Category: Geeks r Us
hey all,
our family plans to go to a highspeed connection soon, and we have 3 to 4 computers that will share the same connection.
I was thinking of setting up a wireless network, and have a few questions.
first, what routers are good? I mean, what brands, what price range, etc.
Second, would it be worth it to try and get a server for the network after a little time? the family might want to share files, and i think a server would be a good idea for that. If so, what servers are good for small home networks?
Last, is wireless the best idea for a small group of computers? i can tell you now that there will be 2 laptops and a desktop, plus some PDA's on the network.
Thanks for the feedback and suggestions.
I'll be blunt in my answer, though I'd like to ask you some questions, if I may, rat.
1. How much network administration experience do you have, I ask only cause setting up a server isn't the easiest thing in the world.
2. What OS are you gonna use for the server, is it all gonna be Windows based, or are you gonna use a Linux server?
I ask because you must plan out your network design, do keep in mind that wireless has a specific range, for 802.11G, don't remember what that range is off of the top of my head.
I ask about the server because its much easier at least for me to have all computers running xp pro sp2, a domain controler running Server 2003 Standard, yes, its expensive, but it will allow for centralized administration, and is Jaws friendly.
I'm willing to talk to you about this in more detail, if you wish, over either msn or skype.
The PDA thing is a whole other issue entirely, that I haven't personally delt with, so can't give any advice, sorry.
HTH, if anyone else has some suggestions, throw them out there.
i'm thinking about keeping it all windows based, and i have some friends that know how to work with networks. I've also helped in limited ways with my friend's home network.
if you want to add me to MSN to discuss this more, my address is in my profile.
I'll add some more info, the router issue, it depends, but for your specific situation, any 4 port consumer router should be fine, it shouldn't be more then $50.
My DLink has specific issues with my mac, which I've solved, but that's an entirely different topic, which I've already covered.
I'd say for accessibility with IE or Firefox, Linksys or Belkon would be your best bet.
linksys was one i was considering since i know they are good when it comes to networks.
Hay.
1: I'd say wireless. There are people that are going to come on here and rant about the security problems with wifi, but wpa with mac filtering is going to put most people off unless they really want to get in, in which case, they would do it over the internet anyway.
Also, since pda's will be involved, you would want to have wireless anyway, as having to plug a pda into a ethernet port (Do pda's even have ethernet these days?) is defeeting the point of a pa; just make sure that they support wpa.
If you have a big house / thick walls, range is something your going to have to considder. Remember that you won't be able to return the router on the grounds of it not giving you enough range, so yeah, think this one over. What i've done for some peoples networks is have there 1 router and access point |(router and wifi in one) and then place signal boosters around the house which do what they said on the tin. Its worth noting though that for them all to show up as 1 network, the router and boosters will need to support wds, so if you do get boosters, mak sure there by the same make as the router.
If money is a problem, dependent on where abouts the desktops are in relation to your router, you could connect them up via ethernet, there by not needing a wireless card for them.
When looking for a router, make sure thats its a all in one type thingy - infact, before you by anything post links here and i'll tell you if you should or not. You don't want to have to by a router, modem and access point seperatly.
2: I mean this in the nicest way, but i'm going to be frank. If you are asking if you should go wired or wireless, then a server is not for you.
As far as file sharing goes, you are able to transfer files from computer to computer using features built into windows, the pda might be a bit harder, but getting a server won't fix that.
Something else that could bring a few flames is me saying that theres also no need for a server running as a firewall. The router that you'llbe getting will contain a firewall and because everything will be going threough that, it'll sort that out for you. Also, all your comps will have a firewall so 2 is fine.
There is really no need to have a domain controler in your situation.
If you are going to be stubbon about having some way of sharing files other than from computer to computer, then get a nas, wich in simple terms is a harddrive in a caddie that has a ethernet port. This'll just sit there and you'll be able to access it from with in the network.
Hth BEN.
1. Step towards the future and go for an n router.
2. If you are actually going to set up a server to share centrally/used as a firewall, you might as well turn it in to a proxy, or don't go that route at all; it will just be a glorified NAS.
