Setting up A Wireless Network

First order of business is to install the wireless network adaptors into each computer. For desktop computers using a PCI network adaptor, you will need to power down the system, open up the case and insert the adaptor into a free PCI slot (the white slots running in a row down the back of the computer motherboard). Screw the card in, then close up the computer and restart, providing the driver disk when prompted. For a USB wireless adaptor, simply plug it into a free USB port while the computer is running, and install drivers when prompted.

For laptop systems, you will either have a PCMCIA card adaptor (recommended) or a USB adaptor. Both can be plugged into the computer while it is running, though with the PCMCIA card adaptor it is a good idea to power off before you plug it in. Install the drivers as required.

Now choose a location for your router. If you have decided that you will use wired connections for any of your desktop systems, obviously you want it close to them. The router will need to be wired to your DSL or cable modem if you are planning to share internet through it.

If you have multiple floors in your home or office, it is a good idea to put the router on the middle floor to ensure maximum connectivity. You can always change the location later once you see the kind of signals you are getting, so don't worry about it for too long. Plug the router in.

Verify that the 'WLAN' LED is lit up. To test connectivity, open a web-browser on one of your wireless computers and enter the default IP address of your router. If you are not sure what this is, consult your manual, but typically it is 192.168.2.1. If successful you should wind up at the router's configuration interface screen.

At this point, there are a number of things you may wish to configure. The only thing that is essential at the moment is if you have a DSL Internet connection, you will wish to enter your username and password for the connection into the router so it can dial the connection for you.

PCSTATS

By default, your router will have a 'pool' of IP addresses which it will distribute to any clients who attempt to connect wirelessly. This is called the DHCP server.

PCSTATS You can disable this feature by turning off the 'DHCP server' option, but if you do so, you will have to manually assign each wireless client an IP address in the same network as the router by browsing to 'My Network places/(your wireless adaptor)/TCP-IP settings' and entering an address in the proper range.

For example, if your router's IP address is 192.168.1.1, you will need to give your client computers IP addresses in the range of 192.168.1.2-254 to connect. We will discuss some more efficient forms of securing your connection in a second.

Your wireless network adaptors in each computer should have a status program (see the picture to the right of an SMC PC-card adaptor) that will give you basic information about your network and the signal strength available.

If the signal is poor you will need to reposition your router. Walls, people, and metal can absorb much of the wireless signal, so proper positioning of the router is important. Another important point to consider is securing your wireless network from just anyone accessing it.

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Beginners Guides: Wireless home networking

As everyone knows, Wireless networking is hot. Or at least the idea of it is... Wireless networks abound in coffee franchises, Colleges and even McDonalds (in theory). And why not? It's an inherently desirable idea. No wires, minimal setup, as we said, why not ?

Well, price used to be the reason, but now driving this boom is the falling price of basic wireless networking equipment. The premium over conventional wired networks has dropped to a point where wireless is a valid option for most home networks, not just businesses and educational institutions. So let's look into what is involved in making your home network wireless.

This article will cover purchasing and setting up home wireless equipment, look at the available standards for wireless networking, and cover some basic security guidelines. If you have already set up a conventional home network, jump right in. Otherwise you may wish to read the PCSTATS Guide to basic home networking to get a better idea of the basics of networking computers.

This article assumes a few things: That you have two or more computers with Windows operating systems, a basic knowledge of computer terms, and an understanding of what networking computers together implies.

To get your wireless network off the ground, you will need:

1. A wireless router (an access-point can be used instead, but for a home network, purchasing a wireless router is recommended for the added bonus of Internet sharing and security. Also, home wireless routers tend to be cheaper than access points, since the latter are primarily marketed to businesses.)

PCSTATS
This SMC wireless router is an example of what could be used. Some wireless routers only have one antenna, but we find two preferable. You can read PCSTATS' review of this equipment here.
2. One wireless network adaptor for each computer or device that you wish to connect to the router/access point.

When it comes to purchasing for your wireless networking equipment, it pays to shop around. The majority of wireless equipment is produced by well-known companies, such as DLink, Cisco, SMC or others and available only as a retail box item with a retail warranty.

Generally this would mean that the best place to purchase would be at a major electronics retailer, but since wireless networking has become so popular, even the smaller independent computer stores stock a variety of wireless networking gear. These smaller stores do not expect anything like the kind of profit margins that the large retailers do, so you'll probably find better prices from them.

