AOL Customers

[Garden Carpet]

Ugg!

[Gaina]

I just worked something out last night and thought I'd share it with the people who've been having problems with their network.

Our network is up and running (mine being the administrator) but Dad was getting logged off a lot. I *did* have 'standby' mode turned ON on my PC but I noticed that whenever I hit the space bar to 'wake it up' a message would appear saying '1394 connection established' so it's very likely that my computer going into 'standby' was cutting off the wireless connection to my Dad's PC.

[Boddie]

Originally Posted by Gaina

I just worked something out last night and thought I'd share it with the people who've been having problems with their network.

Our network is up and running (mine being the administrator) but Dad was getting logged off a lot. I *did* have 'standby' mode turned ON on my PC but I noticed that whenever I hit the space bar to 'wake it up' a message would appear saying '1394 connection established' so it's very likely that my computer going into 'standby' was cutting off the wireless connection to my Dad's PC.

Thanks for the advice. Now perhaps you could give AOL a kicking as I have still not received my router

[Gaina]

Originally Posted by Boddie

Thanks for the advice. Now perhaps you could give AOL a kicking as I have still not received my router

STILL no router!?

Rather than talking to customer service about this, I'd be inclined to ring up and select the 'cancel your membership' option and take from there.

[lewisa]

Originally Posted by eeyore

A point occurs with allthis wireless routering going on - security: are these jobbies encrypted or if I come and sit outside your gaff with a wireless enabled laptop will i be able to access the net via your account ? and access your network , monitor transactions to steal you identity etc etc.

There are several encryption standards in wireless routers. Its usually the case that any encryption will be disabled for an out of the box product and you will have to switch it on yourself. AOL might do this differently though. Id still check to be sure though.

These are the main ones -

WEP - Wired Equivilant Privacy - Very weak, the most used but only by virtue of being the first. Now deprecated. Strongly advise against this.

Dynamic WEP - Same as above, but the encryption keys are refreshed constantly. Sounds good but doesnt actually make any difference to the security of it over and above standard WEP, again, dont touch it with a barge pole.

WPA - Wi-Fi Protected Access - This is the encryption you want.


If you use WEP/Dynamic WEP, then someone with a reasonable amount of knowledge could easily gain access to your network. Using WPA makes is a lot more difficult.

If your not using any encryption then any wireless device in range will have total access. You will show up on keyring hot-spot finding devices like a sore thumb.