[Eriamjh]

I have one and I tried to update the basestation software and it wouldn't work. I also managed to hook up a PC to it using a wireless card and I found out I am only getting 40/64 bit encryption.

The orinoco supports 128bit, but I can't figure out how to configure it that way from my Mac. The Apple software doesn't have a selection for the type of encryption to use.

Anyone else know what I need to do? Do I have to update the firmware using a PC (and the Orinoco update software, of course). There used to be a lot of posts about this in the past, but they seem to have been deleted.

[ghporter]

The orignal AirPort Base Station (at least) had the same internal hardware as one of Orinoco's residential gateway base stations. At one point you could use Orinoco's firmware on an ABS and vice versa. No longer; it appears that the current ABS firmware looks for some of the tweaks that Apple did to the hardware, and won't budge in anything but "Apple" equipment.

Orinoco now firmly resists allowing customers with anything but Win OSs to configure their residential gateways. Linux, BeOS, Mac, and several other OSs are thus locked out. Not everyone does things this way, and it's a change for Orinoco equipment, which used to be very Mac friendly.

On a side note, the RG1100 has about the same (relatively puny) range as the AirPort Base Station. If you can return it and buy one of the several other WiFi-compliant access point/routers on the market with dual, external antennas, you'll be ahead of the game. Many of the other manufacturers use a browser-based configuration system, which makes you very platform-independent.

[howardm4]

True.

I have an older RG1000 and it was
compatible w/ Airport Config Util.

Interestingly, 10.2 Airport Config
can't deal w/ it, so I'm back to
either Win or Sevy's Java config tool.

Proxim recently bought Orinoco and
Proxim has a bit of a better track
record w/ Mac's but who knows.

If I had to do it again (and actually
pay for the unit (vs. getting it on the
company's dime)), I'd get something
else.

[Eriamjh]

Thanks. I tried to access orinocowireless.com and got nothing but server errors. I may have to configure that thing through VPC or just stick with the 64 bit encryption since it works. There are no other networks I can detect and the houses are fairly far apart here.

Range inside the house is fine. I've had the rg-1100 for about 6 months so returning it is not possible.

[thesearcher]

www.proxim.com has orinico information.

As for 64 bit vs 128 bit, due to a design flaw 128 bit WEP is not much stronger anyway.

[Eriamjh]

Can you elaborate of this 128bit flaw?

[vmarks]

The snow base station is using entirely different hardware, relying on a ARM processor.

The graphite base station and the lucent base stations are actually repackaged AMD reference designs loaded with the Karlnet software.

As for WEP, one of the flaws is that the first 20 bits or so are useless in any case. Still, passwording is better than not, and more bits are better than less- but airsnort can still get the password regardless.

If you're truly concerned about your data, encrypt it on your HD, or tunnel (VPN, SSH, IPsec) your connection.

[ghporter]

Too much has been made of the strength (or lack of strength) of the 128-bit WEP algorithm. It still takes collecting litterally millions of packets to get enough data to attempt to break the algorithm-it isn't feasible in real time. Further, if you keep your wireless system running 24/7 there is no pattern to tell an intruder when packets may contain data versus just spaceholders.

In 64-bit and 128-bit encryption there are 24 bits used as a randomly generated key, while the remaining 40 or 104 bits come from your own, manually entered key. Leaving the same key in a device for an extended period of time is not a good security practice; it should be periodically, yet randomly, changed. Quarterly or monthly work pretty well-you could change your keys when you pay your light bill, which should be frequently enough, yet not on the same day every month.

[tooki]

Originally posted by GHPorter:
change your keys when you pay your light bill

Or how about when you pay your ISP bill? That seems like it might be a better reminder!

tooki

[LeeG]

Sorry to revive an old thread, but it seems along the same lines as this thread that I just started...any more info on this folks? Otherwise I have been really happy with the orinoco product - good range and strength.

I still use the airport admin utility with my RG-1100, and it works fine, but I cannot adjust the security setting- prob because the orig base station only had 40/64 encryption.

Some of the other orinoco gateways allow web access or CLI access - maybe I'll try that to configure...

BTW - just got a new netgear router- that company is great, mac support listed on the box, and a terrific web interface - really nice stuff...


Lee