John,

It sounds like in your case you're working with the existing stuff and have fashioned a network out of it. Anyone setting up a new system would be nuts to emulate something so complicated, and the equipment available will let them avoid it.

I wanted to add a remark about the wireless router choice. Wireless routers are meant to operate within a household or on a property and can effectively reach perhaps 300 feet. That will more than reach the street out front of my house! It has a password and it needs to be set, or malicious folks cruising the neighborhood can tap into your network and even lock you out. You do have a reset button to remedy this, and as I tell you this I have to confess that I haven't set up a password yet, but I need to do it. You set up the password at the router then use the software for each card at the other computers to tell them what the password is.

I think it was in a computer class I was taking recently when someone mentioned the wireless system set up in one area high school. The result was that in the evenings students doing homework would drive to the school parking lot, pull out their laptops, and work in their cars. Any passerby would see the glow from all of these computers in the cars. It could be like that here at the university library where I work, except that you can't park that close to the building most of the time. We have wireless set up on all of the floors, and my computer is the anchor (or whatever it is called) for the wireless system on this floor.

SRS