The Wireless

[Danny_Labrador]

How many of you out there (where?) have got this WiFi thingy ? Its revolutionised our home – we all sit in different rooms now privately surfing. Daughter comes home from University and logs on with her laptop without any difficulty.
Bloody amazing – why didn’t we invent it sooner ?

 

[aitchw]

Got the bits but can't get it working!!!!!!!!!! B****r.

 

[boatmike]

Have you thought that perhaps if it had been invented sooner you might not have a daughter? Sounds like an excellent contraceptive to me!

 

[Danny_Labrador]

Re Daughter

When the inevitable first car was bought a farmer next door commented - "most expensive night out you have ever had!"

 

[BrendanS]

Had it for a couple of years, it's wonderful, especially when you can take the laptop out in the garden with a glass of wine on a summer evening

 

[BlueChip]

Wireless - got it on the boat in the marina , at home, in the office and on my latest christmas pressy a Pocket Loox VGA PDA with bluetooth and wireless
Fabulous kit - don't know how I lived without it. Its just so useful in all sorts of ways

 

[bruce]

and anybody driving around the neighborhood can use it also, called 'cruising' over here, opens you up to porno site charges ya never seen! would recomend checking range outside and watch for strange vehicles parked in your 'zone'

 

[Koeketiene]

Read the article in The Times, did you?

Just some reporter scaremongering and displaying his ignorance. There are quite a few simple but adequate security measures you can put in place without having to be a rocket scientist.

 

[FrayBentos]

That Times article was not so far fetched. I have an application on my pda that looks for open wireless network connections, when it finds one, it connects and tries a test web connection to Google, if successful it logs the network name and location (using GPS position)
Walking around my small Buckinghamshire village for 45 minutes one evening I picked up 17 wireless networks, 8 were completely open. Scary thing was that some people had even named their network with their own family name or house name!
So if you have a wireless network at home - at the very least double check you have turned off SSID broadcast and enabled WEP data ancryption. That way you will be safe from most threats

 

[npf1]

Don't foget that some people leave them open intentionally as they have an 'open source' sort of approach.

BTW were you aware that you can now get high gain 2.4MHz antennas and more powerful wireless cards which when used together are calimed to give a rage of 8 to 10 miles (if line of sight). Now that makes wireless on a boat far more feasable.

Also, I've recently got a wireless serial port adapter. Haven't fitted it yet but it will transmit my NMEA data to a tablet PC.

Yes, I just love technology!!

 

[Danny_Labrador]

Now that's interesting - better get the manual out again ! /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

 

[billmacfarlane]

The system you probably use at work if you connect your company pc to a network using copper cabling is called " ethernet". Does the "ether" part of the name ring a bell? Yep, it was originally a radio system in the late 60's and the hard wired system called ethernet was developed from it. Now we're returning to radio again. Plus ca change as they might say.

 

[tworeefs]

I agree that it's extremely useful in a marina and a real bonus allowing one to spend more time on the boat. The only trouble is the lack of compatibility between all the different marina providers. If you hop from marina to marina you end up paying for multiple wi-fi subscriptions.

 

[Brucey]

I agree fantastic invention using it now with the laptop. There are a few steps you can take with Wi-Fi to ensure no one else uses it as mentioned above. One of the main ones is each Wi-Fi card has it's own"MAC address" and you can set your network to only allow certain MAC Addresses so even if someone finds your SSID name and WEP password they can't access anything unless you enable their card.

 

[fireball]

Until they change the MAC address of their card to match the one your allowing ...

For the majority of home users WEP or WPA security without broadcasting SSID is sufficient. (WPA is better!)
It is also possible to setup the firewall in the ADSL router to block all internal WLAN IP addresses from accessing the internet - with the exception of your own IPs of course... again - easily bypassed, but all adds up the hasstle of breaking in ..

Using a local machine firewall as well as the ADSL one will also help protect your computer from anyone that does manage to get on your wireless connection.

At the end of the day it is a matter of putting in suitable protection for your location.

 

[Benbow]

The 1st thing to do is to put a secure passowrd on your wireless router. Then set a strong encryption. After that you are pretty safe.

Turning off SSID prevents only the very casual and ill-equipped hacker. MAC addresses are easy to spoof and your machine is constsantly broadcasting its own address.

 

[Cutter]

For the less technically competent who just about managed to set up their wireless could one of you whizzo type people explain in simple terms how to make this secure. Is there a good guide?
Thanks
Richard

 

[ChrisE]

I'm not particularly technical but followed the instructions that came on the box of my wireless network cards ( Belgin) to set up a local network (ie only my PCs). I then went onto my firewall (Norton) which had a wizard to recognise friendly ports (mine!) and exclude all others.

 

[Benbow]

without knowing the hardware you have I can only give general guidance. But try this.

1. Connect to your router with a network cable.
2. browse to your router. the instructions will tell you its default address but it is commonly 192.168.2.1. in this case type http://192.168.2.1 in your browser's address bar.
3. you should see the router's admin page. You should be able to see how to set the password here. Choose a 'secure' one, ie not a real word.
4. under wireless-security you should see encryption options. Typically 64 or 128 bit wep. Choose 128 bit hex. Often they allow you to generate the key by entering a phrase like 'benbow is a decent chap' this generates a number with digits 0-9,a-f. Make a note of it.
5. Save and log out.
6. Look at the wireless settings on your PC. Set the same type of encryption and enter the number from the router - some allow you to use a phrase some don't. If so use the same phrase if not enter the number that your phrase generated on the router.

That's it. You should now have an encrypted wireless connection. If you mess up you can reset the router to factory defaults with its reset button.

HTH

 

[AndrewB]

Any ideas for WiFi on a steel boat?

Yes a wonderful invention. A problem I have though is that sitting inside a steel boat we don't pick up the marina WiFi, let alone any unsecured systems of our affluent neighbours.

It's pretty cold in the cockpit at this time of year. Does anyone know if it is possible to rig up an external antennae, and if so, where to buy it and how to connect it to a laptop?