3. Router +good firewall software is sufficient enough, if someone has reason to get in, they'll get in.
Most people's system's are compromise results from their ignorance/stupidity/or lack of care.
Educate yourself, keep up on security, and have procaution, and it will keep your system relatively safe.
If I may indulge for a moment, there's another great type of router out there. It's a bit more expensive, but it works. It's the type with a USB port built-in to host a hard drive, or printer, or with a USB hub, both. If you don't wanna have to pay for another copy of Windows, get one of these types of routers, plug a big hard drive into it, and use it as a server.
I have an Apple Airport Extreme, which is just a bit on the pricy side, but is very Jaws compatible. In fact, it comes with its own admin utility, and the admin utility and router firmware update themselves automagically.
The thing just works. You don't have to get an Apple though, as there are Linksys and Netgear routers that do the same thing the same way, but at similar price points. Even still, it's a very cheap way to do basically what you want to do
thats interesting. Usually setting up a network in windows is easy. My current router is linksis wrt 54g and I've got around 8 computers lurking on the network wirelessly without an issue. I have used ftp for all my file transfers but windows networking should work just as good. Locally, transfers on such connections are almost twenty times faster your regular upload speed. To give you a better picture, transfering 2 gb takes minutes to do locally. Of course, you hsould protect your wireless network, and if available, use the P.A isolation feature.
louiano, you're on a 10-100 network, or gigabit?
for range you might want to consider the netgear rangemax. Don't know if it has the usb port but it's got great signal.
Yeah I have he one below the rangemax, the dg834g. Getting a bit old now but its fine for what i'm allowed to do as far as networking goes here.
The only problem with the rangemax which is why I didn't get it is that to take advantage of the rangemax technology (ie: always getting the best signal) you have to get the netgear rangemax cards which when I last checked were around double the price of g cards.
I'd also get n if I were to get a new router, but really unless he's quite sure range isn't going to e a problem and he's not streaming video then he should be fine with g.
@ ¤§¤spike¤§¤ : refine or clarify your question? the way I have my connection set up is like this....
1. The cable modem that gives me access to the internet via road runner. As far as tests show, its external download speeds are up to 1.5 mb. Its upload speed is rather sucky at 64 kbps.
2. The home phone is on this modem also.
3. There is a phone that is being used internationally (I.E. it communicates and acts as a local line in another country) which goes through the router, which is in turn connected to the modem.
4. Computer are connected wirelessly. The transfer speeds locally are around 1.5 or 2 mbps.
This should apply to other router's however, regarldess of your connection speeds, because the transfers are done locally and not externally, I.E. all of the computer have the same prefix except for the last group of dijits changing at the private IP.
I'll clarify the question,louiano, is your wired router a 100 megabit router, or gigabit router?
I ask because of the speeds that you said you could achieve on wireless are only close to 20 megabits per second, since if you divide 20480 which is 20 megabits in binary by 8, you get 2.500 megabytes per second which for wireless isn't bad.
A 100 megabyte per second router can transfer data at 12.5 megabytes per second, or pretty close to it over the wire.
I've got a gigabit router, I know this because a gigabit router can transfer data at a theoretical rate of 125 megabytes per second.
But my usual speeds are between 80-90 megabytes per second.
Hope this clarifies your question a bit, sorry for all the math.
If I did the math wrong for the transfer rates, can someone correct it, if possible?
