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Wireless HomeNetworkingFORDUMmIES‰by Danny Briere, Walter R. Bruce III,and Pat Hurley

Wireless HomeNetworkingFORDUMmIES‰

Wireless HomeNetworkingFORDUMmIES‰by Danny Briere, Walter R. Bruce III,and Pat Hurley

Wireless Home Networking For Dummies Published byWiley Publishing, Inc.909 Third AvenueNew York, NY 10022www.wiley.comCopyright 2003 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, IndianaPublished by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, IndianaPublished simultaneously in CanadaNo part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or byany means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permittedunder Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the CopyrightClearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8700. Requests tothe Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Legal Department, Wiley Publishing, Inc., 10475Crosspoint Blvd., Indianapolis, IN 46256, (317) 572-3447, fax (317) 572-4447, e-mail: permcoordinator@wiley.com.Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley Publishing logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for theRest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies Daily, The Fun and Easy Way, Dummies.com and related trade dressare trademarks or registered trademarks of Wiley Publishing, Inc., in the United States and other countries,and may not be used without written permission. All other trademarks are the property of their respectiveowners. Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: WHILE THE PUBLISHER AND AUTHOR HAVE USEDTHEIR BEST EFFORTS IN PREPARING THIS BOOK, THEY MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS BOOKAND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR APARTICULAR PURPOSE. NO WARRANTY MAY BE CREATED OR EXTENDED BY SALES REPRESENTATIVES OR WRITTEN SALES MATERIALS. THE ADVICE AND STRATEGIES CONTAINED HEREIN MAY NOTBE SUITABLE FOR YOUR SITUATION. YOU SHOULD CONSULT WITH A PROFESSIONAL WHERE APPROPRIATE. NEITHER THE PUBLISHER NOR AUTHOR SHALL BE LIABLE FOR ANY LOSS OF PROFIT ORANY OTHER COMMERCIAL DAMAGES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR OTHER DAMAGES.For general information on our other products and services or to obtain technical support, please contactour Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 800-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax317-572-4002.Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print maynot be available in electronic books.Library of Congress Control Number: 2003101860ISBN: 0-7645-3910-8Manufactured in the United States of America10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 11B/SR/QV/QT/INis a trademark of Wiley Publishing, Inc.

About the AuthorsDanny Briere founded TeleChoice, Inc., a telecommunications consultingcompany, in 1985 and now serves as CEO of the company. Widely knownthroughout the telecommunications and networking industry, Danny haswritten more than 1,000 articles about telecommunications topics and hasauthored or edited eight books, including Internet Telephony For Dummies,Smart Homes For Dummies, 2nd Edition, and Home Theater For Dummies. Heis frequently quoted by leading publications on telecommunications andtechnology topics and can often be seen on major TV networks providinganalysis on the latest communications news and breakthroughs. Danny livesin Mansfield Center, Connecticut, with his wife and four children.Walter R. Bruce III is a writer and consultant who is an avid wireless networkuser and who has been programming and using computers since the late 1960s(that’s right, he’s old). For more than a dozen years, Walter has been trainingcomputer users and writing and publishing books about computer technology.He has written many internationally published books on a variety of computeroperating system, database, telecommunication, and networking topics. As apublishing professional, he has also directed the publication of hundreds ofcomputer-related books for three successful publishing companies. Walterholds an undergraduate degree in mathematics as well as a law degree. Walterinstalled his first network in 1985 in the Pentagon while working for the JudgeAdvocate General of the United States Air Force. He was practicing law in theUSAF when he discovered his affinity for teaching people how to use computers. For several years, he has directed Novell Press, the official publisher ofbooks about Novell networking technology. Walter currently lives with hisfamily in the Silicon Valley area of northern California.Pat Hurley is a consultant with TeleChoice, Inc., specializing in emergingtelecommunications technologies including all the latest access and hometechnologies: wireless LANs, DSL, cable modems, satellite services, and homenetworking services. Pat frequently consults with the leading telecommunications carriers, equipment vendors, consumer goods manufacturers, andother players in the telecommunications and consumer electronics industries. Pat is the co-author of Internet Telephony For Dummies, Smart HomesFor Dummies, 2nd Edition, and Home Theater For Dummies. He lives in SanDiego, California, with his wife and two smelly dogs.

