/wpa_/
http://compnetworking.about.com/cs/w...nwindowsxp.htm

There are dozens of articles on the web.

thanks for the sites i found out that i still had a network cable running into my room from when i had my xbox up there so for now (as i'm down to my last 400 bucks and its gotta last me till i the end of the summer or till i get a job ) i'll just use that thanks for the replys.