• Can I print with my notebook with 802.11b PC card, to a printer whose USB port is connected to a USB 802.11b adaptor?

Generally, no. The printer and wireless USB adapter are both USB devices (as indicated by their squarish "Type B" connectors) and can't be directly connected together.

Connecting them both into a USB-hub won't help either, since both devices need a computer and appropriate drivers to work. You'll need a wireless print server that can connect to a USB printer.

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• How do I connect two wireless routers wirelessly?

The easiest way is to choose routers that support WDS-based bridging and repeating such as Apple's Airport Extreme and any of Buffalo Technology's 802.11g routers.

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• Can I change the Beacon Period of a wireless client card?

Generally, the Beacon Period is determined by a wireless LAN's Access Point, and is therefore not a parameter that can be set in a client.

In Ad Hoc networks (without Access Points), however, the responsibility for Beacon Period generation is distributed among all clients. But again, it is generally not a parameter that can be changed by the user.

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• Is there a way to make dual-band multi-mode (a/b or a/b/g) wireless clients automatically connect for best throughput?

Not that we've seen yet. Most dual-band products have been based on Atheros' chipset, drivers and client. Unfortunately, the only control you get over connection mode is the ability to select the modes that are enabled. Our testing has shown that the client is very reluctant to switch to an alternative mode, even when the signal level is low or the signal is lost completely!

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• How do I use a different DHCP server with a wireless router?

1) Shut off your wireless router's internal DHCP server.
2) Connect the desired DHCP server to any of the wireless router's Ethernet LAN ports.

You'll probably have to force a DHCP release/renew on each of your clients after the change.

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• How can I limit the speed of each client on my wireless LAN?

Bandwidth control is not normally found on consumer wireless equipment, but can be found in alternative firmware distributions for Linksys' WRT54G router, such as those from Sveasoft.

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• My setup uses two wireless routers. Why can't the computers connected to one router see the computers connected to the other router in Network Neighbourhood / My Network Places?

The first part of this problem comes from the fact that each router creates its own private Class C subnet, with its own range of IP addresses. For example one router could be set to an IP address range of 192.168.1.1- 254, with the second router set to 192.168.2.1- 254.

This doesn't present a problem for Internet connection, but it complicates File and Printer sharing because Windows' network browsing features (Network Neighbourhood / My Network Places) don't work across subnets.

The second issue is that the NetBIOS broadcasts that Windows' network browsing uses are blocked from entering a router's WAN (Internet) port. Even if you open up the appropriate ports (TCP and UDP 137 - 139) in your router's firewall, the first issue will still prevent automatic network browsing from working.

However, you still can file and printer share among computers connected to each router, but you'll either need to know the IP address of the computer you want to connect to and enter it into either Windows' Find Computer utility, or open Start > Run and type ipaddress where ipaddress is the IP address of the computer you want to connect to, i.e. 192.168.2.2. Another method involves the use of LMHOSTS files on each computer, but we won't go into that method here.

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• Can a wireless Router alternatively be used as a wireless Client?

Generally, no. But this feature is available in some Access Points, such as Linksys' WAP11, along with wireless bridging features.

Wireless routers also usually don't support WDS-based bridging either, which could be used to do essentially the same thing. Many 802.11g Access Points, however, do support WDS-based bridging and could be used together to link an Ethernet-based device into a wireless network.

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