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Big Dog Joined: 20 Oct 2000 Posts: 3689 Location: USA

Quote:

Egad, I go away for a bit, and a couple of network-religious replies decide to pop up.

Anyway, C|Net? ZD Net? Gimme a break, I read the specs and follow what the committee agrees to. Ugh...that's almost like saying you're replying to this forum through an AOL account or something. I'd like to believe that LWD readers are more technically inclined than that.

As for security, you *obviously* didn't read the whole post. If you plan on putting it into a business environment, then you're leaving your business at risk. It doesn't matter if your browser has 128 bit encryption or the SSL page you're reading is 256 bit triple DES; the wireless link with 40 bit, static key encryption will be the weakest point. And if some hacker figured out you were using that, he could put down something to repeat the signal and transmit or send it elsewhere for decryption. Did you know that there are cordless phones that can do:
<BLOCKQUOTE id=quote>quote:

If you're gonna do things right, then you should only do it once. Prices are high for Cisco Aironet devices, because they know they can charge that based on the features, one of which is the security.
For home use, just stick with regular cabling, since you can get better speeds and save money as well. BTW, with today's hot rods for computers, 56 bit encryption can be broken in a matter of a couple of hours, and that's with a dynamic key. Cluster a few of these machines together and grab a peer-to-peer number crunching app and 40 bits and a static key will disappear in tens of minutes.

There's not a need to be paranoid, but there's also not a need to be careless and unknowing as well.<hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote></font id=quote>

I think my actual point there was that your first statement was almost an exact cut and paste from an article i saw on "War Driving" . . . I just couldn't remember if it was over at Cnet or ZDnet.

Stray Dog Joined: 19 May 2001 Posts: 6

Got my D-Link DI-711 (brother of the 713) last week. The wired connection to a Win 98 PC and configuration of the 711 went fine as did connection to swbell DSL modem. BUT, I have not been able to get a trace of a link between the 711 and either one of two thinkpads running Windows 2000 with either one of two different DWL-650 cards. Tried all sorts of configurations: No Link; blinking green light, red icon. Called D-link support yesterday (after an email produced an indifferent response) -- after sitting on hold for 25 minutes (on my nickel) got a "tech" who contradicted the manual in several ways, spend 30 minutes more running me through the basic setup which I had already done 5 times, then told me to download new firmware and call him back -- I did, but it would not install. Numerous calls back to his (never answered) number did not produce any response from him. So much for support.

Has anyone been able to get this to work with a notebook running Win 2000? Is there a trick? It doesn't even seem to "try." I have disabled all other network connections, reinstalled the drivers, checked for latest drivers, etc, etc: blinking green light, red icon; no link. The thing is putting out microwaves -I can see the interference on my WaveCom receiver (yes the transmitter is turned off).

Posted: Sat May 19, 2001 10:22 am Post subject:

I'm sorry that I can't help you with your link problem, but I'm sure you'll get some answeres in this forum real soon.

I was just curious about your customer support trouble. Was the person you were in contact with named Matt? If so, It just might be Matthew K. Magill from OCZ doing some moonlighting. OCZ is the place where they don't care if they don't get return business because there's a sucker born every minute.

- Ed.

Stray Dog Joined: 19 May 2001 Posts: 6

Ed - No, it wasn't Matt. Strange. I first sent a long detailed email with what ipconfig said, etc. They replied -->make sure any internal networks are disabled and call us if that doesn't work. Duh. Seems like they want you to experience that 30 minute wait on hold. All of their examples in the instructions are for Win 98 -- all I was asking was for help with any Win 2000 specific setups. Seems like if it doesn't work right out of the box with DHCP, they don't know what to tell you. I even downloaded 105 Mb worth of Win 2000 sp 2 just to see if that would help; nope: red icon, blinking green light. Game over.

Edited by - novice1 on 05/19/2001 17:35:15

Posted: Sat May 19, 2001 1:53 pm Post subject:

Well Novice...I haven't played with the 711 but the 713 worked flawlessly using a DWL-650 card in a Dell laptop running Win2K. It was like 30 seconds of driver setup and wham-o we was seein' the Internet.

Has the laptop(s) been on a network before? If so, did you completely remove the old drivers? At the Command Prompt have you tried "ipconfig /release_all" to get a new IP address.

Maybe the 650 card is some how locked into a different Switch/Router. I think when you first turn on a wireless NIC it looks for other wireless devices and once locked in it won't talk with other Routers/Switches. At least I would hope that would be the case otherwise you could have a neighbor in the apartment next door with a similar setup and you'd both be talking to each other simultaneously...could get a bit weird. Maybe I'm wrong, but it would be the logical thing.

Rover
- I don't have a god complex...I just like people to think I do!

Stray Dog Joined: 19 May 2001 Posts: 6

Rover -- Both laptops have been on networks and will have to go back and forth. I have "disabled" as much as I could, but have been reluctant to complete destroy the other setups...Guess I could...but ugh. Here is what I get on a couple of calls to ipconfig -- hope there is a smoking gun (I garbled the autoconfig IP a little; paranoid):

C Undecided

>ipconfig /all

Windows 2000 IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : CRYSTA-10025
Primary DNS Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 3:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : D-Link DWL-650 11Mbps WLAN Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-40-05-DF-0E-CC
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration IP Address. . . : 171.254.229.13
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.0.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . :
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Disabled

C Undecided

>ipconfig /release

Windows 2000 IP Configuration

All adapters bound to DHCP do not have DHCP addresses. The addresses were automatically configured and can not be released.

