Configuring Your Wireless Laptop

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If you plan to use your new wireless laptop to access the net at work and home, chances are you have an IT department at work to help make the transition to wireless pretty seamless. Yet when you first bring your wireless enabled laptop home you may have a bit of confusion as to just how things should be set up to make the most of your laptop.

The average wireless home network consists of a DSL or cable modem, a wireless gateway that contains four wired network ports into which each computer in the household will be plugged. You may find it necessary to configure your home wireless connection using a wire-having home PC first. There are many helpful guides on just how to do this, such as the one found at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/tabletpc/expert/russell_tabletlaptop.mspx.

Did you know that you can even use your new wireless laptop to connect to a public wireless access point or 'hot spot'? Virtual private networks allow wireless users to connect to their work network from public Wi-Fi access



points or hot spots. The only drawback of using public access points is that without taking security precautions, anyone that wants and knows how to can access your computer and see the packets that you're sending to the net.

For more information on configuring your wireless laptop for hot spot activity, take a look at the very informative site, Wi-Fi Planet (http://www.wi-fiplanet.com). There is a particularly interesting article on hot spot security that you can access by visiting http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/tutorials/article.php/3623061.