Re: House wireless/wired router: choices? Plus wireless neophyte questions.
On Fri, 3 Oct 2008 01:46:48 -0400
Chris Metzler <cmetzler@speakeasy.net> wrote:
> I have exactly zero experience with wireless -- I've never owned a laptop,
> and have just never needed it. My gf, as part of her job, needs to bring
> home a laptop with that other OS on it, and wants wireless access to
> our broadband.
>
> We currently have a DSL connection: phone to DSL modem, ethernet out the
> back of the DSL modem to our one desktop machine. I'm assuming that what
> I want is a wireless router with LAN ports: ethernet cable from the DSL
> modem to the wireless router, and ethernet cable from the wireless router
> to the desktop machine while her laptop talks to the router by wireless.
> We have a static IP address; I'm presuming that this wired/wireless router
> will need to be configured with that address, and then will do NAT with
> the desktop and the laptop.
>
> 1. Does what I just wrote make sense? Am I getting this correctly?
Yes, that's the bog standard way of doing this, although there are
OWTDI, as Alex has begun to suggest.
> 2. If I'm on the right track, what about IP addresses for the desktop
> and the laptop? Do I have to set them manually to addresses within
> a non-routeable block? Or do such routers typically do DHCP or something
> like that?
They always (AFAIK) offer DHCP, but you don't have to use it. There are
advantages to setting static IPs - you can set up host files and refer
to the hosts by name, and I think that bringing up interfaces is a good
few seconds quicker with static IPs than with DHCP.
> 3. What about configuring the router (with the static IP address, any
> DHCP operating parameters, etc.)? Since my desktop will be wired, I'd
> like to be able to configure the router using my desktop -- which means
> using Linux. If an application on an accompanying DVD is needed to
> configure the router, I'm guessing that app is only going to work on
> that other operating system. Or are there routers out there that are
> configurable from a Linux machine in a straightforward manner?
AFAIK, SOHO routers / APs / switches are generally configurable via a
web interface, which will work with any platform. Note, though, that
they often recommend, or even require, Javascript, which can make using
a TUI browser such as links difficult or impossible.
> Chris Metzler cmetzler@speakeasy.snip-me.net
Celejar
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