[Ti] Intro To Wi-Fi

[Bruce Alsobrook]

On Jan 10, 2004, at 10:38 PM, S. Moussly wrote:

> I would like to set up a wireless network at home using a DSL line so 
> I can
> access the internet using my Tibook. My question is: do I need a base
> station (Mac or PC) to configure and transmit the wireless signal, or 
> is
> possible to connect the Airport and configure it directly through the
> hub/router?
>
I set up a wireless network in my home so that I could connect a 333mhz 
iMac with a 400mhz G3 iMac, a 250mhz G3 Kanga Powerbook and my Tibook 
(667). The router is a Belkin wireless router ($30 on ebay shipped). 
The 400 is wired to the router with an Ethernet cable; the 333 is 
connected via a Belkin USB wireless adapter. When it works, it works 
great, but sometimes the driver won't load and it's a pain to get it to 
load (this was a refurb adapter, BTW, which sells for about 1/3 the 
cost of a new one, so I may have bought crap, who knows?) The Kanga 
uses a Dell TrueMobile PC card ($20 on eBay and bought the ioxperts.com 
driver for it for another $20). The Tibook uses an airport card and 
works perfectly as long as I don't get too far way form the router.

Initially, the reception on either Powerbook was limited to close-range 
connectivity; the Tibook's questionable reception was a probable 
problem, and the location of the router (all the way at one end of the 
home, having to go through multiple brick walls to reach our bedroom) 
also hampered the ability to connect.

However, I added a homemade antenna reflector to put on the wireless 
router's antennae and it changed my range significantly (from zero in 
the bedroom to about 60 percent). Took about 20 minutes, made mine with 
some packing material from the box my Tibook came in and a little bit 
of aluminum screen wire. Directions are here:

http://osiris.urbanna.net/antenna_designs/projects/template/

This reflector will significantly boost output from the router (and 
consequently will improve send speed from the receiving computer 
because the router's signal is bidirectional). The only caveat is that 
if you live in an area where homes are close together, your neighbor 
may be able to snarf Internet/network access from your setup, unless 
you set up security/password on the router (easy to do, outlined very 
well in the Belkin's documentation).

There are many other wireless routers that work great, according to 
info I've seen, such as DLink, Netgear and Linksys. Have no experience 
with them, however.

I was a Wi-Fi ignorant before I decided to do all this, but learned 
enough in just a couple of days to set this all up, so don't fret. If 
Internet access is all you need, there should be no problems with a 
wireless router and your Airport card; it's pretty danged seamless. If 
you try to network with other computers, there could be additional 
steps (I sometimes have to manually insert the IP address of one of my 
other Macs running on OS 9 to get them to connect to my Tibook, for 
example).

You can also search (or post) the forums at www.dealmac.com for more 
help.

Good luck, you'll love it once you've got it.