Partly wireless network?

[Harold Smith]

I currently have a good, working network. There are 3 desktops and a printer connected to the four ports of an ethernet router which in turn is connected to the cable modem. At Christmas I was given an (apparently used) roku box, plus my wife was just given a Nook eReader. Both of these want a wireless connection. (Actually, the roku can use an ethernet, but because of the way the house rules are, I can't get an ethernet cable to where the roku will be used. Very nice hardwood floors that may not be drilled through.))

Anyway, I'm wondering if it is possible to add wireless for just the new stuff, without making my computers visible to anybody who drives by with a wireless laptop. If so, how?

Thanks.

[beaker_]

Ok, I'll say it. The only real way of preventing people from sniffing out your wireless is to pull a wire. And you only have about 2M through on the wireless anyway so you really want a wire. Just take your time and convince yourself that a well positioned jack and a short run of wiremold can be concealed easily.

[stevea]

If you have a real router it's not hard. Even with a decent wifi router you can reduce the profile a lot.

For example if you plug a dd-wrt based wifi routers WAN connection into your LAN via a switch and then you restrict the accessible LAN addressed to the gateway. Give the wifi LAN a different subnet to the household LAN - this effectively prohibits all WIFI to LAN traffic, except to the gateway.

Also- you can use some basic WIFI setup to avoid wardrivers.
Only us wpa2 security methods with a good pre-shared key.
Use any feature that only permits specified MAC addresses to connect.

[droidhacker]

A lot of wifi AP routers have a protected "internet only" option so that the devices connected via wifi won't actually be part of your wired network.

Aside from that... set to not broadcast the SSID and set a strong encryption.