Posted: Sat May 19, 2001 9:54 pm Post subject:

Hmmm...IP configuration cannot be released? Now that's strange! I take it you've gone into Network Properties and disabled the other network card so the only one Win2K will use is the Wireless NIC? I'm a bit tipsy so I'll have to get back with you on this.

Rover
- I don't have a god complex...I just like people to think I do!

Stray Dog Joined: 19 May 2001 Posts: 6

Quote:

Hmmm...IP configuration cannot be released? Now that's strange! I take it you've gone into Network Properties and disabled the other network card so the only one Win2K will use is the Wireless NIC?(snip)

I've disabled and pulled the other card. Thought that message was a little strange, but didn't know enough about it to know. Windows emits lots of strange messages. How do I go about telling this thing it has never heard of another network?

Stray Dog Joined: 19 May 2001 Posts: 6

I got things to where ipconfig showed everything being released, but on "renew" it just complains about not begin able to find a server. One things seems to be constant: On both computers with both 650's, at bootup the green light comes on continuously as the Win 2000 splash screen first appears but when the progress bar reaches about 2/3 done, there is a tiny static sound from the laptop speakers and the green light starts to flash. After this, the system does not even seem to "try" to get a link.

Posted: Sun May 20, 2001 5:26 pm Post subject:

SPOT where are you buddy? Novice1, I'd talk to Spot since he has one of these things...maybe drop him a private message. I don't know enough to help you anymore...sorry buddy.

Rover
- I don't have a god complex...I just like people to think I do!

Posted: Sun May 20, 2001 6:12 pm Post subject:

Sorry... just got home from a vacation.

Novice, - I'll read this whole thing tomorrow, and help you out. k? I'm tired and need some sleep. Been driving half the day.

Open your eyes and look within, are you satisfied with the life you're living?
- Bob Marley, Exodus

Posted: Mon May 21, 2001 2:31 pm Post subject:

OK Novice.... Lets see what we can do for you.

first off.... My DWL-650 came with three sets of instructions. (Win98/98SE, WinME, and Win2000). Did yours? If not, I will scan the 2000 one and post it for you.

Second, what does the DWL-650 config utility show? Is it set to the default channel? (6) Or at least set to the same channel as the DI-711? Make sure your transmit rate (Tx Rate) is set to "Fully Automatic"

third... From the looks of your ipconfig /all settings, it looks like the 650 is trying to get it's IP from your ISP. I don't have a DI-711, but I do have a DI-713 and it alots 192.168.0.* addresses to it's satellite components. (as I believe most D-Link products default to) What is the IP address of your DI-711? And What are the IP addresses of your "wired" machines? If your wired machines are obtaining their IP from the DI-711, then they should have the first three octets of the IP address the same as your wireless machine.

Let's start from there. :-D

Ohhh...one more thing. Make sure the DWL-650 was installed in "Infrastructure" mode and not AdHoc (Peer-to peer)

Open your eyes and look within, are you satisfied with the life you're living?
- Bob Marley, Exodus

Stray Dog Joined: 19 May 2001 Posts: 6

I've gone through this quite a few times now and quintuply (word?) checked all the easy stuff. Have gotten ipconfig to admit that everything is released, but when I try to "renew" it just flat cannot find a server. Have tried hard wiring the IP, etc, etc, still no luck.

I guess the 711 is just "bad", but at this point if I try to return it to d-link, I'll lose my 30 day free return grace period, and I don't trust d-link to make it good in the long run. Soooo...think I'll cut my losses and go buy a DSL gateway that uses the biggest, longest, ugliest cables in the history of the planet -- BUT -- I will know where the heck the signal is going and that it is getting there. Thanks for trying.

Stray Dog Joined: 23 Jan 2001 Posts: 7 Location: USA

I bought the 713 for 220 biscuits which is great! I also purchased a DWL-650 to use in my DELL Inspiron 7500 with Win2000. I poked the card in installed the drivers per the REALLY HUGE poster they give you and nothin'. I checked the device manager and saw that the device itself was giving an error 31 (Windows can't load the driver for this device). Hmmmm I tried to direct cable to the 713 and that works great in both static and dynamic addressing. I put the card into an IBM thinkpad with '98SE and it did what it was supposed to do, quite well actually. I removed and reinstalled the driver on my DELL and same thing, it would not load the driver. I do have SP2 on there. I am going to try on linux(mandrake) to see if that can do it. If you find anything related to this card and W2K let me know.

PS. As far as signal increasing I found this page on how to use an old dish attena to get a better directional signal http://www.wwc.edu/~frohro/Airport/Primestar/Primestar.html

clever!

Posted: Wed Jun 20, 2001 1:56 pm Post subject:

Novice1, there may be a fix for your problem (no promises here), as I had similar problems on a Dell laptop, using a 3COM ethernet adaptor.

Firstly, set the IP address for you adaptor manually, to something like 192.168.0.10, with a gateway of 192.168.0.1, subnet mask of 255.255.255.0, then reboot. Once the system has started again, go in and remove the manual IP settings, and set it back to auto-assigned (DHCP) and reboot again. This should clear the lease on the IP that ipconfig /release is *not* releasing (regardless of what the application tells you).

Regarding security of wireless LANs, the best implementation I have seen so far relied on 40bit encryption and MAC address specific IP allocation/firewall access (Ascend WaveLAN). This means that the only way a wireless card can get access to your network is to first be allowed through the firewall by MAC address (unique to each card), then assigned a valid IP. Still not perfect, but better than most.

Hope this helps.

Rogue