Junk the modem, get a routeur instead........

[Fritz]

Having had both Wanadoo and Tiscali, dial-up and ADSL for a few years now I 've finally splashed out on a routeur. This gives better IP address protection, an inbuilt forewall and, I think, a more reliable connection. Downsides, 60Euros and a bit fiddly to set-up. But overall it's the best computery thing I've bought in years.

If you want to check if your PC is 'leaking',  go to

https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2

click on proceed and then do the common ports test.

[Brilec]

Useful link. At least my setup passed with flying colours.

 

Te use of a router also allows more than one PC to share the connection.

If you get a wireless router, you can also sit in the sun with a laptop.

[Ron Avery]

"If you get a wireless router, you can also sit in the sun with a laptop." 

And so can your neighbours .......and the bloke opposite......... and the man in the car parked outside, and the laughis they are ALL  using your router for nothing and reading your messages and recording your passwords etc,,,,, Marvellous

[Opel Fruit<P><BR>Opel Fruit, Dept. 53<P>]

Not on the Wireless Network we have. The PCs are about 10m apart, but if you close the two doors directly between them, the signal disappears!!

And then the penny dropped. Lead paint!

[LesLauriers]

[quote]"If you get a wireless router, you can also sit in the sun with a laptop." And so can your neighbours .......and the bloke opposite......... and the man in the car parked outside, and the laugh is t...[/quote]

How do they find out the 26 character access code ? Or am I missing something?

[Deimos]

How strong a security you set on your WiFi Access Point will probably depend on how worried you are to external (geographic rather than internet based) invaders.

If you live in a rural setting, the range of your WiFi Access Point will give a degree of security. For myself with the nearest house over half a km away, anybody wanting to use my RF network would need to be sitting in their car outside my house. Next you can disable ESSID broadcast. ESSID’s are generally short (you can set them to pretty well what you want). With ESSID broadcast disabled, anybody wanting to use you RF network would need to know your configured ESSID (there are ways to find it listening-in, but most farmers round me don’t carry such devices around and for most its easier, quicker and cheaper to get their own internet connection !!). Most APs have ESSID broadcast enabled by default but you should be able to disable it (depending on the configurability).

If you are still paranoid, then you can start to enable the link encryption when you start to get into the longer “keys” to be able to get onto your network.

Even if somebody does get on your network they will still need to know your username(s) and password(s) to read your mail, etc.

With regard to coverage, different manufacturers have very different RF quality and thus very different ranges. I have also experienced a system that would now work reliably at a range on 10 m. Often these problems can be caused by interference (e.g. microwave ovens, some (industrial) alarm systems (using microwave movement sensors), automatic door opening devices). Similarly, in busy areas the allocated frequency range is just overused. For example, Oxford Street (London) has so many shops “overspilling” their RF it is very difficult to get things to work. Whilst it may appear that there are 13 channels, (or so depending on where you are) these channels overlap and actually each channel covers a third of the available frequency range. Thus e.g. channel 1 and channel 2 mostly overlap and thus interfere with each other.

Flat metal surfaces can cause difficulties as you can get reflected waves causing interference (e.g. getting coverage in industrial fridges is a “nightmare”). This can get better if you have decent antennae on you Access Point (which most cheaper ones don’t) and if you can get better separation between the antennae (as the 6” often used does not really allow the diversity to work well).

Ian

[Fritz]

Quote/ I use and highly recommend
Zonealarm
Adaware
Spybot
Firefox
Thunderbird

Not a bad set. I've been using Avast! for several months. It's free ie. not a demo version or time limited. For spyware, Webroot works for me. Paid for it though.

Must move from IE5 and Outlook soon I guess. Firefox and Thunderbird a good choice.