Can I wirelessly hook up my notebook to my wireless network?

[Capn Sunshine]

I've never dealt w/ a notebook before. I've got a wireless hub for internet. Can I put this machine on it using the infrared ? Or am I missing a part like the little towers my desktops use??

PS It's a Dell inspiron 3700.

[jayfish]

1. You Will Need A Wireless...

NIC of the PCMCIA variety. IR will not work.

Jay

[Capn Sunshine]

2. Hey, I've got one of those!

Now what?

[jayfish]

3. Plug It In And Install The...

drivers for it. Although I don't recommend it, your wireless access point is probably setup for DHCP so your laptop should connect right out of the gate. The only thing that should be left to do on your laptop is enter your WEP encryption key.

Jay

[Capn Sunshine]

4. If you don't recommend it , what would be better?

Thisis a home network , two desktops running on a wireless hub.

Ps it didn't detect anything. Its a truckstop
Thanks Jayfish

[jayfish]

5. Static IP Addresses Outside...

of the 192.168.0.x subnet. With DHCP active anyone who drives by or lives next-door can tap into your network. Also if I detected a foreign wireless network that wasn't using DHCP and wanted to gain access I would use 192.168.0.254 for an IP. In a residential setting, I bet I would get on that network more often than not.

Jay

[Capn Sunshine]

6. YIKES!

I'm hooked up to several secure Banking and Brokerage house accounts.
That would totally suck. Thanks for the heads up.

[jayfish]

7. Even The Steps I Outlined...

wouldn't stop a determined cracker from eventually gaining access to your network. It might discourage them enough to move on to easier picking though. Another thing you would want to do is make sure your access point isn't broadcasting it's SSID. You might be interested in this article.

http://www.tomsnetworking.com/Sections-article111.php

<SNIP>
The Feds can own your WLAN too

Introduction

Millions of wireless access points are spread across the US and the world. About 70% percent of these access points are unprotected—wide open to access by anyone who happens to drive by. The other 30% are protected by WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) and a small handful are protected by the new WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) standard.

At a recent ISSA (Information Systems Security Association) meeting in Los Angeles, a team of FBI agents demonstrated current WEP-cracking techniques and broke a 128 bit WEP key in about three minutes. Special Agent Geoff Bickers ran the Powerpoint presentation and explained the attack, while the other agents (who did not want to be named or photographed) did the dirty work of sniffing wireless traffic and breaking the WEP keys.
</SNIP>

I had a wireless network setup for about a year and eventually got rid of it. I seem to remember that my router had the ability to do 256-bit WEP keys. If yours can do the same you would be a lot better off.

Jay

[Longhorn]

10. A friend of mine brought her wireless so that we could work on a project

together. She couldn't get internet access until I turned off the firewall on the other three computers on the network. We live out in the country so it's not likely that someone could get close enough to gain access without our seeing him (or the dogs barking like crazy) but it made me feel good to know that the firewall worked.

[welshTerrier2]

8. using MAC addresses for security

i am in the process of learning a little more about wi-fi security so i'm not sure if the following is accurate or not ... i hope others will comment ...

here's what i've read and been told ... WEP is "pretty good" but i've heard that lots of people can easily crack the encryption algorithms ...

better than, or in addition to WEP, is using "MAC" addressing ... btw, MAC has nothing whatsoever to do with Apple MacIntosh machines ... the MAC address of each "node" or device on your network that is able to "talk to" your router is a series of numbers and letters physically written on each device ... so, for example, if you have a wi-fi PCMCIA card installed on your laptop, the MAC address should be clearly labeled on the card ... just pop it out and read it ...

and here's the good part as i understand it ... using your router configuration software (i.e. logging into your router), there should be some type of configuration or setup menu that lets you type in MAC addresses (some find the MAC address automatically and you just click OK to authorize that device) ... why is this good? because doing so tells your router that it should only communicate with that specific device ... so, if someone is driving by or the neighbor's kid tries to access your network through your router, your router won't provide any data to them because they won't have an authorized MAC address ... it's sort of hard-coding the list of "good guys" your router will give access to ... everyone else is blocked out ...

warning: make sure you add all necessary MAC addresses or at least one before activating MAC address security ... otherwise, you might not be able to talk to your router from any machine ... there will be no "good guys" on the list ...

it's important to note that the wi-fi security being discussed here only protects communication between your home computers and your router ... once the modem sends the signal out to the internet, or is receiving transmissions from the internet, other security needs to be in place ...

wi-fi security types, was this info correct ???

[Capn Sunshine]

9. Thats a cool suggestion tho

Thanks a lot !