You better not be running Vista, or else good luck. Wireless is fine only if it is configured correctly. WPA mac filtering the whole thing. I would advise you read up on network technology and terminology to fully understand what you are doing. For waht you want to do, you do not need a server. a server is defined as a computer which provides services. That is what a server does, it provides services. Therefore you can install all of your software on a single box and still use it as a workstation although not a smart idea. Use one desktop as a server machine. As for a router, I would tell you to get at least a Cisco 7000 but that would be mean. A linksys would do just fine depending wehat you want to be on your network. I myself got a Linksys pro which set me back $150. This is all you need. A secure server is a locked one. I do not suggest a B wireless card the connection is crap. I suggest a G and above. A G card signal can reach up to 35 meters an N card if you really wanted to go there which I did is about 70 meters. For what you need, you do not need any fancy networking equipment but I advise you to know what the hell you are doing before screwing with shit. My needs are different from yours but I am telling you that for the basic needs and transfers you will be doing, this probably would be over kill. And one more thing on the wireless side of things. I also would disable the ssid braudcast.
let me explain a couple things here.
there is no one that will try to take over my network, so i may leave the SSID on. my parents aren't very computer savi.
Second, vista works very well with wireless, i've run my new desktop on a wireless connection for over a month with no problems. you should remember that cody, i was talking to you after all on this machine.
If you plan to stay with vista, good luck but you better make sure that the drivers for the network card is supported. As for any thing else for file sharing I wouldn't trust it but if that is what you feel you need then so be it. A NAS would really be very much overkill in unnecessary unless you had insane amounts of data to share like movies, pictures and disk imaging files. I don't care what you say you aren't tossing a 10 gig disk image across a wireless connection without it breaking. Seriously those who have posted like spike have extremely great knowledge like me, but the suggestions are very much overkill for a home network imho. Rat in your last post that first comment, very ignorant. Do you know how many times me and many many many other people have stolen internet wirelessly from neighbors because we didn't have a connection locally or for what ever reason. Your parents may or may not yell at you because you secure it too much or they may be un nerving when you go to buy the networking stuff. Or they could be like mike's parents and tell you you know nothing and that you cannot touch the router lol.
lol oh no this is a 100 mb. I am not using wireless at a really great distance either. as for leaving the SSID on I leave it on all the time; i just password protect it. The PA isolation serves to separate eachdevice so that there is less interference. I also have found that packet bursting helps wireless transfers some as well.
cody, there is no one here that will try to take over a network. most people don't even know what wireless is. as for my parents, if the network has too much security they'll give up on it.
as for staying with vista, have you ever used a machine that was ment to run it? not that single core crap thing i heard you got, but a dual core or stronger.
Rat, I've got a duel core IMac which if I personally would run Windows for experimentation would be either XP Pro or Server 2003, either standard or Enterprise.
I won't evernrun Vista, personally for the following reasons,
1. it uses up 1-2 gb of ram on its own, forcing you to get 4 gb to have it run comfertabily.
2. Copying over a network either wired or wireless is really slow.
3. Vista SP1 doesn't make much better.
Yes I do have internet links to backup my points stated above.
http://desktoplinux.com/news/NS5456703154.html
http://www.pcmag.com/print_article2/0,1217,a%253D216658,00.asp
i have a laptop 1.7 dual core with a gig of ram and it runs vista home premium at a pretty snappy rate
Rat you are so full of crap it isn't even funny. My laptop has a 1.73 ghz processor and a gig of ram. When I installed Vista Home premium I almost laughed it was a joke all right. I got nothing but blue screens all day long. For example, I got 5 blue screens withiin 1 hour of Home Premium being installed so I immediately ripped it off and installed xp pro again. It I had a didgital camera I would have taken pictures, but since I dont' have a digital camera and you are blind it doesn't make much of a difference. My machine was so slow and after I put xp pro on it it ran 10 times faster.
Agree with the server 2k3 as a workstation os - its bloody fast.
The one hing that most people cock up when they do wireless is security. Just because your router will work out of the box it does in kno way mean that it is secure.
In regards to turning off the ssid, xp at least doesn't have built in support for invisable networks so you'll have to use the program that came with your wireless card - assuming it did come with its own client; vista may support this though.
Here at home, I have wpa and mac filtering turned on and dhcp turned off (Makes things a bit easier in the garden) and this has not caused any of my family problems at all.
a: I set up the mac filtering for them when ever a new device comes onto the network - theres no reason why another device would need to go on while I was away so thats fine.
