Re: [Hampshire] Belkin N1 Vision

----- Original Message -----
From: "Vic" <lug@???>
To: <hampshire@???>
Sent: Friday, February 15, 2008 11:49 AM
Subject: Re: [Hampshire] Belkin N1 Vision


>> I'm thinking of buying [1] for two reasons:
>
> A hundred quid for a router? You made of money?
>
I wish - but it looked to kill a few birds with one stone - hence the
interest.

>> 1) As I posted about 12 months ago, my 2nd hand Toshiba Tecra could never
>> connect to my wireless without a USB dongle. This was an odd problem in
>> that it could see my employer's WLAN but not home without the dongle.
>> The home works by a WAP (as opposed to wireless router) that was g only
>> (and seemingly incapable of switching back to b) and my laptop could only
>> receive b and not g. The router has both options.
>
> That's something to look at in the AP config. I've yet to see a g-capable
> unit that *can't* do b - although most of them have an option to accept g
> only. I'd be looking at that...
>
That's exactly what the received wisdom was 12 months ago and there is no
setting. I can't remember the make now but it's a Belkin WAP (quite an old
one) and there was no way to make it work. I've tried the laptop on a
friend's WLAN and at work - and it works there.

>> 2) I'm quite interested in the speeds I'm getting - particularly as
>> (would
>> you believe it) Orange have just upgraded me for free to get "upto
>> 7.5Mb/s" so this makes the choice of my cable speed (this is a cable not
>> adsl router) all the more interesting.
>

> Why do you want a single device to control both your Internet connection
> *and* your wireless access? If you split those tasks, you get much more
> choice of kit, and you get to set your network up as you want to (e.g. my
> wireless net gives very restricted access - so if anyone does break my
> key, they'll still not be able to abuse SMTP...)
>
That's a good point - I could just replace the WAP at a far cheaper price -
but this does also have Wireless-N (whatever that is) so it's to some extent
future proofing. Besides which - routers without WAPs seem to be becoming
more rare. I'm not saying they're not still available - just harder to
find.

>> 3) It's a router with a graphical display - cool.
>
> Mine has a 21" CRT display that happens to hold all my other applications
> as well...
>
I presume you mean you have a PC working as a router - I don't have that
luxury.

>> If you read [1], the first review talks about only being able to identify
>> individual client traffic if you use the DHCP server inbuilt. Can I
>> just
>> confirm my understanding here? DHCP is the opposite of static IP
>> addressing isn't it?
>
> DHCP is the Dynamic Host Control Protocol. It hands out information to
> machines that request it. That information may comprise many things -
> including IP address / netmask, but potentially loads of other stuff as
> well.
>

So presumably in that release of information, that's where it gets the
hostname of each client.

Cheers
Rob