[carlo]

I'm currently without an internet connection (just moved, decided not to continue with dial-up), and am looking for advice on wireless high speed access. I am not interested in cable, DSL, or other types of services. Just hoping the computer gurus here will lend a hand.

A nearby coffee house has an account with Cafe.com, $34.95/mo and a free Belkin card provided I commit to two months of service. I went to Staples and it looked like they had the same card for $60, so this seems like a good option. The catch is I can only connect at Cafe.com's hotspots and as I understand it any Starbucks if I purchase their bitter coffee; a limitation that defeats the purpose of going wireless. To get connected at other hotspots I'd need to go with another carrier.

So then I checked Boingo, $50/mo and no card. Bonus is they have quite a few locations/hotspots that fit my needs. If I go in this direction I'd like to know if the quality of card makes any difference. Do different cards provide better reception of signals over greater distances? If so, which cards should I look at? Any comments about Boingo's service?

Last option is I take Cafe.com's offer for two months, deal with the limitation on locations for that time, and find out if this is really the solution for me. If it is I can take the card and switch to Boingo, or who knows maybe Cafe.com's deal will be adequate. This becomes a more enticing option if that Belkin card is good.

About encryption: I understand that what I send and receive can be viewed by those who take the effort, but are web based encryption services (ie what sites use for credit card transactions) effective with WI-FI? That is the only application where security wories me.

Any help, advice, information, or experience is appreciated. Thank you.

 

[ai0tron]

I wouldnt go wireless except for the fun and convenience of day to day surfing. Maybe its just me personally but I wouldnt trust my credit card info to wireless networks. Its kind of like giving your number out over the phone. There's always a chance that someone is listening, and the more advanced the technology the more likely the chance.

 

[aeberbach]

Carlo, you live in CA I think. You won't find a place with more wireless anywhere in the world. Try google for "pringles 802.11b" and you will see how to make yourself a powerful antenna that can be connected to an Orinoco Gold 802.11b card (I think this is one of the best available - has external antenna connection - various cards definitely perform differently.). I found an even better antenna could be made with a discarded satellite TV dish and a 1/4 wavelength element as used in the pringles antenna. Then get netstumbler for your PC and see what's around - in San Francisco a couple of years ago I found 7 open networks to choose from within reach of my house. I had my own DSL and didn't steal anyone's connection but I was interested to see if it could be done.

Web sites using https (i.e. "secure checkout") are using their own encryption on top of the WEP encryption you can (and should) configure on your wireless network. If they didn't then they would be vulnerable to all kinds of eavesdropping whether that is through the network or the phone line or whatever. Don't worry about this any more than you would on dialup.

 

[KJ869]

I think thye used Springles anttenna in london to test how easily you can capture singnals and data from em. it was probaly on theregister.co.uk

 

[carlo]

thanks for the point in direction aeberbach, following links is leading to a lot of information. i'm printing pages to read later but at the very least a diyable antenna to increase range is exactly the solution i was looking for. thank you also for the card recommendation, the Orinoco Gold also seems to be the best choice for my application.

i'll let you know how it goes.

 

[jlo mein]

is wireless (802.11b) slower than wired ethernet?

I have adsl on a computer in my den, on my house's first floor. I would like to get internet access for games on a computer in a room on my second floor. As you can see, wireless would be a big advantage here.

However, is it slower than a wired ethernet network?

 

[eric343]

jlo- YES. despite being specced for 1mbps faster than 10baseT, the protocol overhead is substantially greater. Furthermore, you're probably using 100baseT, which is going to be WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY faster.

aerbach- Welll... SSL and SSH can be broken using a 'man in the middle' attack, which looking at the lock icon will NOT protect you from; you need to look at the site security certificate and verify it's for the site you're accessing. Wireless is considerably more vulnerable to this due to its non-routed/non-switched nature; you're in a 'wireless cloud' and can see the data going to and from everyone else in the 'cloud'. WEP encryption on the wireless net helps, however it can be broken given enough time and/or packets - and in a situation such as this, a high traffic network where the attacker would likely be residing in range, WEP does not offer any real kind of security.

 

[tommyatkins]

jlo- as I understand it, it's specked for 11mb/s bandwidth, but this really tops out at 4mb/s, and it depends on your signal strength. In fact, I'm on my D-Link DI-614 wireless router right now. It's one of the 2.4 ghz 802.11b routers with a max speed of 22 mb/s which basically means I should be faster overall (but not up to the 22 mb/s just as with the 11 mb/s standard) Also, this means that I can get farther from the station and still stay in at a speed which is faster than my cable modem connection.

The cable modem is definately the bottle neck - not my wireless connection. I've even been playing a game on the same Internet server as my brother (in the same room, hooked into the same router) and we've gotten the same ping consistantly. I don't know what NIC he has but that seemed good enough for me. I haven't noticed any difference.

I guess it might be more obvious if you had a BLAZING connection (Infact I didn't really notice a difference on my connection at UC Berkeley which is oc48 or something). This probably applies more to LAN connections, where it's easier to have >4mb/s connections.

If you are looking for alternatives to wireless (like if you have a concrete ceiling or something, like this one customer I knew had...) there are powerline adapters which piggy back on your copper powerlines (slower than 802.11b) or ones that piggyback on your telephone lines (slower, as well). These can sometimes be cheaper, but wireless is more versitile, I think. And faster.

TA

 

[aeberbach]

Oh well. If someone is dedicated enough to do that for the dubious benefit of getting my credit card number, good luck to them. The only time I've had fraudulent charges is after visiting a pub in Connecticut - about $3000 worth of stuff from various stores. Amex reversed them without complaint. I think WEP + SSL is on par for security with SSL over POTS.

When I wonder if wireless is slowing down my computing experience I just think about downloads. I don't share drives or files any more than once or twice a year so it's what matters. And when the web site is only giving up the files at 46k/second...