Friday, March 21, 2003
The sudden lack of Wirelessness
I finally took the time today to get my own WAP going. When Rob moved out, his WAP went with him, leaving us … um
… wirelessness (or is that “wirelessless?”).
Or something like that.
So off to CompUSA to obtain some wireless equipment, but the spot lights and the distinct lack of parking made me suspect I picked the wrong night to go shopping for wireless equipment. I went in anyway, determined to get what I came for, reguardless of how long it took (besides, it got me out of the house of Two Kids and Incontinent Dog).
Despite the crowded store, I was able to get through the checkout line in under ten minutes with the needed equipment—a WAP and wireless PCMCIA card (both from Linksys). I was a bit upset that the WAP had more features than I wanted (I do not need a DHCP/firewall/NAT/switch/router functionality) but given that all the WAPs being sold had similar features and went for about the same price, I didn't have much choice in the matter.
Well, unless I shop online, but I'm not in the habit of doing that.
It took me quite a while to get set up. Short story—changing the default settings (including IP address) of the WAP, having to jumper a network card to use the proper connector (10Base-T instead of 10Base-2) in a buried computer (underneath two other computers) and obtaining current Linux drivers for the wireless card I'm using.
All told, it took several hours to configure and get working.
But I now have wireless!
Woo hoo!
