Wireless Internet folks: HELP!

[skoosiepants]

Bare with my stupidity here: How does this work? Does Verizon have to come out and install something, or do I buy my own router and they just turn something on? Can someone who's set something like this up let me know what you've gone through? Customer Service is unhelpful if you're just asking questions. It's like, sign up or eat shit. No in between. And right now I'm just sort of researching options. So. Any advice??

Comments

Re: One More thing, IMPORTANT

[therienne.livejournal.com]

Oh, what a freaking relief. I know that place, when you are like "...and NOW the ComPUTER goes OUT the WinDOW and you all DIEEEEE!11!"

I have been there many a time.

How is the laptop doing?

Once you've got everything talking to everything else, you're going to want to do things like go to the administration page, and change the password fromthe default (admin) to whatever you want. And maybe think about a little security for the wireless part, either encryption, or using a MAC address.

Re: One More thing, IMPORTANT

[skoosiepants.livejournal.com]

laptop is working! I just restarted it and it let me set it up! I"m currently in the basement getting ready for stargate! I set up a few security things, but I really didn't know what I was doing, and I didn't want to fuck it up. What should I do about the MAC addresses? The enable or disable stuff, and then the list?? I don't quite get that. I did change the password, though, and set up a network name and everything, and clicked on WPA personal for... something. God, my mind is mush currently, so I'm not sure what I did. Eep!
But at least I'm finally working. I was getting ready to shell out the money to have someone come do it for me *is ashamed*

Security Info

[therienne.livejournal.com]

There are two types of security, you'll see two tabs:

1) Wireless security - this is for encrypting the signal as it passes through the air from router to computer...
2) Mac Filter - This says to the world "Only the computers ON THIS LIST" may access this router.

You can use either or both. Both have advantages and disadvantages. The Mac Filter limits who can use the bandwidth, but does not add the level of security that the encryption does. The encryption adds security, the higher the level of encryption, the harder the load, so to speak, on your connection. I stick with 64 bit encryption because my connection starts getting flaky if I go higher.

so, 1) Encryption: if you use this, you'll first switch it from disabled, to something like WEP (I use wep, there are other possibilities). If I remember correctly, you then pick a password, put it in the passphrase area, and tell it to generate a code for you. Yay, it gives you a bunch of random number and letters and stuff. YOu must take these letters and numbers, go over to your laptop, find the section of the wireless setup where it asks if you're using encryption, tell it WEP, and tell it the passcode. Then, they will speak to one another again! (theoretically).

2) Mac Filter. The Mac Address is the Machine Address. It's a set of numbers and letters that live within your computer. Here is how to find 'em.
a) Click on Start
b) click on Run
c) Type the word "command" without hte quotes, and click okay. Now you have an old fashioned dos looking box.
d) type: ipconfig /all
all sort of info will sprawl across your screen. Look for the line that reads: PHYSICAL ADDRESS. It'll be like: 00-24-A7-1E-67-A8 or whatever, but six sets of two, separated by lines. This is your Mac Address!

So now you go to the Wireless Mac Filter section of your Linksys page. You choose "Permit" you choose "Enabled" from the drop down menu, and you type that address in to Mac 01, which is all 00:00:00 etc. You'll want to do this from your desktop, obviously, since what you're about to do will temporarily kill your wireless connection. Desktop should be fine, since it's not wireless. You'll notice it's also possible to block out specific machines, rather than just allowing some, but I find that odd, myself.

So, that's the basics there, and again, you can use one, or both, it's just a matter of how paranoid you are!

And Finally, If All Else Fails (File this somewhere safe)

[therienne.livejournal.com]

One more piece of info, before I go watch SG (YAY!). Sometimes, things go wrong. You experiment. You blow up the router. You cry,and gnash your teeth,and you're locked out, and you can't do anything, because you screwed up! And what do you do now?

Look carefully at your router. There's a little piece at the bottom that sort of "swivels" to form a stand up base. Even if you never plan on standing up that router, go swivel it now, and look underneath. You'll see a small hole, and the word "RESET" next to it. You find yourself a paper clip, straighten it out, stick it in there, and hold it till you see all the router lights in the front flash a few times. Usually it takes about 5 seconds. If you do this, you reset EVERYTHING on the router to it's default settings. Everything you've set up is wiped out, but that means your mistakes are gone too, you're back to the original admin password (not that I have ever, EVER, forgotten my password. Ever.) and you have a fresh lease on life.

Re: And Finally, If All Else Fails (File this somewhere safe)

[skoosiepants.livejournal.com]

you have reached goddess status! thank you SO much for all your help. You are AWESOME!