A week of wireless

Last week I started my adventure in the world of wireless computing when the SMC Barricade wireless router I had ordered arrived, and now a week later I have to say that I am enjoying the ability to be free of the tether of cords - at least for the couple of hours at a time that the battery on my PowerBook will keep the machine happily purring away. I do want to pass along a couple of comments for those who, like me, have held out for a couple of years before taking the leap into wireless.

The tools

My wireless setup is pretty simple. It includes a wireless router with one WAN port and three LAN ports running DHCP and NAT while hooked to a cable modem, two PowerBook FireWire 2000 G3 laptops and one PowerBook 3400c connected to one of the wired ports, as well as another desktop machine sometimes running on another wired port.

The settings on the SMC Barricade are pretty much configured in the default configuration, but more on this later.

The hurdles

The default setup for the SMC Barricade offered just about everything I wanted, once I upgraded to the latest software version for the router that was supposed to make using AppleTalk easy with this non-Apple product. The reason I chose the SMC rather than paying another $150 for an AirPort Base Station was that it was reported to work well with AppleTalk even though it cost much less. My initial experience with the SMC was otherwise. Every time I tried to connect to another Mac using AppleTalk, the wireless connection would go down completely, forcing me to power cycle the router.

I was too busy doing other things for a few days to futz around with settings on the router to make AppleTalk work, but over the week I read things here and there about the SMC and I think it was on a mailing list that I caught the key to making AppleTalk work: When I set the SMC up initially I didn't name the network. And so yesterday I changed the name to something other than "default," and suddenly the connection that was already rock solid for IP based services like Net connectivity was now working with AppleTalk!

The main tip I can offer: When you initially set up a wireless network, give it a name. With my SMC router, giving the network a name magically made AppleTalk work and it ended the endless packet collisions I was previously seeing on the router.

If you want the network to be hard to access, give it an obscure name and turn on all of the security options your router offers. The SMC Barricade offers a firewall feature as well as WEP security and ways to restrict access to specific MAC networking addresses. I don't have those turned on though. I am considering making my network open for others in the neighborhood who might want to get online with wireless, and so I am still digging around to figure out how I should configure the router for those capabilities.

How has wireless changed things?

The biggest change since moving to a 802.11b wireless connection for my networking is that I can work anywhere inside our small house without dragging around an unsightly Ethernet cable. There are no longer Ethernet cables draped across the livingroom floor, and last night I even took my laptop into the bathroom while working a shift on Lycos (too much information, I know).

I look forward to the months ahead, when this connection will make it pleasant to sit on the front porch in the evening and write, or at the table in the back yard to escape the heat inside the house. The weak link in my setup now is the short battery life of this PowerBook. But at least for a couple of hours at a time, this is the way computing should be. It reminds me of when I made the switch from working tied to my desk with a desktop computer to using a laptop in rooms around the house...a small revolution!

Rob McNair-Huff is a longtime Mac user and writer from the Pacific Northwest. In addition to writing about the Mac, and running this Web site, Mac Net Journal, he is the author of two books - Insiders' Guide to the Olympic Peninsula and Mountain Bike America: Washington - and he is working with his wife Natalie to write a third book this year called Birding Washington. If you have a need for Mac consulting, writing, Web design or photography help, check out Rob's business site: White Rabbit Publishing.

Followup and reader comments:

Another reader who uses an SMC Barricade added his comments this morning:

"I also have an SMC Barricade and with my Powerbook G4 it makes life so wonderfull not being tied to my desk in one room. Even if I have to be tied to a powersource if I'm working for more than a couple hours.
I didn't have any networking problems immediatly, probably because I renamed the network from default immediately. (Old habbit of mine - never accept the default!)
After reading about all the potential security risks in 802.11b however I did try to set up WEP encryption and the other security features of the SMC Barricade.
The SMC for it's part made this very easy - I was able to restrict access to specific MAC addresses and control traffic between the wireless network and the wired network - as well as control access to the SMC itself from both.
WEP encryption on the other hand was far from straight forward. The SMC looked simple enough - it had 4 places to put encryption keys (though it doesn't make it clear if it uses all 4 or just 1 etc.
The Airport setup on OS X however was very confusing. The only place to put in any type of encryption key is the "network password" box, and after much digging it turns out you have to put a $ sign in front of the encryption key for it to work properly. (At least I think it was a $ - I can't remember for sure now) I don't know if this is because of the Mac or because of the SMC.
I did manage to get it working though and haven't had a problem since... no apparent slowdown either due to the encryption.
--Anthony Papineau