# Bit Of Advice On Wireless Broadband



## philjopa (May 18, 2005)

Recently got Tiscali broadband at home. Used to be with Virgin Media but I ditched them due to costs etc. The modem is all wired up and the connection works fine. I now want a wireless connection. Do I simply need to plug a router into the modem to do this and if so anyone got a suggestion for a decent (but cheap) router? Its for home use only in and around the house.


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## strange_too (Feb 19, 2007)

philjopa said:


> Recently got Tiscali broadband at home. Used to be with Virgin Media but I ditched them due to costs etc. The modem is all wired up and the connection works fine. I now want a wireless connection. Do I simply need to plug a router into the modem to do this and if so anyone got a suggestion for a decent (but cheap) router? Its for home use only in and around the house.


I'd get a ADSL modem with WiFi router, personally I like Netgear kit.

Dependant on the size of your house depends what type of kit you get. A 802.11G version is about Â£50 and if you haven't got a WiFi adapter you can get bundled version for a Â£10 more.

I'll PM you some suggestion once I know what range you need.


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## nursegladys (Aug 4, 2006)

Don't even get me started on this subject, Howard is helping out.

BT customer service :*****:


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## Silver Hawk (Dec 2, 2003)

strange_too said:


> Dependant on the size of your house depends what type of kit you get.


Not just size but construction type as well. Wireless is lousy in our house with its internal double thickness brick walls.

As a result, I've switched to mains-based networks using the HomePlug technology...and it works a treat....very easy to set up...and much more reliable...and faster....but a little more expensive.

More here ---> http://www.thinkbroadband.com/hardware/rev.../q4/devolo.html

Cheers

Paul


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## philjopa (May 18, 2005)

Thanks for the tips guys.

We've only got one telephone socket which is in the hallway so the modem is currently sat next to the phone. Just don't want a load of wires all over the house which incidentally is a bungalow. It'll probably only be used in the lounge which is next to the hallway anyway so it doesn't need to be anything with any great range.


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## strange_too (Feb 19, 2007)

philjopa said:


> Thanks for the tips guys.
> 
> We've only got one telephone socket which is in the hallway so the modem is currently sat next to the phone. Just don't want a load of wires all over the house which incidentally is a bungalow. It'll probably only be used in the lounge which is next to the hallway anyway so it doesn't need to be anything with any great range.


This will do the job very well the Netgear DG834G.


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## MIKE (Feb 23, 2003)

I use a Belkin system with my Tiscali broardband. No problems at all but I did have to get a chap in to set it up, as I could not figure it out









Mike


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## jasonm (Nov 22, 2003)

MIKE said:


> I use a Belkin system with my Tiscali broardband. No problems at all but I did have to get a chap in to set it up, as I could not figure it out
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Me too Mike....I was on the phone to Linkseys for ages configuring my lappy and the router, ticking this box that box, ip addresses up the ying yang etc.....very frustrating


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## MIKE (Feb 23, 2003)

jasonm said:


> MIKE said:
> 
> 
> > I use a Belkin system with my Tiscali broardband. No problems at all but I did have to get a chap in to set it up, as I could not figure it out
> ...


Glad I'm not on my own







I just could not get my head round it









Mike


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## thereaper101 (Sep 26, 2006)

strange_too said:


> philjopa said:
> 
> 
> > Thanks for the tips guys.
> ...


Yep. i`ll second that, DG834G is a good peice of kit.

Make sure you secure it once you have internet / wifi access.

Use WPA-PSK instead of WEP, as WEP only gives you 10 mins of protection (thats how long it will take a spotty teenager near you to get free broadband and more)

Nick


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## strange_too (Feb 19, 2007)

thereaper101 said:


> Yep. i`ll second that, DG834G is a good peice of kit.
> 
> Make sure you secure it once you have internet / wifi access.
> 
> ...


I can do it in a minute







and I'm not a teenager


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## jasonm (Nov 22, 2003)

So you are spotty then?


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## strange_too (Feb 19, 2007)

Nope









I'll go get my black hat


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## chris l (Aug 5, 2005)

Specified MAC address connections are the most secure. The rest are crackable to a greater or lesser degree, WPA is much better than WEP.


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## rhaythorne (Jan 12, 2004)

Spoofing a MAC address is only another 2 seconds work though 

However, let's not go all "techie" and scare people off







The important thing, as others have suggested, is to secure the connection with the strongest method supported by your equipment. The likelyhood of someone breaking into it mostly depends on how "interesting" the connection appears to be. A wi-fi access point obviously belonging to a "cool" company might be interesting to probe but, to be honest, a residential access point is probably not worth bothering with. If it's free Internet access they're after there are still loads of people who don't bother securing their wi-fi networks or even the default settings so why bother breaking into your secured network when they can just waltz straight in to someone else's?

For fun, if nothing else, get a laptop computer and install Netstumbler (Windows) or Kismet (Linux), two of my favourite wi-fi detection tools. Then walk down your street or to the end of your garden and see how far you can go before the signal from your access point disappears. The distance depends on the equipment, its location and the local geography of course, but I bet you'll find it's a lot further than you thought! You might want to re-site your access point depending on your results.

Then, you can hook up a GPS unit and go for a drive  Here's an excerpt from a map I made a few years ago. There's a neat utility that's still available called Stumbverter that can take the logs and GPS data from Netstumbler and convert them into MS MapPoint files.










The green "beacons" represent unsecured access points whilst the red "beacons" are secured with WEP or better. Some of the unsecured access points are Internet Cafes and the like, but many aren't.

Incidentally, "wardriving" as they call it, isn't illegal provided you don't actually connect to any of the discovered networks without the appropriate permission.


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## Robert (Jul 26, 2006)

Remember this Telegraph


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## rhaythorne (Jan 12, 2004)

Yep, as long as you don't connect, you're OK. Some people even deliberately disable TCP/IP on their laptops so that it's not even possible to connect, even accidentally.


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