• How can I make a wireless connection that spans multiple floors of an office building?

There is no WLAN technology or product powerful enough to penetrate multiple floors of a building by going through the floors.

But if you use two directional antennas arranged in a line-of-site shot up the outside of the building, the connection should be a piece of cake.

Use two WLAN bridges and keep the antenna cable as short as possible, or use antenna / bridge products intended for outdoor use.

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• When I remove and reinstall a wireless network connection in XP, the new connection uses the next available number (for example, "Wireless Network Connection 7". How do I reset this number?

"Resetting" the Network adapter number is tricky. A more reliable approach would be to remove the Registry Keys that pertain to any duplicate adapter entries. Microsoft Knowledge Base article 147797 describes how to do this.

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• What is the difference between an AP's client mode and bridging mode?

AP client mode essentially converts the AP into a client adapter that connects via Ethernet and supports only one MAC address. This function is intended to wirelessly connect a single client.

An AP's bridging features support multiple MAC addresses and are used to wirelessly connect two LAN segments and support multiple clients.

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• Is it possible to set up a wireless connection into a metal building that has foil-backed insulation?

Metal and wireless signals tend to not mix well, and having two metal barriers will really knock down a signal. Signal boosting may help, but a better approach is to concentrate on the receiving end of things.

Try a wireless bridge such as Linksys' WET11 or WET54G, which use an Ethernet connection and can be positioned up to 100 meters away from a connecting device. Try to at minimum position these devices in a window that has line-of-sight to the device that you're trying to connect to. You might also have to connect a higher-gain antenna and mount the antenna outside the building to get a successful connection. If you use a higher-gain antenna, keep the cable length as short as possible, since thin consumer-grade antenna cable can attenuate signals much more than you would expect.

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• Is it possible to use a wireless Compact Flash adapter by using an 8-in-1 card reader that accepts CF cards?

No. The card's drivers won't know how to communicate with the card since it's not in a 'real' CF slot.

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• I can't get an Ethernet cable to where my broadband modem is located. Can I use a wireless connection instead?

Yes, but we suggest you use a wireless router instead of an access point or bridge if the broadband modem doesn't include a built-in router. The reason is that whatever you connect to the modem's Ethernet jack will use the single IP address that most ISPs provide. This means that you won't have an IP address for the device at the other end of the wireless connection. And since most ISPs use dynamic IP addresses, you'd have a difficult time controlling the device, since its IP address would keep changing.

The device connected to the modem will also be directly connected to the Internet, which means its admin. capabilities will be protected with only a password. So you would probably find that device under the control of some unknown entity in short order.

By using a wireless router connected to the broadband modem, you'll have plenty of IP addresses to use for other devices, be protected by a firewall, and also have the freedom to control the IP addresses used for connecting to devices at the other end of the link.

If you use a router that does not support WDS-based bridging, the other end of the wireless link should be a wireless bridge, such as the Linksys WET11, WET54G or WET54GS5. Otherwise you can use an access point that supports WDS.

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• Can I use a multifunction printer with a wireless print server?

The limitations of using a multifunction printer with a wireless print server are pretty much the same as with an Ethernet-based print server. Basic printing will probably work, but features that require communication from the printer back to the "attached" computer may not, i.e. out of paper, ink status, etc.

You may have more luck with getting more features to work with USB printers than parallel port printers, but, again, your mileage may vary.

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