Re: Wi-Fi: Essential Checklist

John Navas wrote:
* True story of network collision problem:

(snip story which boils down to 'uniquely identify your network so you /know/ you're connecting to it'.)

That wouldn't have happened, of course, if the Geek Squad had configured
a unique SSID in the first place, any sort of wireless security, or
otherwise had any real clue about wireless networking. (Likewise the
neighbor.)

Absolutely agree.

Before installing a wireless network for another client I did a site
survey (my normal practice), and found a strong signal on channel 1 and
another strong signal on channel 9 (go figure), leaving me with no clear
channel to use. The "easy" solution, of course, would be to persuade
the neighbor on channel 9 to switch to either channel 6 or channel 11.
Actually not so easy since the default SSID gave no clue as to who was
running that wireless network. Worse, my client was in a multi-unit
complex that left us with quite a few possibilities, which meant
knocking on a lot of doors, which had to wait until evening. It would
have been much faster and easier if the SSID identified the network
operator.

What wireless needs is a way to say "who the heck are you?" and for end-users to be able to configure a response. Oh, wait, snmp... :-)
.

Relevant Pages

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