B: WINDOWS REMEMBERS THE WPA SO THERES NO NEED FOR THEM TO ENTER IT OR EVEN KNO IT.
c: i SET UP THE IP THAT i WANTED EACH MACHINE TO HAVE WHEN IT FIRST COMES ON - THIS MAKES NO DIFFERENCE TO THEM.
The one problem that i've had withthis setup in the past 2 years is when my brother got a psp and we couldn't find its mac address.
DON'T EVER ASSUME ANYTHING!! do you kno everyone in your street enough to trust them with your bank details??? nope, I didn't think so. There for, you don't kno them enough to assume that they won't try and get in.
If your parents get stressy at you for you just trying to help them then there just twats and should be ignored.
cody, i have the laptop right here. it runs home premium fine. and you never said if your computer was dual core. that would make a lot of difference
Yes it is dual core sorry about that. it is an amd athlong. If you dont' believe me here it is from my computer properties. and oh, did you even read the links spike posted?
System:
Microsoft Windows XP
Professional
Version 2002
Service Pack 2
Registered to:
Cody Hurst
55274-645-2164967-23478
Computer:
AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual
Core Processor TK-53
1.71 GHz, 1.43 GB of RAM
i'm not going to be here for a while now so by the time i'm back this topic will be dead.
I don't really feel like arguing with anyone atm but rat, theres good advice here - infact most of it is, take it.
i'll take some of the advice, but the stuff about vista is not true
I was just curious. I saw earlier that someone said vista needed 4 gb of ram. Would that benefit the 32 bit operating systems like home premium? I thought they only supported up to 3 gb
people think everyone is going to go 64 bit. they think since they are good enough to use it everyone should
64 bit will not work with jaws, window eyes or any of them although I think nvda might work in 64 bit. Windows will not see more than 3 gb of ram, however 3 gb of ram on vista is like 512 gb on xp the o/s takes up about the bulk of the ram and leaves you with nothing. this is why 1 gb with home premium is such a joke and why my machine barely ran. Can't explain the blue screen probably bugs in vista. REally, really sad. Anyways this is a networking topic, not a vista topic. Bottom line, don't use vista on a network. My dad hates vista, I hate vista, my mom hates vista, my dad's girlfriend hates vista, what more can I say. Vista is shit and I want to be able to run programs without a control panel opening with everything I want things simple. Hell look at all these people who are moving to linux and Mac. Personally I think you should do the same. Maybe there will be more luck with windows 7. I'm so disgusted with it I am even going to throw out my pirated copy of vista rtm with all versions. Bleeeeeeeeeeech vista! As branden told me, we should put Vista in a barnyard so it can make a mess of itself just like the pigs and cows. lol nice one brand.
vista is fine cody, both brandon and i run it with no problems. we only when this way because you started slagging a OS you haven't used very long. also, 512 of ram works great under XP
Rat I have used vista off and on for a year and always have gone back to xp because I just don't like the UI and I dont' like the way it eats up all your resources plus how many new services there are it is a pain to shut them off because you never know if you shut one off it might screw your entire system. Unlike xp where it just works usually.
this is a quick note sent my cool branden to validate my previous points.
Quicknotes
cool brandon:
(private) I agree with you about vista taking about 1 gb of ram when it starts its even worse usually averaging about 70 percent processor and about the same in ram
need I say more?
I notice that this started out as a networking thread, but it has turned into the "lets bash Vista with good points that are backed up by research, thread."
I do wonder what either WillyTheWoof or Jesse,2 other mac users have to say about Vista...
I hope that Microsoft has learned its lesson from Vista and either makes Windows 7 similar to the stability of xp or server 2003, or they could go the way they're going and give the Mac or Linux more of the Marketshare that they're slowly but surely losing, after all, they're being beaten by Linux on the low end and Mac on the highend.
Highend is enterprise or corporate servers such as Mac pro configured correctly, or XServe or XSan.
This is actually an interesting topic for us to follow, cause it forces us who know IT pretty well to think of replies to other people's posts, even though we have to validate our points more than once, in many different ways.
