Install your own wireless network: access your computer, printer and peripherals without cables

Would you like to access the Internet, your printer and your other computers, including laptops, without stringing wires throughout your office or home? The solution is a wireless local area network (WLAN) and we'll tell you how easy it is to install one yourself at a nominal cost.

WLANs replace conventional wires with devices called wireless access points that plug into any electrical wall socket. WLAN hardware contains miniature transmitters and antennae that send and receive radio signals to and from your computers and other peripherals.

In order to determine how many access points you will need and where they should be placed, sketch the layout of your home or ofrice. Consumer-grade access points have an average effective indoor range of up to 150 feet, though thick concrete walls, metal wall studs and appliances can reduce that range. A small office may need just one access point, which can cost as little as $70. Powerful commercial devices, which provide coverage of extended areas, either indoor or outdoor, cost as much as several thousand dollars.

You also will need to install in each computer, printer and peripheral a wireless network interface card (NLC), which contains a transmitter and antenna to send and receive signals from an access point. Wireless NICs cost from $40 to several hundred dollars. A $40 model is adequate for a home or small office WLAN.

SELECT THE STANDARD

When you shop for wireless equipment, you will be asked which of three industry WLAN industry standards you plan to employ--802.11b, 802.11a or 802.11g. All wireless equipment uses one or more of these standard specifications. The 802.11b designation was the first to be deployed and is the most widely used. The "a" standard was introduced next but is not widely used because it isn't compatible with "b" devices. The "g" standard is the newest and the most versatile; it's compatible with both "a" and "b" (see

For our example, we will use equipment designed for the "g" standard, a Linksys Wireless Access Point Router, which costs about $70, and two Ethernet cables, costing about $5 each.

Configuring the WLAN takes no more than an hour or so. Follow along with us as we provide the steps.

The Linksys does multiple tasks. As a wireless access point it creates the connection to your network. Its four ports also let you connect wired devices. And as a router it allows the office network (wireless and wired) to share a high-speed cable or DSL Internet connection; a dial-up connection is not recommended because it is too slow.

Since the Linksys provides both wired and wireless local area network (LAN) access, you also can plug a desktop computer into it for a wired connection.

Even though our example is hardware-specific, the guidance we present can be followed with slight modifications when using other brands.

LOAD LAPTOPS

We will prepare laptop wireless equipment first.

Step I. Many new laptops come with a NIC already installed. If your laptop lacks it, you will need to install one by following the instructions provided by the vendor. Usually you can slide the credit-card-sized NIC into the laptop's PC-card slot. You'll also have to load the wireless software, which will be provided on a CD-ROM with the NIC, onto the laptop.

Step 2. Plug one end of the first Ethernet cable into the network port on the desktop PC. You usually can find the slot on the back of the computer (it looks like an oversize telephone jack).

Step 3. Plug the other end into any one of the four ports labeled LAN on the wireless access point router (see exhibit 1, at right). Nearly all new desktop computers have built-in network ports. If yours is more than a few years old and doesn't have them, you may need to install an Ethernet 10/100 NIC into one of the expansion slots.

Step 4. To allow multiple wired and wireless users to access your high-speed Internet connection simultaneously, plug one end of the second Ethernet cable into your DSL or cable modem and the other end into the Internet port on the access point router. Be sure to review the policies of your Internet service provider (ISP) to determine the maximum number of concurrent users allowed on your Internet connection.

Step 5. Plug in the access point router, wait a few minutes and then turn on the PC and laptop. To verify connectivity between the PC and the access point router, check to be sure the tiny light-emitting diode lights are illuminated; they're usually situated on the network port on the back of your desktop PC. If they aren't illuminated, you probably failed to connect the desktop PC to the access point router or to turn on the computer or access point router.

The laptop now is configured. Next we prepare the network devices, which need two pieces of information to communicate: an Internet protocol (IP) address on the network (four sets of numbers) and a subnet mask. Some network devices are configured automatically, but doing it manually is not difficult, although, as you'll see, it involves many steps.

