[Brad]

I moved into a new townhouse a couple of months ago.

No phone, no DSL.   I was using my cell for voice and a quick scan with my laptop revealed a wide open 802.11g network for the internet.
Default passwords not even changed.

Cool, right - internet on the cheap.   Just use the ibook to bridge to the rest of my network.   Works great until last weekend.

Stupid neighbor goes on vacation for 6 weeks.   Turned off his computer, routers, etc, leaving me high and dry.  

So I bit the bullet this week and ordered a home phone line/dsl.  Took a long time to convince Ma Bell I didn't want all of the 'features'.   The phone fired up today.   Now it's time to find the phone jacks.   Only 1 is active, in the downstairs bedroom closet.    So I'm online now with a 10ft phone cord connected to the iBook connected to a 40 ft ethernet cable connected to my router connected to the HTPC by a 20ft cable.    

Speed is actually acceptable sharing the dial connection.   I won't try downloading anything big until the dsl gets hooked up.    Now I need to get the apartment complex to rewire the phone drops so that more than one is active.

Gotta love a good jury-rig.   I just hope the kids running through the house don't knock any of the cables loose.

[JoshK]

[EchiDna]

lol!

sitting here at my desk I have 11 wireless networks detectable with 5 open for abuse.... only problem being, I already have 512k leased line here, so there is no need to exploit the idiots

amazing isn't it? how hard is it to put a key on the network? can you imagine the damage one might do to a competitor's server or information given a wide open wireless network?

[JohnR]

Embarrassingly enough, my wireless Lan is wide open... I can't actually figure out where to tell Windows what the security key is... in the device driver panel there is no such field, can't find it anywhere else either... any ideas? (This is Win2k.)

[Brad]

Hi John,

Thanks for the free internet offer, but I think OZ is outta range from Houston  

The WEP key should be somewhere in the wireless NIC driver.
You may need to get a driver specific to your wireless card instead of the generic W2k one.

[JohnR]

You're probably right about getting the specific driver. I'd forgotten about the whole thing until one of my neighbour's said to me, say, you don't happen to have a wireless network over there do you? And I'm like, yeaaahh.... why? And he's like, well, I was just doing some work on the computer last night and all of a sudden my outbox emptied itself, and I wasn't dialled in to work! Oooops says I...  

[EchiDna]

 honest I wasn't calling you an idiot JohnR!  
 

You can usually set the key in the router control software itself, depending on brand and configuration...

Speaking of which, I just bought a 4 port 'g' router on the weekend with print server, hardware firewall and a pci wireless card for S$135, thats like US$85! not bad huh?

now I can surf the net down at the condo's pool about 300 metres away using one of these: http://www.usbwifi.orcon.net.nz/
or these: http://members.iinet.net.au/~clark/FreeNet/Waveguide/index.htm#Downpipe

or similar

[Brad]

The key has to be set in both places:
1st on the router/access point
2nd on the PC

BTW, John - if you set the key on the router, it may prompt for one on the PC.

Nice antennas.
Wonder if I could convert one to cellular use?   I'm in a very weak cell at my apartment - I usually have to walk outside to hear clearly.

[Brad]

Update:

For those of you concerned, the DSL line is now active.
I can go back to typing wirelessly.   Need to get a wireless bridge for the rest of the townhouse though.

Cheers!