Gotta agree with all the things Cody and Spike have said rat. I can not stand Vista, I saw how much trouble Cody had when he got his new laptop, and it came with vista. Stick with XP, Leopard, or Ubuntu, or whatever your favorite is for mac and linux and windows. I have a friend whose dad is a network admin, or higher then that, i know he got promoted, i'm not sure what he is now, but nayway, he can not stand vista, or linux, but he still uses linux. I know he can not stand Vista for the exact reasons Cody has said, it keeps bringing up blue screens of death, and it takes up so much ram, and u have to have a really fancy damn computer to just run the damn thing. Good luck with your wireless rat, I would say turn of SSID broadcast, and secure it, that's what I did to ours, except I left SSID on. DOn't just assume no one is gonna not know how to hack into your network, take the precautions, just incase. Mike
lets put it this way. i have 2 vista machines, and haven't had a single problem. as for SSID, if i hide it my parents will kill me. i don't have any choice in the matter
fine, then don't hide the SSID. We never said u had to do.
if you don't have a say in the matter, why is this board topic even here?
Because he wants suggestions on wireless stuff, and what he should get.
Hi all,
My dad's laptop has Vista and it runs fine and it is on a network.
yes, and how many times have cody, spike and I told u to take it off, and drop XP on it, and see how fast it goes?
Rat, with all due respect, you're over 18, correct?
Is the equipment yours, are you paying for it with your own money?
If so, as long as you're willing to find a good balance between security vs conveience, and you and your parents can compromise, this should be fine.
I'm personally not doing wireless cause of how my house is designed, too many walls between the place where the router is located and where the other machine is
If your parents pay for the equipment and net connection, then, even though you live in their house, and live by their rules, if they ask you to lower security or turn it off completely and you do get either hacked or someone uses p2p stuff on your network from a rogue connection, you may or may not be liable for any and all traffic that goes through your network.
Whether you generated it or not. Though I'll check up on this to make sure that I'm telling you the complete truth and amend my post with any new info regarding the traffic and liability issue.
Hey rat,
I have used vista, bought it for sister, have friends who are techies like me used it and hate it, and yes, 2gb+ really does improve the efficiency of it.
But I am not posting again to bash vista, I have bashed it enough here, on qns, irl, and honestly if a person is use to something, whether it sucks or not, no one else can tell them anything to change their ways; despite the benefits of the change.
So this is what you wrote, and I will provide practical everyday suggestions:
hey all,
our family plans to go to a highspeed connection soon, and we have 3 to 4 computers that will share the same connection.
I was thinking of setting up a wireless network, and have a few questions.
first, what routers are good? I mean, what brands, what price range, etc. Linksys/netgear: $50 to $150(super g or n).
Second, would it be worth it to try and get a server for the network after a little time? the family might want to share files, and i think a server would
be a good idea for that. If so, what servers are good for small home networks? no, small home networks is not worth going unless you've got great understanding of networking/computer/os/security, like me and others on here.
Last, is wireless the best idea for a small group of computers? i can tell you now that there will be 2 laptops and a desktop, plus some PDA's on the network. Yes, linksys WPA encryption is what I use.
Thanks for the feedback and suggestions.
---
Again, I assume that you don't want to spend much., so thats the route to take for a low/mid budget. You asked for suggestions, no one can be of help to you if you don't consider/take those suggestions.
Regarding the info I said I'd found, this url should explain alot regarding the wireless connections vs filesharing liability issue: http://blog.wired.com/music/2007/02/riaa_contests_d.html
This article doesn't say that you'll be directly liable for it, since that's still a gray area, not trying to scare you and tell you that you're gonna sued, Rat, just letting you know that there's a small chance that it could happen,t hat chance is 0.00001%, but it is there,, so secure your network, that way you avoid that issue entirelely, though there is never such a thing as 100% security.
