How to change computers connection fron previous LAN to wireless?

[johnnr892]

Hi, I'm soon going to try and install broadband for some computers wirelessly which were previously on a LAN system at university. Do i just install wireless card and then xp will work its magic or do I have to change IP addresses and such like. Thanks, John. I think I wil get them netgear with netgear wireless? good or not?

[nichomach]

Assuming you're letting the router handle assigning of IP addresses, then it should just work. That said, if I were doing it, I'd be ensuring that I enabled encryption (WPA for preference) and disabled SSID broadcast, which would mean that you'd need to feed each machine the SSID (wireless network name) and the encryption key. That shouldn't be too much grief, though, and it will make you somewhat more secure, so it's worth doing.

[ivo]

the question about the encription is not that simple. i think that WEP AND WPA is not sure enough. for secure wifi-connection i am recomending to use a vpn-tunnel. sure that it slows a bit down the performence but for sending usernames and passwords other solutions are not secure enough. this would allow you to leave your wifi-network completely public. try openvpn, it works great but the server runs on linux. clients for other OS are avayable freely on the net. if you are sure that the whole network is windows only you can also use the windows-vpn. this should let you enoy secure wifi-surfing...