Once you have decided on the wireless equipment you will use, the next hurdle to overcome is configuring equipement to work together. With a wired network, there is no configuration of this sort. We can plug almost any cable into any hub, switch, router, or Ethernet adapter and be fairly certain a link will be established between the two devices. With wireless networking, this is not (yet) true. The radio medium must be configured before the equipment will exchange any data with each other, and this must be completed correctly before the next step in the network configuration can be started (which we discuss in Configuring Your Network).
The specific WAP used as an example here is a NetGear WGT624-V2 combination router (with firewall), 4-port 10/100 switch, and 802.11g (54 Mbps) wireless access point. Is also features Netgear's proprietary 108 Mbps Super G technology, which supports data rates at up to twice the standard 802.11g (according to Netgear) when used with Netgear wireless Ethernet adapters with Super G technology. The wireless Ethernet adapter used is Netgear's WG511T wireless 802.11g Ethernet adapter with Super G technology. While there will be similarities, other manufacturer's installation and setup will differ somewhat from what is shown here. However, the goals of these operations are the same. Different models of wireless equipment from the same manufacturer have also different installation programs and procedures. The user's guide for the devices you purchase should have the specific information you need. For the rest of this section, the term "WAP" will be used to describe both dedicated WAP devices and combination devices unless we need to distinguish between the two. Before we go into how to set the items, let's take a look at the items we will need to set.
There are a large number of variables that can be set, but only a few of them must be set when establishing the radio connection. The first is to decide on the channel to be used. In 802.11b and g networks, the network transmits in the 2.4 GHz frequency band. However, there are multiple specific frequencies (channels) in that band that are available. The number and exact frequencies used vary depending on the country you live in. In the U.S., there are 11 channels numbered 1 through 11. This is one way that several discrete wireless LANs can be established in the same physical location. If you live in a dorm or townhouse environment and someone else purchases wireless equipment from the same manufacturer, the two radio transmissions will interfere with each other if they are both left at the defaults. If the default channel number for the WLAN is 6, you could decide to use channel 3 instead. That way, you can both have WLANs with overlapping operational ranges, but they won't interfere with each other. (If your neighbor has left his WLAN at the manufacturer's defaults and doesn't want to touch anything in case they "break it," you may have to get them to shut their WAP off until you get yours configured to not interfere.)
The second variable is the Server Set-Identification or SSID. This is the name of the WLAN assigned by the WAP. It is fairly arbitrary and you should feel free to give it a name you find easy to remember. Linksys WAPs like to use "linksys" or "wireless" as the default SSID. Netgear seems to use "NETGEAR." This isn't guaranteed by any means, and the manual that comes with the WAP will identify what the default channel and SSID is. (It is sometimes printed somewhere on the WAP itself as well.) Technically, two (or more) WLANs operating on the same channel, but using different SSIDs can also to co-exist, but the transceivers on all the WAPs and wireless Ethernet adapters will see all the WLAN traffic. They will ignore the traffic without the proper SSID. However, if the WAPs are operating on different frequencies, they will have less radio traffic to inspect, and the throughput will be higher. If you know you have a neighbor operating a wireless LAN, you should find out what channel they are using and pick a different one if possible. (One caveat: if you decide to use Netgear's proprietary Super G 108 Mbps speed, only channel 6 can be selected. Therefore, a different SSID would have to be use to differentiate two Netgear WAPs if both are using the Super G mode.)
A third variable is the encryption settings, which we will leave for later. Using a secret key you choose for your network, all traffic will be encrypted at a level that will make it unreadable by others with a wireless Ethernet adapter if they happen to come in the transmission range of your WAP. Most WAPs come with the encryption disabled (although some come with it enabled and with a intial, random secret key printed on the WAP). While this aids in the initial setup of the WLAN (by removing one of the variables to contend with), it's not how you want to operate normally. We'll leave it disabled for now until we get the basic network up and going. In practice, you do not want to operate your WLAN without some form of encryption.
Most WAPs can be (or must be) configured using a web browser like Internet Explorer. The WAP has a built-in, specialized web server used for configuration. Rather than browsing to a well-known URL like www.google.com, you instead browse to the internal LAN address of the WAP. For the Linksys WRT54G and most other Linksys combination devices, that address is 192.168.1.1 by default, so http://192.168.1.1 is the address of the main configuration page. For the Linksys WAP54G, on the other hand, the default IP address is 192.168.1.245. The user's guide for your WAP will give the default IP address.
Here, we find ourselves in another chicken and egg situation. We would like to change the default settings of the WAP's channel and SSID. However, in order to do that with a wireless Ethernet adapter, we have to first talk to the WAP's configuration web pages using its default configuration. We will also need to configure the Ethernet adapter to have an IP address on the WAP's default LAN, which is a topic we really don't formally tackle until after the wireless radio medium configuration is completed. We have to do this in order to be able to contact the WAP, so that we can tell it what changes we want to make. (Note: If we are setting up a combination router/firewall/switch/WAP, this can also be done using a wired Ethernet adapter connected to one of the LAN ports on the switch portion of the box. However, this section will go over the general case that works for both standalone WAPs and combination router/WAPs.)