Microsoft MN-820 wireless access kit, How to setup?

[denny]

Microsoft MN-820 access point and notebook card kit. I recently purchased this kit for to connect our office to more than 7 laptops. I know it for only a single computer and laptop. I think it includes only one notebook card.
Am I correct? Will I be able to set it up for us all after I get cards for all of the laptops?
What is the most secure way to set it up?

[brayan]

Everyone else who wants to connect to the access point will also have to get some sort of 802.11[a/b/g] card that plugs into the PCI slot in their computer.
Any of them would work. The only "difference" is that if you get it from the same vendor, you can sometimes get much better performance.

[michel]

I would also suggest you perform a simple site survey before buying the additional network cards. That’s, determine how many access points you will need to cover the area you hope to cover with your wireless network. If the space you want to cover is a single room, then this step is probably unnecessary. But if you want to cover an entire office, don't assume that you will be able to do this with a single wireless access point.

Instead, choose a central location for your access point and try it out with one laptop by moving to different areas. If you discover that the performance of the wireless network is unacceptably slow then you may need to relocate the access point or purchase more than one.

In terms of security I wish I could just tell you that there is some switch you can flip in order to become "secure". The truth is that there are different levels of security. You need to evaluate your risk and pick the security solution that reduces your risk to an acceptable level.

Most consumer-grade wireless equipment includes WEP. This technology will keep your neighbor off your network, but it will only slow down your neighbor's hacker kid. If you're more serious about security you'll want to only purchase equipment that includes support for WPA (WiFi Protected Access).

If you need to protect your network from sophisticated attacks, then we can talk about even more secure wireless networks, but WPA is usually adequate for most small organizations.