Wireless Network ? ?

[wildbillg]

Just wondering Who had a wireless netwrok?
Been thinkin about setting up the house with one?
Should it be password protected? so that anyone trying to access it has to have a password? or just open so I can use the pda and laptop WITHOUT??
anyone else set up their Tivo with lan, just curious???
New to all this crap, and I just dont want to open a window if I dont need to open one foreveryong to access............

[mickeyfinn]

I use wireless at home and at work. For a home network the WEP security does give a little bit of a slow down to the network. The best way to protect yourself is to first and foremost CHANGE THE DEFAULT NAME AND PASSWORD IN YOUR ROUTER!!!. You would be surprised how many people fail to do this. If you are worried about people using your connection the easiest way to give yourself some security is to:
1. Don't broadcast the SSID of your network. This can be turned on or off in your router. Someone has to know the name of your network to get in. You will have to tell your computer the router name in order for it to find it.
2. Filter connections by MAC address. This will only allow computers with authorized MAC addresses to get in. The MAC address is hardware specific so it keeps honest people out and most of the others. If someone goes through the trouble to hack into your SSID and to spoof an acceptable MAC address they would get in past the WEP security as well. You will have to set the MAC address filter up in the router as well.
Do these things and you shouldn't have any problems. Just to be even more on the safe side don't share your hard drives. If you must share them make sure you use a name and password to access them. Always make both the name and password different, at least 8 characters and it is best to make them a random selection of alpha and numeric characters.
This is the easiest and most effective way I have found. You should also set your router to not respond to random pings from the outside world.

[Havasu_Dreamin]

Yep, what he said.

[uvindex]

Mickeyfinn's advice above is good.
Regarding putting TiVo on the WLAN -- I did it and love it. Your TiVo box only recognizes a limited set of USB wireless LAN devices; be sure you only get one that's listed on TiVo's site, else your TiVo box won't recognize it (I noticed in Best Buy the other day that some wireless LAN adapter manufacturers are putting little TiVo stickers on their product packaging to help you find the right ones.)
Good luck! :)

[spectratoad]

I can hook you guys up for wireless info parts with my brother??? That what he does for a living. :idea:

[SHAKEN Not Stirred]

Just go to Best Buy and get the Linksys Wireless-G Broadband Router.... ;)
Then WEP protect it....Like stated above...... ;)
Done! ;)
Welcome to the 21st Century :D
Later,
CJG
:clover:

[Cole Sanger]

Very good advice. I do both step one and two. I share certain files with my laptop/desktop. Soon I will be hooking up my Tivo.

[NashvilleBound]

I run the 2Wire router at the house...it can run up to 10 computers at once. I just bought this for the office..... NETGEAR WAG302 ProSafe Dual Band Access Point759523 $289.87 from www.cdw.com