w00t!
So I've finally gone wireless. Sort of.
I bought wireless network cards for both my iBook and iMac. My desktop is connected to the internet through a router which shares out my connection to my iBook and Xbox.
I like having the iBook "downstairs" while the iMac resides "upstairs". There happens to be a long cable going from the router to the Xbox, so I simply hijack that cable for the laptop. But it's not really long enough to be comfortable and sometimes I want to watch movies on the TV through the Xbox and iMac, so switching the cable back and forth is a real pain.
I got sick of that so to make a long story involving a short eBay addiction short, I bought an Airport (802.11b) card for the iBook and an Airport Extreme (802.11g) card for the iMac. I couldn't afford a base station.
The iMac acts as a software base station. Internet sharing is enabled on the iMac and the iBook connects to the internet through the wireless network.
There is problem however. The old 802.11b standard is insecure. The encryption is shotty and can be hacked easily. That means no sensitive information can leave the iBook wirelessly. This is not good as it defeats the purpose of using a wireless connection comfortably.
After long hours of research and testing different software options, I've gone with a virtual private network solution (VPN) using some open-source software called OpenVPN. What happens is this: I create a secure VPN connection using the insecure wireless network. All wireless traffic is then routed through the VPN. It's not done yet, as some file-sharing protocols are not yet getting routed properly (i.e. samba, iTunes sharing, etc.), whereas seemingly all Web traffic is. It'll take some more tweaking, but so far, I'm comfortable enough to log in to my email account. I'm a little paranoid about doing any banking, though. Then again, I don't have any money.
Oh, and one last note, I'm writing this in the bathroom. I'll leave the rest to imagination.