New To Wireless World

[nc211]

I posted this in the gold forum as well...thanks SK for the advice!!!

ok, my age and lack of knowledge is about to show, not that hasn't happened before around here or anything..

I recently inhereted a cool little sony laptop. it's about 600mhz +/-. i've got xp pro on it, and all seems fine. I've installed a wireless network in my house. I am dumbfounded that i can gain access to my neighbor's wireless network w/o them knowing it now. So, my need for help is this....what can I make this little laptop do with this wireless pci card now? Can i intercept cellphone calls? Any advice on a good antivirus and firewall program? I'm currently using norton on it, but too much drainage to make it work at normal speed. I'm at some 802.11 b/g thing setting...??? I'm lost here guys and need your help. This is a new area for me..used to installing cables to make things work. Any good programs to get? Utilities, tweaks, and goodies a wireless setup should have?

thanks amigos

[dcfish]

I posted this in the gold forum as well...thanks SK for the advice!!!

ok, my age and lack of knowledge is about to show, not that hasn't happened before around here or anything..

I recently inhereted a cool little sony laptop. it's about 600mhz +/-. i've got xp pro on it, and all seems fine. I've installed a wireless network in my house. I am dumbfounded that i can gain access to my neighbor's wireless network w/o them knowing it now. So, my need for help is this....what can I make this little laptop do with this wireless pci card now? Can i intercept cellphone calls? Any advice on a good antivirus and firewall program? I'm currently using norton on it, but too much drainage to make it work at normal speed. I'm at some 802.11 b/g thing setting...??? I'm lost here guys and need your help. This is a new area for me..used to installing cables to make things work. Any good programs to get? Utilities, tweaks, and goodies a wireless setup should have?

thanks amigos

Did you get the XP PRO cd with it? It sounds like you inherited the laptop. I personally would do a clean install of the Operating System first, This way it would be like a new machine, Upgrade with all the memory it will take. And start from there. You shouldn't have any problem with Norton firewall/systemworks/Internet security as far as size goes. How big is the harddrive? You will need a wireless router on your main computer in the house to use YOUR wireless network. The 802.11 in the laptop will automatically find the wireless network that you set up, Of course you will have to put a password on it, So your neighbor won't be able to use yours. But there are a lot of antivirus/firewall programs out there to choose from.

[nc211]

Thanks DC, yeah it's my dad's older laptop. Thing is tiny! It's got a 600 mhz processor and the norton software just slows it way down when it's running in "auto protect". I've got XP Pro "a burnable copy... :whistles: " that I did a clean install with. The computer itself is setup perfectly "took me nearly 2 days", had to wrestle with the sony proprietory bios and stuff, but got everything updated "shipped with ME on it" and got rid of that horrible ME operating system. I bought a Compusa wireless router and wireless card that slides into the side of the laptop. It's got a 12 gig HD, 128 ram "max is 192, but not worth the extra money due to unique memory setup". Here's a question though, with it being a Sony, and it has the Memory Stick option, if I buy a large memory stick for it, would the compter beable to use that additional memory as Ram? Hmmm....I'm thinking outloud.

[dcfish]

Thanks DC, yeah it's my dad's older laptop. Thing is tiny! It's got a 600 mhz processor and the norton software just slows it way down when it's running in "auto protect". I've got XP Pro "a burnable copy...:whistles: " that I did a clean install with. The computer itself is setup perfectly "took me nearly 2 days", had to wrestle with the sony proprietory bios and stuff, but got everything updated "shipped with ME on it" and got rid of that horrible ME operating system. I bought a Compusa wireless router and wireless card that slides into the side of the laptop. It's got a 12 gig HD, 128 ram "max is 192, but not worth the extra money due to unique memory setup". Here's a question though, with it being a Sony, and it has the Memory Stick option, if I buy a large memory stick for it, would the compter beable to use that additional memory as Ram? Hmmm....I'm thinking outloud.

I'm sure it could do that with the memory, But I think there is some configuring that has to be done and off hand I don't know the procedure, You could look online and easily find how this is done. Did you hack the neighbors network? They probably use a default password. http://www.cirt.net/cgi-bin/passwd.pl

[nc211]

Actually, their network just let me connect with no hassle. I don't think they've got theirs configured correctly.

[91L3xus]

I used to be able to connect to my neighbor's internet connection too. I then had to remove it from the list of available wireless networks because occasionally it would be stronger than my own connection and would interfere with everything that had to do with my Internet.

What kind of internet connection do you have? To make the most of any high speed connection, it's best to use a wireless G router if you're planning on not using a hardwired connection. I'd recommend Linksys with speed booster routers, especially since RadioShack has a sale on them for a little longer.

[nc211]

I bought the Compusa store brand wireless router "54Mbps Wireless G Broadband Router" with the SKU # of 333628. I bought the Compusa store brand 54Mbps Wireless G PC Card for the computer. I'm running on a cable modem that screams. I liked Linksys "had the wired version until now' but they were twice as expensive. I figured this technology has been out long enough that a store brand would pretty much do the same thing for half as much money. I've been cruising around www.download.com for some information/downloads to help keep everything protected and running fast. The laptop doesn't have a ton of horsepower, so i'm making sure what needs to run in the background is the only thing(s) running.

I used to be able to connect to my neighbor's internet connection too. I then had to remove it from the list of available wireless networks because occasionally it would be stronger than my own connection and would interfere with everything that had to do with my Internet.

What kind of internet connection do you have? To make the most of any high speed connection, it's best to use a wireless G router if you're planning on not using a hardwired connection. I'd recommend Linksys with speed booster routers, especially since RadioShack has a sale on them for a little longer.