Given that most items will carry a manufacturers warranty and not a store warranty anyhow, you can save a significant amount of money.
PCSTATS PCSTATS
Two examples of wireless PCI network adaptors. The SMC 802.11b adaptor to the left is simply a wireless PCMCIA card in a PCI adaptor. Whereas the TrendNet wireless adaptor to the right is more integrated and features a removable antenna. When it comes to signal strengths, the two types of wireless adaptors should be fairly even, but a larger antenna can be attached to the TrendNet model to give it an advantage.

Easy enough, but if you need a few ideas of what to consider, PCSTATS' 802.11b Wireless LAN Networking Roundup is a little dated, but a good place to begin if you're unfamiliar what kind of features are available in wireless access points and routers... after all, speeds change but WiFi features have remained pretty similar. Now, let's get started.

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Debian GNU/Linux

About Debian

The Debian project was founded by Ian Murdock in 1993. Debian gets its name from the combination of Ian Murdoch and his wife Debra's name (Deb-Ian) One of the Linux community's most illustrious people has been a primary developer of Debian. I'm talking about Bruce Perens. He was one of the founders of Pixar, the company that created the Toy Story films, Monsters Inc. and Finding Nemo.

Debian has no company behind it. The Debian project is sponsored by Software in the Public Interest, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping produce open-source software and hardware. Despite its not-for-profit status, Debian is an extremely versatile distribution. It forms the base of many user-friendly distributions like Ubuntu, Linspire and Xandros. It can also be found running on thousands of mission critical servers that have to be up 24/7.

Though the installation procedure is not as easy as some commercial distributions, it cannot be described as difficult either. We will go over this in more detail shortly. The major advantage to Debian is that it can be updated easily via their much lauded apt-get system.
Getting Debian GNU/Linux

If you have a broadband connection (cable, xDSL or better), you can easily obtain this distribution and install it. There are two major ways to do this. The most popular is to burn the Debian ISO images to CDs and install. If you have a CD burner, this is an ideal option. The second is to obtain a minimal ISO image especially designed for an install over the Internet. With this option, the files are downloaded as the installer needs them. This can also be done by downloading floppy disk image files instead of CD images. More information on these methods can be found at http://www.debian.org/distrib/

If you don't happen to have a broadband connection, downloading Debian would be an extremely frustrating experience. You may want to consider contacting a local distributor of Debian CDs. Consult this page for further information about distributors in your area: http://www.debian.org/CD/vendors/
Installation from CD

This is probably going to be the most common way of installing Debian, so we go over installation using this method.
Preliminary considerations

You may be wondering if you can keep another operation system (ie. MS Windows - which other one is there?) on your computer. You can.

Are we going to explain how to do it? Not in great detail. Why? There are a couple of reasons:

* Lack of experience with the newer Microsoft products.
The author must admit that he's installed a great number of Linux distributions side by side with Windows 9.x products. He hasn't done it with any of the more recent ones, so advice on doing it would be of dubious quality.
* There's very little you can do with Microsoft products that Linux won't let you do as well.
Enough said there.
* We don't work for Microsoft
We advocate alternatives to Microsoft products and not the continued use of them, even in a "second fiddle" role.

What we can say about dual-booting

If you happen to have MS Windows 9.x you must repartition your hard drive to make room for Linux. You can either erase the drive and repartition a blank drive or you can attempt to repartition a working hard drive. Ideally, what was done in the "old" days was to install Windows in C: and D: partitions. This is relatively easy to deal with. As a matter of fact, my first install of Slackware Linux was on the D: partition of my Windows workstation.

If you've got one partition with Windows on it, there are some supposedly non-destructive re-sizing tools. They always tell you to back up your data before proceeding, so I always figure - what's the use in re-sizing when you can start clean from scratch. You may decide you want to throw away Windows all together!

Summing up, I recommend Linux-only installations. Linux has become quite "mature" as an end-user operating system, so I find these stories about being "weaned" off Windows to be ridiculous (the exception, supposedly, being those who run the financial software 'Quicken'). If you've bought a new car, you don't have to be "weaned" off that. You just trade in the old one and start driving the new one. The graphic user interfaces available plus the ever-growing numbers of productivity applications (office suites, browsers, email applications, etc.) make it such that a MS Windows user could have his/her workstation switched with a Linux machine overnight and they would barely break a sweat getting used to it. Everything works very much in the same way.

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