DSL switch problem

i have wireless dsl at my office. it comes down from the antenna into a small transforming box then to just a normal 5 port switch. i have 4 pc's constantly hooked up to the switch and the DSL works fine. the problem is when i hook a different pc up or my laptop to one of the existing ethernet cables in place of one of the normal 4 pc's the whole small network kinda freezes and none of the pc's will get a signal. if i unplug and replug the cables on the switch and play with the connections a little bit then ping different pc's it finally kicks back on & works fine. but it usually takes 15-20 minutes to get it to get back working and it's extremely annoying. does anyone have any idea why it freezes up like that or how to avoid it?


one more question...i just got dsl at my house and it comes in from a phone line into a wireless 802.11b router. im new to wireless routing and i was wondering how to encrypt the data and how to keep other people from getting access to the router. the router is a cheap one i got from sbc and it didnt come with any router software.

 

Aenima,

Office: I need a little more information. You have wireless DSL? Is this also know as Direct Way? I can help you, but I am confused as to what wireless DSL is.

Home: There are 3 typical ways to safeguard your network from access on wireless. You can NOT broadcast the SSID. This means that when you turn your laptop on you have to have the connection already set up because windows isn't going to have a pop-up that says "Wirelewss Connection to SSB COnnected" or whatever the SSID is.

Second, you can add a MAC address filter. Basically this mean that you are allowing only the computers that you tell the WAP (Wireless Access Point) about. If on your laptop (2000 and up) go to start and then run, and then type 'cmd' and then you get a DOS window. type 'ipconfig /all' and this will give you all the details about your connection. There is a line that says: Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : XX-XX-XX-XX-XX-XX and this is your MAC address. *Make sure you get it for the wireless adapter and not the LAN adapter otherwise you will not get on.

The last is a WEP key. This should be a 26 digit HEX number. So make up a string of characters using 0-9 and A-F so something like 0988abcd09873453245defbeef and you will need to put that in your wireless connection settings also.

As far as encryting the data between your laptop and the WAP.... not possible..... although if you do the rest of those steps above, it won't matter, no one can get on the network to sniff.

 

May be this can Help.

Link to: DSL Routers and PPPOE.

Link to: Wireless - Basic Configuration.

Link to: Wireless Security.