Not for you, not for me, not for huge corporations with million dollar firewalls, o keep ths in mind as you set up your network.
this is discriminating and it makes me laugh to a degree--its completely biased, and totally paradoxical, but i am quoting it. "It I had a didgital camera I would have taken pictures, but since I dont' have a digital camera
and you are blind it doesn't make much of a difference". So? I don't care about pictures unless its for a research or a project, or whatever, but its like saying "If i had a collection of music cds I owuld have listened to it and put it on file sharing, but since I don't have a collection of music cds and you're deaf it doesn't matter." THanks, you just disvalidated a point that was completely off-topic, wasted bytes in the server and perhaps shoudl brush up on logical and writing skills. Agree or disagree, I really don't care. Rat, you do whatever the hell you want--after all, you asked for suggestions and not for commands as to what you should exactly should do to set up a network. Some of the advise might be helpful to you, some of it might be helpful to others. You are the one who is setting it up and no one will make a decision for you. Regarding if wireless is the best available solution I would say probably yes, because wireless guarantees compatibility among the types of devices you used and they all thus can be sharing a connection. A router is nice because it also has its own integrated firewall and in combination with other firewalls it provides a double layer of security (here we go with the heattedly-debated word). Anyway, as for servers there are lots of them. Ftp, ssh, you name it. Ftp works for file transfers. It would be up to you to keep the computers synchronized as well--but this is more useful if you want to back everything up. Anyway, good luck with your setup.
louiano, thought for a second you were gonna flame me, directly for post 44, which was mine, but, you are correct, the network setup is ultimately up to rat.
The person who you're responding to will probably give his own response, but I believe his point was that he would've liked to prove to Rat his specific Vista setup, and what went wrong with it, though logging it and uploading the relevant parts would've been enough.
If Rat decides not to take our advice, Vista bashing aside, that's on him.
Rat, I will help you setup any server type that I've got personal experience with, in my case, that would be ftp, depending on the program you use, ssh is a good choice, but I'm unsure of any Windows SSH servers.
Rat, what are you gonna do about backups, for files only, or are you gonna disk image and upload that to the ftp server, if you set that up, or both?
I'd personally advise both, though the second if purely Vista is on the network is gonna be interesting, and hard, considering the image size will start at 10-15 gigs per drive image.
And I wouldn't upload that much data over wireless, no matter how fast it is, I'd be on the wire, and there is where gigabit lan ports are a necessity, in my opinion.
i've been thinking about the network set up. i'd use wireless for the mobile computers such as the lattops and PDAs. but for my desktop i wasthinking of doint a direct cable connection. for security i plan to put a WEP key at the least on it. main problem is, the braillenote doesn't support WPA all that well yet.
as for backup, i plan to save up and get a myBook hard drive for the main systems to backup on.
WEP has serious security issues, it can be hacked in less than a minute, no matter how long it is, though there're routers by Belkon, I believe that have 2 different wireless strengths, part on WEP, and part on WPA or WPA2.
I'll explain that, the router has 2 separate networks, one is WEP, and one is WPA, no, they can't see each other, and I'd advise if you need them to see each other, to be extremely careful when doing so.
I will now address your hard drive decision, not saying that you shouldn't buy a Western Digital hard drive, they're nice hard drives.
But be aware that you're putting your data on only one drive which usually isn't a good idea, especially if they're disk images or important files, such as family pictures, or sensitive data.
My advice, honestly is to get 2 or 3 of those, and run them, backup all of your data onto them all, so if one does die, that the others can take its place, until you get a replacement.
Data recovery services are very expensive, they do work, but home users don't usually use them.
This is my advice, I've lost data from a brand new drive, take it or leave it, at your own risk.
interesting. Well now that we've got things back to where they should be (on topic) . If you cannot really use encryption due to the issue with your notetakers then use mac filtering. Although on some routers like linksis ir really doesn't work out that well for some reason. I wish there was more of an "hostname and mac"address" filtering available, because you would have more unexpected advantages: If the mac changes, then the host name stays the same and there are no reasons why you should worry. On the other hand, the host name changes but the mac addresss stays the same--it would be a stronger protection mechanism if you wanted security on your network. You could however, connect all the necessary devices and set the entries on the filter to be allowed (which should mean that all other addresses are excluded). This doesn't work sell on some devices which are using for example, an additional network wireless adapter such as desktops or laptops with such external cards. Even though you might have added this mac to the address white list, for some reason it is not permitted to connect to the network.
wd all the way baby!
