CHAPTER 8 GETTING EVERYTHING (Web design company) UP AND RUNNING
CHAPTER 8 GETTING EVERYTHING UP AND RUNNING 85 If the connection doesn t use Wireless Equivalent Privacy (WEP) protection, you can leave the WEP Key field empty (it doesn t matter what the Key Type drop-down list reads). If it does use WEP protection, continue reading for instructions on how to configure it. In most instances, wireless network cards are configured with DHCP, so that they grab a network address automatically. The nature of a wireless network, where many people might join or leave the network at will, means that using static IP addresses is a bad idea. Caution When I configured a wireless card on a desktop computer, I found that I was unable to use DHCP. The card would pause for a long time without being able to find an address. The fix was to assign a static IP address to the card. I simply examined my router s settings to find the range of IP addresses that it normally assigns via DHCP and chose one to give my PC. This occasional inability to get an address by DHCP is clearly a bug that may have been fixed by the time you read this, so consider performing a system update as soon as you re online (see Chapter 9). Using WEP or WPA Encryption Some wireless networks use the WEP or Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) system. These systems encrypt the data being transmitted on the network so it cannot be stolen by hackers with special equipment. Also, people can t join the wireless network unless they know the encryption key, which is basically an access code. This prevents unauthorized people from accessing the network. Note At one time just a few years ago, people walking or driving past office blocks would be able to steal a business s Internet connection! This practice, known as war driving, became a hobby for some people. It s still possible today, although businesses have realized the dangers and usually protect their networks. Additionally, connecting to a wireless network connection without permission has been made illegal in some countries. The encryption key normally takes the form of a string of letters and numbers, which you should get from your system administrator. Alternatively, you administrator may give you a passphrase, which might be a sentence in English, including spaces between words. You then enter that as a kind of long password. As of this writing, WEP encryption is supported in Ubuntu, while WPA support is still in its infancy. It s possible to get WPA working with a little hard work, but it s not something for beginners. WEP is by far the easiest choice when it comes to configuration. Although WEP has been found to be relatively easy to circumvent, for most home users, it offers sufficient protection. If possible, you should reconfigure your wireless base station to use WEP rather than WPA, and configure Ubuntu accordingly. Only if you have no choice, or if you re sufficiently confident of your Linux command-line skills, should you configure WPA.