Unwired I'm sending this from my laptop via the new 802.11b (WiFi) network at my parent's house. Very nice stuff. My only regret is that I chose the Lucent Orinoco Silver instead of the Gold. The Silver has bit Wireless Encryption Protocol (WEP) protection, while the Gold (for $20 more) offers 128-bit encryption on the network. Neither is great, but the 64-bit protection is apparently something of a joke. Because my card doesn't support it, I have to run the whole network at 64-bit level, despite the fact that my parent's "cheaper" Linksys equipment all supports 128-bit WEP.
A major source of fustration while setting this all up: I couldn't get the Lucent card to login to the Linksys WAP-11 Access Point, as long as I had WEP turned on. Apparently, the engineers at Linksys choose to index their keys from 1, while the Lucent folks like typical comp sci folks started at 0. So if you go to both machines, enter a key, and tell that it's key index 1, they don't agree. To get the to work, you have to set the Linksys gear to 1 and the Lucent stuff to 0. Nice standard, everyone.
Ran Wirelless Netstumbler all the way from Boston. Detected 60+ access points on the train ride, despiite the fact htat much of the trip is rural and away from more affluent housing developments. Got into the cab in Manhattan and watched the software light up like a Christmas tree - often 2-3 networks detected per block. Out of the 120 or so network access points I detected, maybe 15 of them had encryption activated. There's a lot of loose data floating around out there, if you're really interested.
Off to see if I can now print via wireless. This stuff is nice. I'm using it to substitute for a hardline network in my parent's house, but the ability to use my laptop with no wires and be surfing is a cool bonus.
