I just wanted everyone thoughts on wireless home networking I was thinking of buying a Wireless Cable/DSL Router. and I wanted to know if anyone has a wireless network at home, and what they thought about it.

There's a term they use; chalking, marking or something like that - where they tap into your network from a place nearby? Heard about that?

They actually place a mark in chalk so others know where these places are if you've setup your wireless network insecurely!

Well I heard about the securely with wireless but never about the chalk I would suck big time. I don't know if I'm that worry about the securely right at this time. I live way out of the city the type of place where your luckly if you even find a door loacked at night not say that I sleep with them unloacked all the time but its a really safe place to live. Not many people even.

Well after many hours of test after test on my wireless network I have found the following. I have the following equipment a Wireless Access Point Router with 4-Port Switch and a Instant Wireless Network Adapter - Version 3.0 both Linksys now I know that depending on what you like but linksys is what I and a lot of my friends have been using for years and I've never had a problem. So I can't say anything about other Wireless Equipment.

I have found that the wireless network has a major security problem but if you live in an area that has few people or away from the city as I do I’ve had no problem with the security hole, there is also a way to plug that hole is to enable WEP Encryption
but as I was told if you enable this option you may suffer a speed loss over your wireless network and I'm sadden to say that I did suffer a speed loss.

As for the internet surfing the wireless network really worked well here I was able to surf from any where in my home and not have wires running all over the place so that was really helpful.

Downloading is another story that downloads I did where ok but by no means where they as fast as I would have liked. Gaming was also less then I expected I was able to play games on the Internet but I had found that I had very high ping time and was booted from server offend and along with endless connection problems when I was on the servers.

So I would have to say that wireless was not all that I expected, however I'm very pleased with wireless on my laptop and surfing the Internet. So I would have to say that if your looking to be able to surf from your bed or dinning room table or even your back porch go wireless, but as far as for your main PC, Gaming or Downloading Stick with a wired network.

From what I know, the wireles protocol is still very immature. Incompatibilities between brandnames is still widespread, and it's security encryption standard is pathetic.

WEP does help in keeping hackers out, but it's not too proficient against serious hackers. Essentially it's a poor 40bit protocol, which doesn't take long to brute-force attack & crack (where a PC tries every possible key & see's if it works or not). A hacker just has to sit outside the building in his car, and his laptop does the business. He doesn't transmit, just collects encrypted packets, the more of which you have, the easier to crack the key. Very undetectable too!

And then there's a speed loss, significant in your case, in enabling such encryption. Imagine what a good 128bit protocol would do.

War chalking was where people said, "Hi! I've a wireless network and you're prefectly welcome to connect to it & use my net connection." Their generousity was rarely welcomed by someone breaking into their system, but it did happen.

Since you live pretty much in the country, you should ask yourself if it's worth being paranoid. If someone really wants to break into your network, WEP won't stop them for long.

Garth Farley

no where I live I'm not going to be paranoid theres no one around here one neighbor next to me. So I'm not worried about it but I also turn the wireless part of the router off when I'm away for a long time. But it still great to use with my laptop and maybe one day when the wireless protocol is mature this tech will be a great thing.

as far as wireless goes theres a lot to consider. for a start i wouldtnt use it yet cause its still to new and expensive. also theres the security side of it yet to think about. im form UK and have broadband, with a hub to split it to 4 pcs.. now think of this. wireless with a range, say of 50M? and the broadband connection being thrown out to all my 4 pcs... wel wot if half my street also has wireless and then taps into my broadband,, hmm TY they say - free internet ! theres also the worry of viruses form people u dont even no ur connected to - from ur own wireless network! stick to good old cables i say - at least then u no where problems are and u can always pull the plug! wait til wirelss is further down the line, cheaper and more secure.....

if u have any specific wireless netowkring questions i just got a wireless netowkring guide... :-) msg me

Thanks