Jacque,

Depends on how much you already know. Generally speaking, Wireless
networking is fairly easy to do for a home setup. A good place to start is
to visit a few popular 802.11b sites to learn more about how the technology
works. Most of the stuff is pretty straight forward networking except the
antennas. If you can setup a basic home lan, you should be able to setup a
wireless LAN. Most wireless hardware out of the box require simple software
configurations and it works.

Here are some sites:
DIY home networking has a section on 802.11b
http://www.homenethelp.com/802.11b/index.asp

Practically networks is also a good site. The FAQ/Troubleshooting guide is
helpful.
http://www.practicallynetworked.com/support/troubleshoot_wireless.htm

Another Intro to Wireless Networking
http://www.infopeople.org/howto/intro_wireless.html

In your particular case, you probably are going to need a simple directional
antenna. You can point it in the direction of the coffee shop and depending
on the height, angles etc you might get lucky and be able to get a good
connection inside the coffeeshop. There are a lot of science + art that goes
in antenna design, selection, mounting and setup. You probably don't need to
worry about the technology behind it ( I am a EE and still don't fully
understand the complexities of wave propagation etc). You have to work
hands-on with RF technology for a long time to full grasp it. It really
becomes an art, after you are done reading the theory. There are number of
technician types and radio hackers in this group who have been tinkering
with Antennas and radios for a long time. They can certainly help you with
antenna/propagation issues. Andy Warner...would you please step up...;-) and
shine some light on the secrets of antennas.

I don't know if the above helps, but if you have a specific question, please
ask.

Asim

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jacqueline Urick" <jacque at fruitioninc.com>
To: <tcwug-list at tcwug.org>
Sent: Friday, March 08, 2002 11:45 AM
Subject: [TCWUG] ok, where do I start?


>
> I'd really like to get started on setting something up in my apt, so I can
> surf at the coffee house a block away and on my patio. Is this feasible?
> Where/what do you recommend I start reading?
>
>
> Thanks
>
> jacque
>
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