Network Device targets cellular backhaul applications

Providing Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, DS1/E1 and DS3/E3 client interfaces, RadioNode is used for multiplexing TDM and Ethernet traffic between cell sites and base station controllers. It offers support for Low Order UPSR/SNCP rings, up to 28 DS1/E1 ports, and 8 Ethernet ports. Device's 0:2 SONET/SDH interface protection used in conjunction with VCAT and LCAS allows Ethernet traffic to be split over 2 diverse links for resiliency to radio link interruptions.

New product optimized for Radio Transmission and Cellular Backhaul applications

OTTAWA, Canada - August 29, 2006 - Galazar Networks[R] Inc., announced the expansion of its broad portfolio of multi-service transport solutions with the introduction of its RadioNode(TM) product. This multiprotocol infrastructure solution is targeted at carrier grade networks for radio transmission and cellular backhaul applications.

Service providers are migrating their radio based access network from copper facilities carrying DS1/E1 to fiber facilities utilizing SONET/SDH signals to deliver richer packet services to their cellular customers. An efficient method of transporting a mix of Ethernet and TDM traffic between cell sites and base station controllers is required for a smooth transition from ATM over DS1/E1 connectivity to Ethernet over SONET/SDH connectivity in the radio access network.

Radio transmission products that primarily provided DS1/E1 or DS3/E3 transport over radio links are now being required to support the proliferation of Ethernet interfaces on today's network equipment to increase bandwidth capacity and add support for Ethernet services. Next generation SONET/SDH features such as the Generic Framing Procedure (GFP), Virtual Concatenation (VCAT) and Link Capacity Adjustment Scheme (LCAS) are ideal for multiplexing TDM and Ethernet traffic for transmission over radio links. SONET/SDH capable radio transmission products inherit all of the carrier grade attributes of SONET/SDH such as reliability, performance monitoring and secure remote management while providing the capability to mix radio and wireline segments to form a SONET/SDH ring network.

"New packet-based services are placing higher bandwidth demands on cellular backhaul networks and radio transmission links," said Richard Deboer, CEO, Galazar Networks Inc. "The world is migrating to Ethernet interfaces and the ability to transport Ethernet simultaneously with existing TDM signals is critical to the migration of the transport network infrastructure required to support new services."

The unique combination of Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, DS1/E1 and DS3/E3 client interfaces make RadioNode ideally suited to providing efficient multiplexing of the variety of signal formats in today's radio access networks. Inherent support for Low Order UPSR/SNCP rings allows efficient sharing of bandwidth and minimizes ports at the Radio Network Controller (RNC) and the Base Station Controller (BSC) when aggregating traffic from multiple cell sites. Support for up to 28 DS1/E1 ports and 8 Ethernet ports allows for continued growth of the existing DS1/E1 infrastructure while supporting the transition to Ethernet capable cell station equipment. SONET/SDH fiber infrastructure in the radio access network also provides increased immunity to costly service interruptions caused by tower lightning strikes.

In radio transmission applications, RadioNode's 0:2 SONET/SDH interface protection used in conjunction with VCAT and LCAS allows Ethernet traffic to be split over two diverse links providing resiliency to radio link interruptions and effectively doubles the contiguous transmission capacity to 311 Mbps.

Building on Galazar's reputation of delivering more than just devices with rudimentary software, our co-located team of experienced IC, hardware, software and system designers minimize customer time to market by working together to define, develop, verify and support these solutions as end-to-end systems. Through proprietary tools and processes we are able to provide extensive software, documentation, troubleshooting tools, reference platforms and application design information to customers.

Galazar offers comprehensive device management software, including advanced capabilities such warm start, interrupt management and a wide variety of troubleshooting tools that are field proven by our customers' deployments. This device management software, extensive hyperlinked documentation and customer system support have established Galazar's reputation as a design partner and supplier of choice to our customers.

