Wi-fi and the future of wireless

Christian Science Monitor ^ | January 05, 2004 | Gregory M. Lamb

[goldstategop]

One day dial up and broadband will go the way of the Edsel and the 8 track tape.

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[ClintonBeGone]

Good article.

[ClintonBeGone]

Dial up is already there. :)

[StatesEnemy]

UnPlug, decentralize, and log in

[Professional Engineer]

Because wi-fi travels over public airwaves, security and privacy are concerns... "People don't realize how vulnerable they are.

Some of us do. 100% copper in my LAN

[Myrddin]

One day dial up and broadband will go the way of the Edsel and the 8 track tape.

Dialup and DSL will likely be supplanted by 802.16a. It provides 70 megabits/sec at distances up to 30 miles. It solves the problem of loop loss over large distances from the central office.

802.11g will probably overtake 802.11b over time. The security issues with current 802.11x networks that run open or with weak WEP protocols will likely go away as more people adopt the WPA security stacks.

[taxcontrol]

Any of you tech Freepers out there able to point me in the right direction?

I need to set up my two back speakers and base for surround sound. My problem is that I don't have a good way to get speaker wire across the room.

So, what I need is a wireless transmitter to plug into my speaker output from my amp and a receiver to plug into my speakers on the other side of the room.

I have a wi-fi network so a 2.4 GHz solution will not work unless it is 802 compatible or 900 mhz.

Any recommendations?

[Bon mots]

BEWARE of "Wardrivers"!!!!

www.wardriving.com

[Professional Engineer]

Happens all the time in my area.

[TaxPayer2000]

Dial up is already there. :)

What's Dial-up???

[Myrddin]

Check Radio Shack. They have wireless audio/video transmitter/receiver sets that may do the job. Be careful to avoid cordless phones at 2.4 GHz. I've seen them knock out an 802.11 network.

[Petronski]

Those dial-up squawking sounds will someday be as quaint as the Ah-OOOO-ga horn on a Model T.

[Myrddin]

Limit your DHCP server to a list of MAC addresses associated with your 802.11x cards. Set a unique SSID. Set up WEP with 64 or 128 bits...use as many as you have. These features are universally available off the shelf. When you can lay your hands on the WPA upgrade, do it. It provides a rolling set of WEP type keys that change too fast for "wardriving" hackers to access.

[nutmeg]

FYI

[ClintonBeGone]

What's Dial-up???

Exactly! And when I hear Earthlink promoting a 'faster' dialup, i just cringe.

[Wright is right!]

"Check Radio Shack. They have wireless audio/video transmitter/receiver sets that may do the job."

They're mono units, so you'd need two on different freqs - plus you'd need another stereo amp in the back of the room and a means of controlling the volume. Very clunky.

I'd suggest you pull up the edges of the carpet and run the wires from your home theater receiver between the wall and the carpet tacking strip, then carefully put the carpet edges back down. I've done that in lots of houses.

Home theater demands a good receiver - and not TWO receivers. A different amp for the rears may introduce phasing problemos as well. Not a real "swuft" ideer.

Michael

[kingu]

Just out of curiosity, I powered up the laptop while waiting for the wife at the doctor's office. She's inside right now, I'm out in the car, and there are literally a dozen access points for my wi-fi enabled laptop.

Most of them are home networks in the surrounding neighborhood. There is a single subscription based tower.

I am, I suppose, technically stealing access to the Internet right now. Not something I plan on doing on a regular basis, but if I knew which house around here had the wireless hub that I'm using, I'd go knock, thank them, and offer a couple bucks for the use.

[Wright is right!]

"I need to set up my two back speakers and base for surround sound. My problem is that I don't have a good way to get speaker wire across the room."

A separate amp in the rear would introduce potential phase trouble and would operate at a fixed volume. Plus, the output for your sub (out of your Home Theater receiver) is high-Z low level. You need to have that sub within about 10 feet of the receiver. Try the carpet-tacking-strip ploy I outlined.

One further impediment to using the wireless units is that you individual channel outputs on your home theater receiver are speaker-level, whereas the inputs to the radio units and incompatible LINE-level.

FIND a way to run the wires!

Michael