Guides for novices
Goin' wireless
by Otterman

At Home - In Singapore

Wireless surfin' in Singapore

"Where's your nearest wireless hotspot [in Singapore]" by CNETAsia Staff, 14th April 2003.

"On the move? Go wireless." By Alfred Siew, Computer Times, November 27, 2002
It's been prophesied for years and then laughed at by detractors, but wireless Net access is available now if you need to go online while on the move.

"Wireless hotspots in town". By Aloysius Choong, CNET Asia, 23rd October 2002.

Starhub Wireless Broadband Hub
Pacific Internet Wireless@Hotspots
Singnet Outdoor Wireless Surf

Wireless surfin' at home

Airport alternative, Netgear MR314: Setup took seconds.
Based on an original post to Me@n list, 29th August 2002

Hi all,

I had read a review article in MacWorld about Airport Base Station alternatives and remembered the remark that there were many cheaper and sometimes better performing alternatives. I took another look at the article and saw that MacWorld had rated the Netgear MR314 4 mice. It is a Cable/ADSL Router 11Mbps, w/4ethernet port switch, Appletalk, no modem.

Too tempting, I bought one at Comex 2002 where it was selling for S$330. A tough day followed, and I only got back home near midnight, so I set it aside. After a shower and dinner, I looked at the box - too tempting. Okay limit myself to an hour, I thought. The instruction set (geared more for PC users) promised them to be online in 30 minutes.

Oh boy...

Get this: connected router to power, then to cable modem, turned on both, activated airport option, and I was online. I was moving really slow, so it must have taken three minutes - two minutes spent reading the specs on the box in relish, and 30 seconds to find an available power outlet. Boy that was tough!

At S$330, it represents savings of about S$237 compared to the Airport Base Station. Sure it isn't half as graceful, but after you shove it under the cable outlet, and work in another room, you will never look at it again.

Cheerio!

Otterman

 

Using Netgrear's MR314

Firmware upgrade - just download, unzip, and upload the bin file.

128-bit encryption and OS 10.2 settings

  1. Turn on 128-bit encryption.
  2. Typed a password/phrase into the the box next to 128.
  3. Click on the "create" button.
  4. Further down, a string of characters appear under mannual - Key 1.
  5. I clicked "Apply".
  6. Airport had to be reacessed.
  7. Selected the airport network.
  8. Prompted for a password.
  9. Click "password" and select "128-bit hexadecimal" instead.
  10. The netgear browser window is in the background - type in the characters generated in Key 1.

See also:

Using a desktop as a wireless base station: If you have a desktop connnected to cable modem 24/7, use it as an airport base station! See Wireless Simplicity by Sean Roulet.

Alternatives to airport: Airport costs too much? Check out these alternatives suggested by MacWorld. AirPort alternatives provide shared internet access to wireless and wired macs by Shelly Brisbin, MacWorld, July 2002.
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