alfalfa

I did not want to put people off LogMeIn. I accept that it is a well used an relatively sahe VPN. I looked at it some time ago but decided to stick to my existing IPSEC VPN.

What I was trying to point out, was that no VPN is 100% secure and some solutions are significantly less than secure. Everyone should DYOR and accept the risk (which does exist) of their choice.

Thanks for the replys, guys.
Going to try the excel online idea first, as this seems safest.
Thanks again.
Alan

Optimist - Dead right about the security. Use whatever one feels comfortable with.
Alfa.

Just as a footnote to my query regarding excel online;
After looking around and following suggestions on here, the simplest and most intuitive way was to use Google Docs. And its free!!
Very straightforward and relatively secure and I am up and running.
Thanks to all for their input.
Alan

Does anyone have any experience of setting up a WiFi system for wider coverage than normal. We want to have free WiFi at and around our sailing club. The coverage should be in the main large room, downstairs in the office and outside for maybe 20 feet or more down to the water's edge. I believe that you can get systems with repeaters, but I can't find mch about it or the routers that would allow that. It may also depend on the ISP I suppose and what routers would work wth them.

This link might be of some use, Haystack.

Haystack

This may be worth looking into BT Openzone in a box.

The BT system is interesting, but it involves charging for the access and selling openzone vouchers. We are planning a free system.

I'm not sure about that. You certainly have the option to charge, but it does mention that it is suitable for business uuse, which presumably would not be charged for.

Having said that, I have no love for BT.

"We want to have free WiFi at and around our sailing club. The coverage should be in the main large room, downstairs in the office and outside for maybe 20 feet or more down to the water's edge"

I'd use something from this page

Most people around here seem not to like the socket system but there are items on here that you plug into the socket and which are also WiFi transmitters.

Too simple for words.

TP

I've just kitted up round the house starting with a Devolo dLAN 200 AV Starter Kit for my main PC and modem with another couple of them for good measure elsewhere round the house.

Fast internet all round the house now. Wherever you want to use your laptop just plug it into the mains using one of these. Simple to install. Brilliant kit which works so easily and fast. Secure too.

In fact it's very nearly as good as Sky+

Haystack

Regardless of what system you use, as it will be an open network, make sure that you put a firewall between the wireless network and any computers that your sailing club uses.

The club PCs already have firewalls and anti virus software installed. Anyone using the network will be warned of the dangers.

Haystack,
The std way to cover larger areas is with seperate wireless access points transmiting using the same SSID but seterating the channels by at leaest one but better two channels. Each of the access pionts is connected to a central router via ethernet cables (max 96 meters). The central router could also be an access point.
skg

The problems Wifi has are with going through walls. If you are just looking to do upstairs, downstairs and outside around the clubhouse then a bog standard wireless router has a good chance of being fine for the job.

Wot K said. Also, if you do use multiple wireless routers or repeaters, remember that 802.11 b/g channels have quite a lot of frequency overlap. Off the top of my head, only channels 1, 6 and 11 have no overlap. It shouldn't matter because it's spread spectrum (try saying that after a few glasses of wine).

Haystack

I'm not sure whether your clubs network is secure enough!

A serious home or a business network should have software firewalls and AV on each computer (the Win XP SP2 firewall is not as bad as some would tell you). In addition, there should be a seperate hardware firewall at the point of connection to the internet.

If you are connecting a semi public WiFi network to the same internet connection, then this should be connected to a totally seperate network segment so that anyone on the WiFi network can't access the fixed network any more than someone on the internet can.

Yes. We do have firewalls and AV on each PC that belongs to the club.

Just a comment that having installed AVG I still ran my F-Prot in tandem.

This morning I uninstalled the F-Prot and gosh the PC runs a heck of a lot quicker.

I read recently that it might be dangerous to run two ante-virus progs at the same time as they might both open the same file and mess up the operating system. This was what inspired me to remove F-Prot - but the gain in speed was unexpected and a true joy.

TP

supposed to have been upgraded by BT today to 8mb broadband and am getting 2mb download and 200k upload , any comments by anybody?

will moving from the voyager router to the bt hub speed things up?