wireless cards:

[Adelpiero]

ok, i have a wireless card for my notebook, and use open signals, but:


can you put a wireless card in your desktop computer and find and steal signal?



have a buddy who's a broke muther, takes care of his ailing mother, and has ZERO money to piss away on internet, i gave him the computer he has. so any help appreciated!

[PSUFAN]

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... CatId=2688" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I have several of these, they work really well, easy to set up also

[Mister Bushice]

Those look awesome.

[Headhunter]

That all depends on how stupid his neighbors are. Mine are fucking tards. They have a Linksys router using default ip, no wep, and sharing their My Document folder. I don't talk to them much, so not worth brining up, but one of these days their going to finds all their shared pics wytched into fucking donkeys and other such things.


Entry level dsl in my neck of the woods is $14.99 a month. Hook your buddy up with a 20 spot each month.

[ElTaco]

If you can't pick up a signal near enough, get a PCI wifi card instead and get an external antenna to go with it. You should be able to do some basic investigation with your laptop/wifi card to see where the nearest unlocked signal is, then just get a directional antenna if its too far away or just a bigger external antenna and use that to pick off their signal.

I should also mention that I would try to get on a neighbor's network before I did a business one. Business' have this tendency of being stupid until they get burned and then blaming someone innocent for it. In other words, I'm sure there might be some small business owners who threw up their own wifi in the store without any security, but when they get their shit broken into, they'll come sniffing and even accidental connection to open wifi connections are technically illegal and have had some stupid legal endings for innocent/ignorant users.

[Mister Bushice]

All My neighbors are bright. Everyone who pops up on my search has a pwd protected network.

ET,

I need to expand my linksys routers range. I have one computer (daughters) hard wired to it, but I'm shifting my wireless deskto PC and office downstairs on the other side of the house and the reception in that room is a little shaky at times.

A think a deece wireless card for her would be more expensive than some type of signal range expander, but I don't know what's out there.

[Mister Bushice]

Picked up one of the linksys usb adapters today for $39 plus tax at circuit city.

Same price as on their website, if any one is interested.

Damn cheap, if ya ask me.

[Dinsdale]

Coupla things...

Around here, people leave their wireless unsecured intentionally. They don't leave hared folders unsecured though (for the most part). It's a way to "stick it to the man," I guess. I know one guy who even said "If I gotta pay $60 a month for cable modem (no DSL in his old-wired neighborhood, and he runs a computer business) I'm damned well going to hook up as many people as possible." He's got signal boosters on every corner of his yard... the neighbors appreciate it.

In most of he city-proper, there's city-sanctioned free wireless. Doesn't work where I live, but does on the flat valley floor.


I've set up home systems where we used Linksys WAPs as signal . Doubt that's the ideal setup, but the equipment was available and paid for, and it works. Have discovered that while Linksys makes a bunch of products that look identical, they aren't all compatible (which really came to the forefront when the XBox360 came out, which doesn't work with old-schol Linksys broadband routers, generally).

For securing the home network, I usually use NetBEUI, and make sure that can't pass through the firewall... seems to work, and is simple. But I personally rarely use te home network, so it isn't much of an issue (and I'm a dark-ages, no-wireless primitive).


If you have a sheltered spot on the corner of he property, you can try setting up a WAP/antenna remotely, and transmit it to the house... had it work that way, too.

[Dinsdale]

In most of he city-proper, there's city-sanctioned free wireless. Doesn't work where I live, but does on the flat valley floor.

OK... "USED TO" work on the valley floor.

Great idea, but Metrofi just bit the dust. I'm sure another contractor will be along to replace them, since they built the infrastructure, and I'm guessing are going to forfeit it.

They had a contract with the city to build wireless points around the city. In exchange, they were allowed to sell business wireless access, and do banner ads on the free public access. The contract required that certain percentages of the city be covered by certain dates. Except Metrofi set up downtown and the more densly populated areas (most of which aren't hilly), sold some business accounts, then told the city "Fuck you. We're making money now, and don't see the profitability in setting up more infrastructure to serve less densly populated areas that don't have the same amount of business accounts available, so we're not going to do it."


Except there's that pesky matter of a legally binding contract... not sure what they were thinking with the "yeah, we don't think so" move... ponderous.


Was a nice idea, that probably will be again when a little more ethical company takes it over.