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this approach allows Boingo to offer a more consistent user experience when you roam around using its service. Boingo is also taking advantage of this software to offer a Virtual Private Network (VPN; a secured network connection that can’t be intruded upon by others) service for business customers.

If you use a Mac laptop computer, don’t bother with Boingo. The Boingo software is only available for the Microsoft platforms that we mention earlier in this section, and you can’t get on the Boingo network without the software.

We talk a bit more about Boingo’s software in the upcoming section “Tools for Finding Hot Spots” because you can use Boingo’s software to sniff out open access points around you, regardless of whether they’re Boingo’s.

Tools for Finding Hot Spots

When you’re on the road looking for a freenet, a community hotspot, or a commercial provider, here are a couple of ways that you can get your laptop or handheld computer to find available networks:

Do your homework: If you know exactly where you’re going to be, you can do some online sleuthing, find the available networks, and write down the SSIDs and/or Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) passwords (if required) before you get there. We talk about these in more detail in Chapter 10. Most hot spots don’t use WEP (it’s too hard for their customers to figure out), but you’ll find the SSID (and the WEP password, if applicable), on the Web site of the hot spot provider that you’re planning on using. Just look in the support or how-to-connect section.

Look for a sign: Those providers that push open hot spots have adopted a standard logo that should be displayed prominently in a place where you can log on.

Rely on your network adapter’s client software: Many network adapter software systems will give you a nice pull-down list of available access points. In most cases, this won’t really tell you any details about the access points, but you can do the trial-and-error thing to see whether you can get online.

Use a network sniffer program: These programs work with your network adapter to ferret out the access points near you and provide a bit of information about them. In the next two sections, we describe sniffers from two companies: Netstumbler.com and Boingo. (Note: In most cases, network sniffer programs are used to record and decode network packets — something the highly paid network analysts at your company might use. In this case, we’re referring to programs that are designed solely for wireless LANs and which sniff out radio waves and identify available networks.)

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7.What is firmware, and why might I need to upgrade it?

8.Isn’t Network Address Translation (NAT) the same as a firewall?

9.How can I find out my Internet Protocol (IP) address?

10.If everything stops working, what can I do?

If you don’t see the particular question that you’re asking in the preceding list, we recommend that you at least skim through this chapter anyway. You never know; you might find your answer lurking where you least expect it, or you might come across a tidbit of information that will later come in handy. And throughout this chapter, we also steer you to where in the book we further discuss various topics — which might in turn lead you to your answer (or to other tidbits of information that will later come in handy). What we’re saying is that reading this chapter can only help you. And also check out Chapter 18, where we give you some troubleshooting tips.

If you’re new to Wireless Home Networking For Dummies, this chapter is a great place to start because you get a good overview to the things that a lot of people ask (when they haven’t read the manual or this book!), and you can get to some meat (hope you’re not vegetarian!) of the issues surrounding wireless. So don’t feel bad if you feel like you’re reading the book backward. (Just don’t read it upside down.)

We firmly believe in the power of the Web and of using vendor Web sites for all they’re worth. Support is a critical part of this process. When you’re deciding on a particular piece of equipment for your home network, take a look at the support area on the vendor site for that device. Look at the frequently asked questions (FAQs) for the device. This is where you might find some of those hidden gotchas that you wish you knew before buying the gear.

Q. What standard is right for me?

This is probably the most-asked question, and you probably won’t like our answer. No, it’s not, “It depends,” (we hate that answer, too); it’s, “Buy an 802.11a/g device as your core access point (AP) so that you can figure this out down the road.” If you have some 802.11b gear in your house, no problem — 802.11g will support it, albeit at the lower 802.11b speeds. As the g hardware comes down in price, you might find that you move your older b equipment to that vacation home or use it elsewhere.

Also, some of the cable industry companies are moving to implement 802.11a in their set top boxes, as are some specialty A/V companies. So you’ll want some 802.11a around the house.

If we thought that you could get an a/g/Bluetooth device, we would say to grab that, too, but that’s likely to be well down the pike. (Head over to Chapter 15 for the skinny on Bluetooth.)

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Most cards (or any electronics, generally speaking) have technical problems within the first 30 days if they’re going to go bad.

If your friend’s PC cannot log on, the problem might be with your AP. At this point, we have to say, “Check out the vendor’s Web site for more specific problem-solving ideas and call its tech support for further help.”

Q. How do I get my video games to work on my wireless LAN?

This question has an easy answer and a not-so-easy answer. The easy answer is that you can get your Xbox, PlayStation 2, or GameCube onto your wireless LAN by linking the Ethernet port on your gaming device (if necessary, purchasing a network adapter kit to add an Ethernet port on your system) with a wireless bridge — which gets your gaming gear onto your wireless network in a very easy fashion. You just need to be sure to set your bridge to the same SSID and WEP as your LAN.

That’s the easy part, and you should now be able to access the Internet from your box.

The tough part is allowing the Internet to access you and your gaming system. This is required for certain games, two-way voice, and aspects of multiplayer gaming. For this, you might need to open up certain ports in your router to enable those packets bound for your gaming system to get there. This is port forwarding (or something like that; vendors love to call things differently amongst themselves). Port forwarding basically says to the router that it should block all packets from accessing your system except those with certain characteristics that you identify (these types of data packets can be let through to your gaming server). We talk a lot about this in Chapter 11, so be sure to read up on that before tinkering with your router configuration.

If this is too complex to pull off with your present router, you might consider just setting up a demilitarized zone (DMZ) for your gaming application, where this sits fairly open to the network. This is not a preferred setup, however, for security reasons, and we recommend that you try to get port forwarding to work. We discuss setting up a DMZ in Chapter 12.