DedicationTo Mom and Dad, you’ve always been there for us. We can’t thank youenough.—WaltAuthors’ AcknowledgmentsDanny wants to thank his wife, Holly, and kids, for their infinite patience whilehe and Pat wrestled with this book toward the finish line. He agrees that thewireless Webcam in the shower was not a good idea. (Just kidding.) He alsowants to thank his sister, Michelle, for all her hard work over the years thathas made it possible to continue to survive in this crazy business environment — we could not have made it without her. He also wants to note that hegot his pot rack (see Smart Homes for Dummies, 2nd Edition for details). Nowif we can only talk her into the 42-inch Samsung HDTV that he wants.Walt would like to thank all the staff at Wiley for the incredible hours of workthat go into the publication of every book — especially this one. There aremany people whose work is essential to each book’s publication but whoseem to go unnoticed and unthanked. So let me say thank you to AndyCummings, to Melody Layne for having the confidence in us to write thisbook, and to Nicole Sholly for her invaluable project management. Thanksalso to Teresa Artman for her crisp copy editing, to Michael Williams for hisinvaluable technical review, and to all the unnamed people at Wiley who buythe paper, hire the printer, design and produce the cover, hire and managethe proofreader and indexer, design and implement marketing plans and promotions, sell the book to the retailer, pay the bills (especially the royalties),and perform all the other unnamed but still necessary tasks to keep a majorpublisher in business. Finally, I want to thank my family — Terry, Rich, Rob,Heather, Heidi, Monty, and Tahj (yes, I have a big family) — for putting upwith me for all these years. You’re the greatest.Pat, as always, thanks his wife, Christine, for providing her impeccable “CanI write this wisecrack and not get in trouble?” judgment, and for her ability torestrain her desire to knock him over the head with a big frying pan whendeadlines and late-night writing intrude on the domestic tranquility. He alsowants to thank her for letting him hog the computers and the sofa whilewriting.

Danny and Pat want to thank the following people and organizations for theirsupport in writing this book: Jeff Denenholz at X10 who has been a huge supporter for all our books (buy X10 stuff so that Jeff looks good); Doug Fay atConnectPR for Siemens/Efficient Networks and D’Andre Ladson atSiemens/Efficient Networks; Doug Hagan at NETGEAR; Fred Bargetzi atCrestron; Shawn Gusz at G-NET Canada (still waiting to try Auroras in ourcars!); Karen Sohl at Linksys; Keith Smith at Siemon; Mark Shapiro at DavisMarin for Proxim/ORiNOCO; Michael Scott at D-Link; Brad Kayton at Prismiq(best of luck with the venture!); Bryan McLeod at Intrigue Technologies; CraigSlawson at CorAccess (good luck too!); and others who helped get contentcorrect for the readers.Really extra special thanks go to Ed Ferris, IT Manager at TeleChoice, who byall rights should have been a co-author on this book (and only wasn’tbecause the covers had already printed) for all the process and technicalediting that he performed on the book. Ed, you’ll be on the cover next editionif we have any say in the matter.Thanks also to our acquisition editor, Melody Layne, who by now knowsevery product that will be wirelessly enabled from here to eternity, and toour project editor, Nicole Sholly, who probably hates being an editor at thispoint but nonetheless let us rant about the problems when they occurred(which they did constantly, continually, and drastically). Melody was a truechamp keeping her faith up in Pat and Danny while they continually rewrotetext in this book to make it more accurate and timely.

Publisher’s AcknowledgmentsWe’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our online registration formlocated at www.dummies.com/register/.Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:Acquisitions, Editorial, and MediaDevelopmentProductionAssociate Project Editor: Nicole ShollyAcquisitions Editor: Melody LayneSenior Copy Editor: Teresa ArtmanTechnical Editor: Michael WilliamsEditorial Manager: Kevin KirschnerPermissions Editor: Carmen KrikorianMedia Development Manager:Laura VanWinkleProject Coordinator: Dale WhiteLayout and Graphics: Jennifer Click,Seth Conley, Kelly Emkow,Stephanie D. Jumper, Tiffany Muth,Jackie Nicholas, Lynsey Osborn,Brent Savage, Rashell Smith, Ron TerryProofreaders: John Greenough, Angel PerezCarl Pierce, TECHBOOKS ProductionServicesIndexer: TECHBOOKS Production ServicesMedia Development Supervisor:Richard GravesEditorial Assistant: Amanda FoxworthCartoons: Rich Tennant www.the5thwave.comPublishing and Editorial for Technology DummiesRichard Swadley, Vice President and Executive Group PublisherAndy Cummings, Vice President and PublisherMary C. Corder, Editorial DirectorPublishing for Consumer DummiesDiane Graves Steele, Vice President and PublisherJoyce Pepple, Acquisitions DirectorComposition ServicesGerry Fahey, Vice President of Production ServicesDebbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services