Digital Lightwave announces the addition of Virtual Concatenation and Network Delay Simulation in the NIC platform - New Products/New Services - Netwo

Digital Lightwave announced the addition of Virtual Concatenation (VCAT) testing capability and Network Delay Simulation to its Network Information Computer (NIC) product line. VCAT is being implemented broadly around the world, most notably in Asia and Europe. VCAT enables a more efficient and flexible use of SONET/SDH bandwidth for packet-oriented traffic. The feature set includes control and measurement of all related alarms and errors as well as sub-rate channel delay.

Network Delay Simulation allows customers to create delays on sub-rate channels to simulate different physical path lengths without having to use actual fiber and racks of equipment. This feature meets the newest standards and allows users of the NIC to fully test their equipment at all levels of design, manufacturing and installation. VCAT and Network Delay Simulation are available on all new NIC products or available as a software upgrade to existing NICs.

Computer Network Time Synchronization: The Network Time Protocol

Mills (electrical and computer engineering, computer and information sciences, U. of Delaware), the original developer of the Network Time Protocol (NTP), describes the maintenance of accurate computer time, and the technological infrastructure of time dissemination, distribution, and synchronization, with attention to the architecture, protocols, and algorithms of NTP. He details the components of an NTP client and how it works; principles guiding network configuration and resource discovery; performance, radio, satellite, and telephone modem dissemination; kernel software that improves accuracy; security and cryptographic algorithms; errors; modeling and analysis of the computer clock; international timekeeping; and the technical history of NTP. The book is intended as a reference for NTP administrators or for upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses in computer engineering and computer science.

Student honored for defense of computer network

A University of Colorado at Boulder student named Student Employee of the Year was cited for special praise last month by university Chancellor Richard Bynny for his role in preventing the university's network from being compromised by the invasive "Blaster" worm last fall.

It took Davis Chen 36 hours of last-minute computer programming to rescue the school's network from serious harm when the worm created an operating system vulnerability to allow hackers complete access to infected computers. A senior biology major and a member of CU-Boulder's Information Technology Services staff, Chen led the university's effort to prevent the worm from spreading just as students returned for the start of the fall 2003 semester.

"It was a big problem. We have departments at CU-Boulder with sensitive data that shouldn't be leaked, and the worm could've compromised all of that. There was a lot more at stake than a bunch of money," Chen says.


CU officials say Chen's expertise did save CU-Boulder a lot of money particularly in light of what happened at other campuses. The CU-Boulder ITS staff, including Chen, spent only $9,000 and 465 hours to repair about 265 computers--the smallest impact felt of 19 research universities polled in an informal survey published in the Chronicle of Higher Education. In contrast, Stanford University spent $806,000 and took 18,420 hours to repair almost one-third of its entire campus network.

The survey reported an average expense of nearly $300,000 at the 19 schools infected by the worm.

CU-Boulder's success in dealing with the Blaster worm was recognized at schools around the nation. Several requested Chen's solution and instructions on how to implement his program on their own networks.

"I'm thrilled that Davis was recognized as the campus' Student Employee of the Year," said Dennis Maloney, executive director of ITS. "His efforts with regard to our response to the Blaster worm showed a lot of innovation. He very quickly came up with a creative solution to help the campus mitigate what could have been a disaster."

KVM-over-IP - Network access and management products - Raritan Computer IP-Reach M - Brief Article

Digital KVM-over-IP solution for small to midsize data centers offers anytime, anywhere access to servers. The IP-Reach M Series comes in one- and two-port configurations and provides multiplatform, BIOS-level, KVM console access to multiple servers over IP. The 1U system features 128-bit SSL encryption, a dedicated modem port and real-time performance adaptation to bandwidth constraints. For users with multiple IP-Reach products, the Navigator feature enables one-click access to view real-time port status of all IP-Reach products in their data center operations. The M series is SNMP-enabled to interface with remote-management software.--Raritan