Networking Redefined

I'm typing this on an old P-3 500 which doesn't have a direct internet connection. Nor does it have an ethernet connection, either to a computer which acts as a gateway, or to a router. This old P-3 500 however, has a PCI card which picks up signals from my wireless router and hooks me on to the internet :-). Yes, fellow hackers, I've joined the 802.11g revolution :-D

Part One: Microsoft Windows

I'm writing this article in two parts, the first one will describe my experiences in setting up and working with the network in Windows XP and 2003, and the second part will focus on the same issues in an Unix environment. I'll not post that soon, perhaps after a month or so when I'm less busy. This series is not meant to be a comparison, though admittedly that will be unavoidable, but what I felt about the process and perhaps how differently good both the experiences were.

The wireless router I have is a Dlink DI-624+, and it requires some initial configuration from a locally connected computer (i.e., through an ethernet cable and not wireless) before it can be rebooted into accepting wireless connections. I used this box, my PIII, and that step worked without a hitch. The configuration is done entirely through a web browser, and it's pretty much intuitive. The only steps that you have to be careful about is setting the password and setting up security. I'll write in detail about wireless security later, suffice to say though that the configuration wizard in the browser interface makes it pretty easy. Once the initial network has been configured, I needed to only reboot the router for it to come online... it was that simple.

Windows XP (pre SP2, a fresh install) automatically detected the wireless device and abstracted the user experience to one over a regular network. The only difference I could percieve was in the network status screen where a signal strength graphic told me about the variation of the wireless signal. I thought that was nicely done too =)

Internet access and all most common ports were automatically forwarded to the router. I use some file sharing applications, and had to manually configure port forwarding. However, that was pretty easy to do too through the same browser interface I mentioned above.

Contrary to many reports on the internet, I had no problems setting up the wireless intranet, and indeed the process went off without a hitch. My two machines were talking to each other without a hitch in seconds. I even managed to get Remote Desktop working :-D

I'll post some cool screenshots of Remote Desktop soon. It's certainly a "Wow!" feature that XP/2003 has out of the box. Meanwhile, the wireless card in my PIII 500 sends its signals through about eight feet (two of them solid walls) on to my faithfully waiting router (my signal strength is rated "excellent" even through that distance) and hopefully to you ;-)