I’ve finally moved on up to WPA2. Network setup is by far the most confusing and challenging aspect of computers I’ve come up against so far. Our first Dell 802.11b router (2001) took 6 months to get set up properly, and even then, all we could do was share internet. We’ve come a long way since then. I initially thought I’d shift our whole network up to Draft 2.0 N for the speed, but the cost of upgrading all of our adapters stopped me. Instead, I considered moving up from a mixed b and g network to a solid g system. I had to get a couple of cheap adapters, but in doing so I improved network throughput by 50%. I can’t believe I didn’t do it sooner. I realized a few hours later that I could dump my pathetic WEP security, which I cracked one day for fun while waiting for a TV commercial to end, for superior WPA2. Now I know that Draft N has severely degraded throughput when using WEP or WPA1 (cutting speeds by as much as 80%), but I had no idea the same held true for my oldish G router.
So, I set it up and suddenly throughput improves by over 250%. Two Hundred and Fifty percent…seriously…
Well, anyway, after shifting encryption algorithms a couple of times, I finally found what I think are the most secure settings (thank you NSA!), and we’re off! No need to drop 500 bucks on a new N network, my old G still had room to improve (300%, in fact).
Maybe I should go into network administration…