Fun with WiFi

I brought TP-Link TL-WR541G Wireless Router at the 2nd floor of Wan Chi Computer Center for about HK$250. I also brought a TP-Link TL-WN510G WiFi network PC Card at the same store for HK$145. Both worked pretty well with all the gears I used.

The HP Compaq NX9010 at work has, though, a minor problem. It DID not have Wireless Zero Configuration turned on by default, and thus cannot allow me to easily see a list of available WiFi hotspots. I have to explictly turn it on my going to the Service control panel, select the Wirelless Zero Configuration item and start it. After then it works pretty well.

I simply use a regular network cable to connect to the WAN (Uplink) plug, and I instantly got WiFi working in the office. Windows firewall are on. And everything just work.

However, I later experienced problem with WPA. WEP is totally painless, but WPA isn't seen to be the case. Guess I need to spend some time to figure that out.

Security is ultra important for a WiFi network, because if someone can tap into my network, he will have one of those 192.168.1.x IP addres, and he can use 192.168.1.1 to access the configuration screen. Thus the security setting is the critical step to keep being hacked.