Wireless Internet - What is this thing?

[mshirley001]

I live in the middle of nowhere and cannot get dsl, cable or anything but I was able to find a provider for "wireless internet". They came out and hooked it up yesterday and now I have broadband. They stuck this big antennea looking thing on my roof and connected it to a small box in the house. On the bottom of this device it says "long range wireless multi-client bridge" and on the front it says "wireless lan".

What is this thing and where can I find some info on its features? Im trying to get my home computers networked together again. I had to undo my network before they installed this thing because they were gonna charge me an additional $10 for each computer on my network.

After they left I could click on my network places and see other peoples computers (shared folders, laptops etc..) but cannot see my own wireless computers.

There is no indication of the manufacturer, no model number that i can see. The FCC ID is N13-2511CD-PLUS3 but a search at fcc.org produced no results.

I should be able to network my home computers with this thing and share the internet connection, folders, etc right? I cannot even determine the SSID of the thing.


HEEELLLLPPPP!!!!

[mrmister1]

Are you saying that you can see other people's computers in ohter house, but not your own?

[mshirley001]

Yes, in my network places I can see other peoples shared drives that live in other houses, saw a couple of laptops as well. I cannot access them but i can see them.

[mrmister1]

That's not good. You might want to talk to the company. If you can see there computers, they can probably see yours.

[mshirley001]

Well, thats what I thought as well, one of the computers i saw had the guys name on it ie. Shared Folder John Smith or something so I looked him up in the phone book and called him. He said he could not see my computer he then had some "network expert" call me back and he said it was not uncommon. I may call the company though because I dont want all that clutter in my network places. I just want my home network back and cannot find any info on this device.

[mrmister1]

What company provides the network?

[mshirley001]

I dont think I want to post that here. Why do you ask? I promise you have never heard of them.

[mrmister1]

No, I was just wondering if they were a well known company.

[drb46]

This probably won't help you much...but we also live in the sticks and have a wireless ISP. Ours furnishes a router (password protected) that the radio receiver is hooked into. You might look at this site for more info: http://www.dslreports.com/forum/wireless.

Most of them use motorola equipment (canopy) or another one is alvarion.

[mshirley001]

No, I live in hickville and its just a mom and pop outfit.

[mshirley001]

I guess I will call them in case they have to come back out in case i do get my home network going again... I wouldnt want to have to undo it again.

[mshirley001]

Thanks drb, I already posted the same question on that site as well.

Hey drb, can you see other peoples computers?

[bailey]

just because you see them listed on the screen does not mean that you can connect to them.
xp saves the information on the screen, it will be there all the time, even if you disconnect the network.
I am betting that you cannot share any information with any of the computers on your display.
because the network is disconnected.

try it

[drb46]

No, I don't see any other computers. Maybe it's because of their router, which they have password protected. I did try once to plug the radio receiver into the computer without the router and it wouldn't work that way. I had direcpc for years and this service is so much better....plus the phone lines here are bad.

[Panama Red]

If you don't want the clutter in My Network Places, try right clicking and deleting the ones you want gone. If there's lots of them, drag a highlight over the ones to delete, right click and delete.

[mbossman2]

Originally Posted by mshirley001 On the bottom of this device it says "long range wireless multi-client bridge" and on the front it says "wireless lan".

this is the dead giveaway...his ISP is using a bridge to hook up all their users back to a central site not a router. So all the users in his area are all in the same general IP network and as with any network, if devices are in the same IP subnet then they are viewable by all the other devices and my guess is that he is seeing the users who are using the default workgroup assignment within windows.

throw a router behind the bridge and your PC will disappear from their view and all they'll see is your bridge.

[bailey]

I would use a router in that case.
I have a small home lan set up in michigan, and it uses the same wireless setup, there is a uhf dish antenna on there tower that feeds a modem by the computer, this is in a remote farm area of the state, and the closest town is 30 miles away, the same busness that is the isp is also the cable tv in the area, which also is wireless with another antenna on same tower.
using the router blocks anyone else from seelin this lan, but if there were anyone on the wireless network and does not use a router or firewall, then yes everyone can see them,

you never ever connect your computer to a cable or wireless network directly.
it will open up your system to the world, which is a very dangerious thing to do.

[glc]

Normally you do not want 2 routers in a system - but in this case, just hook a router up in between the device and your PC's. Your router *should* work set to DHCP.

Before you do this, open a command prompt and type IPCONFIG - what is your IP?