Does my computer have WiFi?

[rubah]

it's unreliable if you're using it beyond the range at which you're supposed to be or in poor circumstances.

yeah ethernet gets pretty unreliable when you start getting about ten feet out ;DDDD

[Yamaneko]

I have fifty feet of CAT 5 cable going to one of my boxes and while it's not as reliable as my machine connected right next to my router, I've never had decreased speeds or large packet loss. I have, however, tried to play games online over wifi g and the choke I encountered was enough to steer me away from that until I get an 802.11n network going in the next couple months

[crono_logical]

The single BT hub is good enough for most homes if you put it in a sensible place

Even if the raw throughput of wireless might be higher than wired, it's shared bandwidth between all devices using the wireless (minimum of 2 - the computer and the receiver) so you won't get as high speeds as a proper full-duplex wired connection anyway. But yeah, unless you like to share or stream large amounts of data between different machines on your home network, like music or videos, wireless is fast enough for general web browsing and downloading

As far as range goes, I'm not sure I'm come across any wireless that operates decently at a 100m distance from the access point, which is the limit for a wired 100mbps connection. Most of our computers at work (and we have 5000 computers) have ethernet cable runs between 30 and 100m. If you're having problems with ethernet with longer cables, you've got a poor quality cable or cheap switch at the other end It's shorter if you want gigabit ethernet though

With security, if you're using WEP, you might as well have no encryption since you can download bootable linux images that will let you sniff and crack WEP-encrypted traffic within seconds - make sure you're using WPA with TKIP (dynamic keys). The BT hub is WEP by default for some moronic reason, so you'll have to change that yourself

[Discord]

How can you crack a 128bit code within seconds? I mean, have you ever actually done it or seen anybody do it?

Anyhow, WEP is a little older then WPA. Most 2-year-old cards don't even support WPA. I guess that's your reason.

[crono_logical]

I said WEP, not 128-bit encryption or WPA I think the default for WEP is only 40 bits too, which is hardly very strong these days. Even then, we wouldn't consider using 128-bit WEP at the workplace, because it's still a weak algorithm, and sniffing enough air traffic will provide you with enough data to crack it.

[o_O]

it's unreliable if you're using it beyond the range at which you're supposed to be or in poor circumstances.

yeah ethernet gets pretty unreliable when you start getting about ten feet out ;DDDD

I was talking about a reasonable home situation. Most people don't have fifty feet of CAT5 so generally speaking, I wouldn't expect to be using ethernet over a larger distance than wireless. In addition to that, fifty feet of cable is a lot less convenient than a wireless connection.

[Yamaneko]

Drilling a hole through my floor and passing the CAT5 into my parents room from under the house took about twenty minutes. Thankfully I haven't had to deal with rodents chewing through the cable in the three plus years I've had the setup.

[rubah]

the joke mike was that most people don't have very long ethernet cables! at least I don't

[Discord]

I said WEP, not 128-bit encryption or WPA I think the default for WEP is only 40 bits too, which is hardly very strong these days. Even then, we wouldn't consider using 128-bit WEP at the workplace, because it's still a weak algorithm, and sniffing enough air traffic will provide you with enough data to crack it.

Umm... I have a 128-bit WEP. I used to have a 64-bit one before. Certain of that.

Talking about workspace security. We're not even allowed to use IRDA keyboards.

[rubah]

I always thought wpa was the insecure technology.

[Rostum]

I thought it was more secure. *shrugs*

Well there are a few things that don't support WPA, like the Nintendo DS.

[o_O]

WPA is far more secure, Allie.

Nobody should use WEP.

WPA's not totally secure - it's still possible to crack a password with a pretty quick computer and cracking algorithm. The strength of WPA is that the passkey changes over time. WPA2 (uses an AES-based algorithm) is the only wireless encryption algorithm considered completely secure though.

[Discord]

WPA is quite a bit more secure and quite a bit less supported. Cracking a WEP is rather problematic too though. Bruteforce is all nice and fun, but considering the fact that most routers give good delays between inputs and ban your cards ID for a day after a serious number of tries, does make it rather useless. The other alternative, being the decryption of seperate transmitted packages, is also rather hopeless leading to naught due to inconsistancies during the transfer.

[Carl the Llama]

sucky bt didnt send me any wireless recievers dispite me specificly calling them up to ask if it included one with the bt home hub and phone... I am not amused

[Discord]

That's just why I love my ISP. When I said I needed a new router for their upgrade to work, they've sent me two.:rolleyes2