Re: Basic ??? question? -- PCTECH

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On 5/10/2007 10:54 PM, Mark Villa wrote:

I could not get my "wifi" parts to work without installing thier USB
driver on the PC. Perhaps I could have, but I had the disk which
worked.

As for ports, The limit for a 4-port model would be 4 total, at any
given time, for example, 3 wifi and 1 hardwired.

Not true for Belkin/D-Link/Linksys WiFi routers and Sonicwall WiFi
firewalls. The "4-port model" just refers to how many hardwire ports the
device has for the LAN side. You can connect a hub, or better a switch,
to any of the physical LAN ports and have more wired devices. You can
connect more WiFi clients until the internal tables (MAC and possibly
WiFi connections) are exceeded which are usually pretty large tables. Or
until all DHCP dynamic IPs have been assigned. But YOU control this when
you set up DHCP on the router/firewall and can have it from 0 to at
least 254 depending on your subnet mask.

To troubleshoot, you can always check each PC with the working USB dongle.
I use wireless in the hotels without any config, but those are
unsecured networks.
I have a belkin, linksys and watchguard and they are all very
different. I have my connection to the wan as static and the DSL
device set to "alway on" and passthru / bridge mode.

If you are using passthru/bridge mode then you are using the ISP's DHCP,
your PCs are directly addressable from the internet and the only
protection you are getting is any specific "firewall" rules. Except for
what is in those rules you are directly networked with everyone else
that is similarly connected. This includes NetBios, File and Printer
Sharing and any other open services including the famous RPC that virus
and ant-virus virus have exploited until Microsoft patched it.

Or is there another device in you connection chain?
Internet <--> DSL device (actually a modem that may/may not have a built
in router) <--> Your Router <--> Your LAN
If so then having the DSL modem in bridge mode is normal as your router
is handling... well the routing and should be doing NAT. But if it is in
bridge mode then there shouldn't be ANY WAN settings. It is just
_bridging_ the packets from the WAN side to the LAN side and your router
is what has the public IP, is exposed to the internet and does all the
WAN side communications.

On an older linksys mine had those keys, the default was set to
"transmit key 1" - IIRC - the router alternates keys not the user,
something like a garage door opener, never the same key sequence on
the next keypress. I may be wrong on this ( just a WAG) but it makes
no sense otherwise. All of the wifi devices should be set the same. I
have had to install a new "windows wirelss network connection", most
of the time vs. re-using an exisitng one, FWIW, when setting up for
secure network.

The justification I remember (?) for the multiple keys and the index was
so you could configure an access point with four keys. Give up to four
different groups of people/devices one key each and specify the the
matching index and then only change individual groups as needed.
Example: assign key #1 to your wireless printers, key #2 to your
notebook users and give key #3 to guests. Then when the guests leave
change only key #3 and not have to go around and change all the printers
and notebooks.

Roger Vicker, CCP