Suggestions : Wireless Modem Access Point

JonesMB jonesmb at arthem.com
Wed Dec 12 10:11:16 EST 2001


a similar thing happened to me last weekend.  My wireless setup is a Win 98 
laptop + Orinoco card and a Debian Linux box + Orinoco card + cable 
modem.  It started when I was experimenting with DHCP.  I had an error in 
my DHCP config file on the Linux box so DHCP didn't start.  The card still 
got an IP address from somewhere.  After a little digging I discovered that 
there were a poorly setup access point nearby that I could connect to and 
"steal" Internet access.  until then I thought my neighbors were in the 
dark ages when it came to wireless networking so I was careless about 
wireless security.  Right now I am using WEP & iptables to control access.

If you are comfortable with Linux, I would suggest using that instead of a 
modem AP.  Use a small Linux system to share the Internet access and 
connect it to the AP with the wireless hosts.  It will give you more 
flexibility and it will make debugging easier when odd things happen.

jmb

>I'm not much of a wireless buff, I can only speak for my own
>experience.  I rather recently installed a Wireless Access Point in my
>apartment (upper two floors of a coachhouse) for use with our two
>laptops.  Shortly after this, I started experiencing what I thought were
>odd connectivity issues.  That is until I checked my IP address.  By
>remvoing and reinserting my Wireless NIC at various points in the
>apartement I found three diferrent Wireless Access Points within range.
>All of which allowed seamless Internet access through them.  The only
>thing that brought it to my attention at the time was my inability to
>reach my internal hosts.





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