On Friday 09 September 2005 8:17 pm, Don Parris wrote:
I'd like to setup at least two, maybe two boxes and a Dell Latitude C610 laptop on a wireless LAN - preferably with SUSE 10.0 (I'm playing with beta 4 now). Would anyone be willing to suggest brand/models? The laptop has an ethernet port, so I'll obviously need a PC Card (PCMCIA?) wireless adapter. I do have a 4-port USB hub if wireless LAN cards work o.k. via USB. I know there have been some issues using USB ethernet adapters under Linux, and assume that applies to wireless as well.
Eventually, I plan to convert the remaining 8 or 9 boxes over to wireless as well (total of 12 systems). I assume I need a hub/switch as well, or just the router? It appears that I might be well served to pick up a LinkSys 4-port router for my Internet connection. The only 16-port wireless router I saw (on first glance) runs over USD $300.00! Pehaps I could use one box to route the rest into the LinkSys. Of course, the 4-port would suffice for now, since I won't likely be moving to wireless all at once. Yeah, I know. I don't know anything about choosing LAN equipment. Anyway...
Thanks for the input.
Wireless is not a secure protocol unless you ssh or vpn all connections over it. Wireless range is also tricky depending on the environment (outdoors is best, indoors can be less than 10 feet through walls, etc) and the power of the antennas. If you start with a Linksys WRT54g style wireless router/firewall/switch you'll get 4 switched Ethernet ports, the firewall and router plus the wireless access point. Plus there are other Linux based firmwares available to turn it into a more capable Linux security device with lots of cool features. Nice first line of defense in a layered security LAN. If you need more than 4 wired ports, add a dedicated 4,8,16 port 10/100/1000 Ethernet switch off of it. That way you can segment and modularize for speed if there are some gigabit needs in the LAN. As far as wireless Ethernet adapters of the USB variety I'm curious as to what others say. USB ports aren't always in what I would think are good radio reception areas. Some wireless cards have the capability to add a cable to the antenna so it can be placed further from the desktop and in a better reception area. Stan