From owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Oct 11 15:46:00 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7C00E16A4B3 for ; Sat, 11 Oct 2003 15:46:00 -0700 (PDT) Received: from smtp2.knology.net (smtp2.knology.net [24.214.63.13]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 9D04743FAF for ; Sat, 11 Oct 2003 15:45:57 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from dkelly@HiWAAY.net) Received: (qmail 10603 invoked from network); 11 Oct 2003 22:45:54 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO user-24-214-34-52.knology.net) (24.214.34.52) by smtp2.knology.net with SMTP; 11 Oct 2003 22:45:54 -0000 From: David Kelly To: chat@FreeBSD.ORG Date: Sat, 11 Oct 2003 17:45:56 -0500 User-Agent: KMail/1.5.4 References: <20031011212201.GA67228@bishop.my.domain> In-Reply-To: <20031011212201.GA67228@bishop.my.domain> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Message-Id: <200310111745.56278.dkelly@HiWAAY.net> Subject: Re: General Wireless Network Question X-BeenThere: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Non technical items related to the community List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 11 Oct 2003 22:46:00 -0000 On Saturday 11 October 2003 04:22 pm, Greg Pavelcak wrote: > Well, I've done some online searching and got some helpful stuff > from FreeBSD mail archives, but I would just like to double check a > couple of things. > > In the wireless world, I don't understand an access point. Right > now, we have Comcast cable internet, a 4 port router, and a few > computers all wired, and all with access to the internet. Am I right > in thinking that I can just replace the current router with a > wireless router, get some wireless network cards, and get the same > results? That is the idea. However I fail to understand why you would want to do this if you already have wires in place. Wired connections are faster, more reliable, more secure, and cheaper. Especially cheaper when you already have wires paid for. What you might want to do is suppliment your network with an Access Point for a laptop. If you add-on rather than replace the router then when wireless is not active then you can simply turn that box off. Some find it entertaining to surf the streets with a laptop looking for access points. Once found its not hard to get in if only WEP is used. I have the hardware but have not enabled wireless here until I find/make the time to enforce IPsec over that link. -- David Kelly N4HHE, dkelly@hiwaay.net ===================================================================== The human mind ordinarily operates at only ten percent of its capacity -- the rest is overhead for the operating system.