Wireless across building

[Jim Carter]

On Fri, 19 Apr 2002, John Morrison wrote:
> That is what I thought originally but everything I've found says I need an
> AP.
> My Original idea was 2 DWL-120 (or similar they are USB and no Linux
> support) 1 in each computer on the link.

The reference
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/wireless/2001/03/06/recipe.html given by
Joachim Franek <Joachim.Franek at t-online.de> looks complete and accurate.
However, it's oriented toward Linux users.  If you're stuck with using
Windoze, then Win ME, Win 2000 or WinXP on the gateway machine can do
"Internet Connection Sharing" (commonly known as routing).  I haven't done
this myself, but you could give it a try.  And I'm sure there are drivers
for your USB NICs.

If Microsoft doesn't provide a DHCP server on the gateway, assign static IP
addresses to all the interfaces from the range 192.168.x.x (e.g.
192.168.1.1 for the gateway and 192.168.1.2 for the client), tell the
client that its default route is 192.168.1.1, figure out where the gateway
is getting DNS from, and have the client get DNS from the same place.

Do try to get a firewall working on both machines, and do Windows Update
every week or two.  I get hack packets about once every 4 minutes.  Most
are Nimda, and some SSL-v1.  WinXP has a "black hole" firewall which is too
draconian for your gateway.  Check out http://www.grc.com/ for a firewall
product and a testing service.  Linux iptables / ipchains doesn't have a
GUI to help you set it up, but at least you can make it do what you want.

At home, I'm running the exact configuration you initially planned to set
up, i.e. a desktop gateway with a wireless card in it, and another machine
as its client. Both happily running Linux, though the laptop can connect
wirelessly in WinXP as well. Unfortunately there's no Linux driver for any
USB wireless NIC, though I'd buy one in an instant if I could, because my
desktop's antenna is in a clutter of cables and the signal is blocked
toward part of the house by a filing cabinet.

Good luck!

James F. Carter          Voice 310 825 2897    FAX 310 206 6673
UCLA-Mathnet;  6115 MSA; 405 Hilgard Ave.; Los Angeles, CA, USA  90095-1555
Email: jimc at math.ucla.edu    http://www.math.ucla.edu/~jimc (q.v. for PGP key)