Q. My videoconferencing application doesn’t work. What do I do?

In some ways, videoconferencing is its own animal in its own world. Videoconferencing has its own set of standards that it follows, typically has specialized hardware and software, and until very recently, has required special telephone lines to work.

The success of the Internet and its related protocols has opened this up to a more mass market with IP standards-based Web cameras and other softwarebased systems becoming popular.

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Still, if you’ve installed a router with the appropriate protection from the Internet bad guys, videoconferencing can be problematic for all the same reasons as gaming that we mention earlier. You need to have packets coming into your application just as much as you are sending packets out to someone.

Now wait a minute. You might be thinking, “Data packets come into my machine all the time (like when I download Web pages), so what are you saying?” Well, those packets are requested, and the router in your AP (or your separate router, if that’s how your network is set up) knows that they’re coming and lets them through. Videoconferencing packets are often unrequested, which makes the whole getting-through-the-router thing a bit tougher.

As such, the answer is the same as with gaming. You need to open ports in your router (port forwarding) or to set up your video application in a DMZ. Again, Chapter 12 can be a world of help here.

Q. How do I secure my network from hackers?

Nothing is totally secure from anything. “Where there’s a will, there’s a way,” tends to govern most discussions about someone hacking into your LAN. So we tend to fall back on, “Unless you have some major, super-secret hidden trove of something on your LAN that a lot of people would simply kill to have access to, the chances of a hacker spending a lot of time to get on your LAN is minimal.” This means that as long as you do the basic security enhancements that we recommend in Chapter 10, you should be covered.

These basic enhancements cover

Securing your Internet connection: At a minimum, you should turn on whatever firewall protection that your router offers. If you can, choose a router that’s got Stateful Packet Inspection (SPI). You should also use antivirus software and seriously consider using personal firewall software on your PCs. It’s defense in depth — after the bad guys get by your router firewall’s Maginot line, you’ve got extra guns to protect your PCs. (For a little historical perspective on defense strategies, read up on Maginot and his fortification.)

Securing your airwaves: Because wireless LAN signals can travel right through your walls and out the door, you should strongly consider turning on WEP (and taking other measures that we discuss in Chapter 10) to keep the next-door neighbors from snooping on your network.

Q.How do I check to make sure that I’m secure?

It’s often easy to determine whether you’ve opened up your ports because your multiplayer gaming (or videoconferencing or whatever application requiring port forwarding) now works — where it didn’t before.

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However, the opposite is not always so easy to determine: that is, when you have open ports that should be closed. This often happens when you open ports for an application that you’re no longer using (but forgot to close the ports again).

Plus, you might not have set things correctly in the first place.

We recommend the program ShieldsUP!! (www.grc.com). This program will systematically test your router, effectively trying to break into your system by using all commonly known techniques. The program will then issue you a report that tells you how secure your router is — and if it’s not, what to do to fix it. We highly recommend this.

Q. What is firmware, and why might I need to upgrade it?

Any consumer electronics device is governed by software that’s seated in onboard chip memory storage. When you turn on the device, it checks this memory for what to do and loads the software in that area. This turns the device on.

This firmware, as it’s referred to, can be updated through a process that’s specific to each manufacturer. Often you’ll see options in your software configuration program for checking for firmware upgrades.

Some folks advocate never, ever touching your firmware if you don’t need to. Indeed, reprogramming your firmware can upset a lot of the logical innards of your device that you struggled so hard to get right in the first place. In fact, you might see this advice on a vendor site (like this is from the D-Link site): “Do not upgrade firmware unless you are having specific problems (“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”). Upgrading firmware will reset the settings to default which means you will lose all your settings. You cannot use the backup settings feature and apply it to the newer firmware. Do NOT upgrade firmware with a wireless connection. You will damage the router.” Although not all vendor firmware upgrades will reset your settings to default, many do. Be careful!

Okay, we don’t necessarily disagree with any of that except to say, “Never say never.” The standards in the wireless arena are changing, particularly in the 802.11a and 802.11g areas. One of the key ways that you can keep current with these standards is by upgrading your firmware. You will find over time that your wireless network will fall out of sync with these standards, and you’ll have to upgrade at some point. When you do so, follow all the manufacturer’s warnings.

In Chapter 10, we discuss a forthcoming security enhancement for 802.11 LANs called Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA). Many existing APs and network adapters will be able to use WPA but only after they’ve had their firmware upgraded.

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If you have Windows 2000 or XP, you can find your computer’s private IP address by choosing Start Run. When the Run dialog box pops up, type cmd and then click OK. In the window that opens, type ipconfig at the command prompt and then press Enter. You’ll see your IP address and a few other network parameters.

This IP address is your internal or private IP address, not the public address that people on the Internet use to connect to your network. So if you try to give this to someone (perhaps so that they can connect to your computer to do some videoconferencing or to connect to a game server that you’re hosting), it won’t work. You need the public IP address that you’ll find in the configuration program for your access point/router.

Q. If everything stops working, what can I do?

The long time that it can take to get help from tech support these days actually does lead a lot of people to read the manual, check out the Web site, and work hard to debug their present situation. But what happens if you’ve tried everything, and it’s still a dead connection — and tech support agrees with you?

In these instances, the last resort is to do a reset of the system back to the factory defaults and literally start over. If you do this, be sure to upgrade your firmware while you’re at it because it will reset your variables, anyway. And who knows, the more recent firmware update might resolve some issues that could be causing the problems.

Resetting your device is considered a pretty drastic action and taken only after you’ve tried everything else. Make sure that you at least get a tech support person on the phone to confirm that you have tried everything else and that a reset makes sense.