I've had 2x 160gb's 7200rpm internals
2x 500gb's 7200 rpm internals
2x 500gb's 7200rpm external, even though it says buffalo on the case, its wd inside :)
None has pooped on me yet.
Oh, and my 320 gb is a wd pastport 2.5 5400rpm external that I picked up for $150 at bestbuy. Nice deal that I just couldn't pass up :P
i've had really good luck with WD so far, my friend got a different brand and really hated it. i'll see what is around, but i'm considering wd. thanks for the mutiple drive suggestion though.
The key here is to only purchase the amount of storage that ou actually need or think you will need depending on the amount of data you have. Don't just buy something to show off and say I have say 5 1 terabyte drives. Doesn't look good. If that data really is secure then yes I think a centralized NAS would be nice. Again don't just buy an external storage device to make it sound fancy.
no, the largest i'd go with is a 500 gig. for safety measures.
Then if a 500 gb drive is all you will need, then an external hd and dual layer dvd's should suffice
Hmmm, I sense a matter of opinion here.
But for practicality's sake, no more than 80 gb for programs and OS should be needed. Any other subsequent space for data/movies/mp3/disk images/backups is up to one's discretion no? :)
yeah, i would want to move my stargate shows to this thing, and would rather have a thing that can't be moved without me knowing about it. a hard drive is too easy to just unhook and move, where as if i had a server, it has a lot of the main network stuff running in it so it can't be unhooked easily
just in case you didn't know, you can get to a network with invis ssid from windows xp by going to the propperties of the wireless network connection and adding it to your favorite networks. That way you just enter all the stuff including the SSID manually, and if it's valid it'll connect.
Malthe.
I thought we discussed that you really don't need a server, considering your situation, as it stands now.
A NAS, Network Attached Storage setup should be sufficient for your current needs.
A server is expensive, $2500 to start, for a good quality setup, $700 for the OS which would be Server 2003 Standard.
And do you seriously have the room and other requirements to run a server in its own dedicated closet or room?
Other requirements would be, locked access to authorized people only, AC at 60 degrees or lower, but since you don't need a server, the requirements aren't necessary, just being used here as an example.
hmm.
One's resistance can only be learned through experience.
Disaster and failures are an excellent tool of developing wisdom, provided such result is harkened to in the future.
Thomas Edison probably couldn't tell you precisely how he invented the light bulb, but he can surely tell you millions of ways how not to.
Rat, here's a good review of NAS devices, readd this and make your choice, by not only this review, but use others to make your final decision as to what you end up using or buying, depending on budgett constraints.
Price range is $350 to $4000.
$4000 is only for businesses, and or users who've got alot of network administration experience.
Which I will admit, I've got some, but probably not enough to run it on a production network.
A production network is a live network where, if anything fails, and you're working there, and you don't get it back up and running in a certain amount of time, you're so fired.
Yeh, I'm brutally honest, to an extent, but so is life, life isn't fair, its not easy, but if you do work hard enough, you will get somewhere.
The url is: http://www.pcmag.com/print_article2/0,1217,a%253D226254,00.asp
lol an ac with sixty degress or under? now, I wonder how they really do manage these server machines down here at Florida then
With rregards to the air conditioning thing, they do manage to keep it going even in very hot conditions. However the issue i had at my tech school wasn't a fun one. It happened a few months back when the main network admin came in and the entire server room was flooded. This was because one or some of the air conditioning unit had broken! Which is something else a network admin must make sure is under control.
With regards to me and spike, we have valid points, but for the extent on this topic I will still say that you have no need for a full fledged server. I do hope you get some good products. But as i've also said before hand, you should really do some research and homework before buying any of this stuff.